As part of its “Cool Japan” strategy, the Japanese government recently discussed several suggestions for sustainable growth in its own entertainment industry. We summarize.
Selection process with fan participation
Japan’s government sees pop culture as an important future industry. In order to secure growth, the Keizai Doyukai Association suggests, among other things, to implement unfinished manga series as an anime. Their success is to be strengthened by a staggered funding program in the long term.
In the initial phase, fans from home and abroad are to be brought together via social networks in order to evaluate pre-productions and failed manga. The top -rated titles would then be implemented as short films and then sent again for voting.
A concept for an anime adaptation should then be developed for the winners and a production committee is to be created. Funding is planned through a special fund in which both committed anime fans and producers from the industry can invest.
It was emphasized that all titles should stand for voting – even broken anime or manga. In manga, this even affects works without a series publication that have so far only been published online.
Problems must be mastered
The Keizai Doyukai plan also provides that the government provides financial support for educational institutions, awards, translations and trade fair appearances. This gives small and medium -sized companies the opportunity to implement preliminary productions and their post -processing.
At the same time, the basic challenges of the anime industry were discussed-including stagnating wages, lack of personnel and deficits in the existing production committee system, which means that producers who can successfully market anime internationally.
To cope with these problems, the report recommends various political steps. This includes reviewing contract practices and promoting compliance with applicable laws and guidelines.
Improve the animator’s job
In addition, salaries of animators who have been stagnating for over ten years are to be checked and the income fairly should be distributed to freelancers. According to a survey from the previous year, 47.3 % of the animators in Japan work freelance – with numerous disadvantages towards employees.
In another point it was noted that the current number of productions does not match the actual personnel offer and there is a serious lack of human resources, which ultimately could become the rule and personnel conflicts.
In order to counteract this, the profession of animator is to be upgraded through significantly improved working conditions and a significant increase in wages in order to make it more attractive for young people – including from abroad.
