{"id":673156,"date":"2026-11-03T00:10:16","date_gmt":"2026-11-03T00:10:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/673156\/"},"modified":"2026-11-03T00:10:16","modified_gmt":"2026-11-03T00:10:16","slug":"japan-industry-skeptical-government-overseas-content-sales-push","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/673156\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan Industry Skeptical Government Overseas Content Sales Push"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIndustry expectations are distinctly low for the Japanese government\u2019s ambitious plans to support overseas sales of domestic content. Despite the content industry being selected as one of 17 key sectors, alongside the likes of semiconductors, AI and shipbuilding, those on the frontline of selling Japanese films, shows and properties to international<\/a> buyers are skeptical about the benefits.<\/p>\n

\n\tFollowing the announcement of the policy by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last November, her government this summer set a goal of public and private investment exceeding $2.3 trillion (370 trillion yen) across the selected sectors by 2040. As part of that, the IP360 initiatives aim to raise overseas sales of Japanese content to $127 billion (200 trillion yen) by 2033, to be overseen by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI).<\/p>\n

\n\tBut experience of previous support programs has lowered expectations and created a good deal of cynicism about the potential effectiveness of the latest scheme among those at the TIFFCOM<\/a> content market at Tokyo International Film Festival<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe had the Cool Japan<\/a> initiative before but Japan has never put up money to support the industry on the scale that South Korea did. There have been subsidies, such as money to send films to Annecy or to go to conventions,\u201d said an overseas sales agent for a mid-sized Japanese film company. \u201cIt feels like the support will go to the majors and to small ventures rather than places like us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMirroring the minimum budget requirement for production incentives for international projects to shoot in Japan, domestic live-action films must have a budget of at least 800 million yen \u2013 currently $5.1 million \u2013 to qualify for support to take them overseas.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere needs to be new blood both in politics and the ministries. And they [METI] need to bring in more specialists from the industry,\u201d added the agent. \u201cThey should also work with non-Japanese who can help them understand overseas markets better; some of the big publishers do that well already.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAn agent handling North American licensing, including manga and anime, for a large Japanese publisher, said it was too early to predict what effect the initiatives will have: \u201cOur sales are growing anyway thanks to the streamers. We\u2019re not seeing the government involved yet, but it\u2019s early days and it will take time for anything to trickle down to the frontline.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tA sales rep at a major Japanese publisher was blunter in their assessment: \u201cThere have been a lot of support schemes up to this point and none of them have had much impact.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tNot everyone\u2019s expectations are so low.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019ve been in the industry for over 30 years and I can feel the change in the mentality of industry people over the last decade, and especially the last five years. It\u2019s not so domestic now. And I think IP360 is opening up the eyes of the production people,\u201d said Makito Sugiyama, executive director at the Broadcast Program Export Association of Japan and formerly involved in international sales for TBS.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019ve been involved in government committees and initiatives in the past and there have been subsidy schemes for years, but they were short-term and based on annual budgets. Now there\u2019s longer-term thinking and less bickering between ministries,\u201d added Sugiyama, who is unashamedly enthusiastic about the new initiative.<\/p>\n

\n\tMETI\u2019s guidelines on how to apply for support suggest a continuation of the bureaucracy and opaqueness that has plagued initial programs until now.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAll the application processes for previous subsidies and support were very complex and involved hearings and other procedures that took so much time,\u201d said a rep handling international sales for a major Japanese studio at TIFFCOM. \u201cIt\u2019s great that the government is taking this industry seriously but I wonder how they will select projects for the new initiative. They have tended to choose productions with famous actors and directors rather than the mid-size budget films, which are the ones that need help the most.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThat sentiment was largely echoed by an international sales agent at another major Japanese player: \u201cThey make it very complicated to get support. I\u2019m not saying they should just make payouts to everyone, but often there is not enough time to put the applications in. Even for us Japanese, the application forms are incredibly difficult to understand.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe government is saying they will do all these things but you never know whether they will actually do it,\u201d they added. \u201cWe\u2019re not expecting very much.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Industry expectations are distinctly low for the Japanese government\u2019s ambitious plans to support overseas sales of domestic content.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":673157,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[576,72,113,61,1042,60,582,26421,67570,70334,285135,8169],"class_list":["post-673156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-asia","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-ie","tag-international","tag-ireland","tag-japan","tag-thr-news","tag-tiffcom","tag-tokyo-film-festival","tag-tokyo-film-festival-2026","tag-tokyo-international-film-festival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=673156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/673157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=673156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=673156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=673156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}