New Japanese Policy Proposal Seeks To Defend “Creative Freedom” For Anime, Manga, And Video Games
Offering a light of hope to the concept of creative freedom amidst the world’s turns to politically-motivated puritanism, the Japanese government has drafted a new entertainment policy which not only offers support to the country’s creative industries, but also protections against state meddling and censorship.
Proposed by the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) during their 8th Creative Industry Study Group this past October, the Five Principles of Entertainment and Creative Industry Policy are a set of tentative guidelines by which the government hopes to assist the country’s manga, anime, and video game industries in hitting their previously announced goal of ¥20 trillion JPY (~$130 million USD) in overseas sales by 2033, as based on “a review of policies implemented from 2013 to 2024 and insights gained from public feedback.”
Speaking to the results of their policy reviews, as per a copy of their informational material provided by Japanese news outlet Otaku Soken and machine translated by ChatGPT, METI explained:
“During the period in which the government took the lead and strengthened support, overseas sales expanded. Although government budget projects have expanded despite instability and analyses indicate certain positive effects, wage growth has remained low. Past policies did not lead to sufficient expansion of tangible and intangible asset stock, and labor productivity and wages did not improve enough.”
As for public feedback on their efforts, the ministry found that when it came to the government’s involvement in said industries, consumers had three main demands going forward: “Refrain from interfering in or commenting on the contents of the works it supports, reduce the proportion of government support that goes to intermediaries, and increase the share that directly reaches those engaged in the creation and dissemination of works.”
Taking these insights into account, METI assembled their five proposed principles:
- Providing large-scale, long-term, and strategic support.
Identify key areas for focused support through stakeholder discussions, revise dynamically, and provide large-scale, long-term assistance to enhance business feasibility and predictability, stimulating private investment. - Supporting efforts to create in Japan and deliver to the world.
Support domestic investment in IP, talent, and digital infrastructure, as well as overseas investment in international distribution networks and fandom development. - Not interfering with the content.
Ensure creative freedom by refraining from influencing the substance of works. - Delivering directly.
Simplify policy support systems as much as possible so that stakeholders involved in content creation and dissemination can easily access and utilize them, even if they are unfamiliar with administrative procedures. - Prioritizing challengers.
Provide priority support for new initiatives that involve high risk and high return.
Speaking to their desired guidelines, METI asserted, “In an environment where network effects prevail and the market follows a ‘winner-takes-all’ structure—where those who invest the most reap the greatest rewards—Japan must compete with other countries that are providing fiscal support on the scale of hundreds of billions of yen.
“To achieve our goal eight years from now, the next three or so years must be regarded as the decisive period, during which we will implement large-scale, long-term, and strategic support measures. In doing so, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry will not simply provide subsidies and end there; we will also collect and monitor data on distribution networks and works, select projects with the highest likelihood of success, and create a feedback loop to ensure the achievement of our goals.”
At the time of publication, the ministry’s guidelines have yet to be formally adopted as government policy, as they must still be submitted to and voted on by Japan’s National Diet.
But regardless of whether these specific guidelines ultimately get approved, it can at least be taken as a breath of fresh air that amidst Visa and MasterCard’s ongoing denial of payment processing services to those businesses and creators who trade in ‘risqué’ materials, particularly Japanese ones, said media’s home government is not bowing to censorship, but rather taking a stand against it.
