[Feature: The Future of the Entertainment Business] Roundtable: Considering the Potential of Japanese Entertainment from the Front Lines

Today, we have gathered everyone who is active on the front lines of the entertainment business.

I have the impression that the Japanese entertainment business has moved up a stage in the last few years.

My specialty is cultural anthropology, and from that perspective, I have been following the overseas expansion of anime through fieldwork (on-site reporting). It started with about two years of fieldwork on the North American expansion of the anime series "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya" starting in 2007. At that time, it was often said that Japanese anime was "popular overseas but unable to translate that popularity into revenue."

I used to call one of the reasons for this the "distribution hypothesis." For example, the internet had not yet been established as a legitimate distribution channel for anime works overseas. The online space had a much stronger image as a hotbed for piracy than it does now.

Also, it was a time when "Spirited Away" winning the Academy Award (for Best Animated Feature) was talked about as a symbolic example of the global popularity of Japanese anime. On the other hand, I think there were also arguments questioning how much the Japanese film business could penetrate the North American theatrical distribution network.

However, in the last few years, it seems that these "distribution" bottlenecks are being resolved. In terms of online streaming, platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime, and China's Bilibili have become established as legitimate distribution platforms for anime works aimed at overseas markets.

Also, and I think "Godzilla Minus One" is a perfect example of this, there have been moves by Toho to handle distribution directly in North America. In manga, services like Shueisha's "MANGA Plus" have emerged, which distribute their own works directly to overseas readers.

In this way, when viewed from the perspective of overseas "distribution," I believe we can say that the Japanese entertainment business has indeed moved up a stage in the last few years.

Turning our eyes domestically, the recent "Sexy Tanaka-san" incident is symbolic in a sense, raising the issue of how we should engage with creators when conducting entertainment business.

The popularity of Japanese entertainment is solely due to the creativity of the creators. How to make them feel comfortable working while also making money is, in a sense, the eternal challenge of the entertainment business.

Today, with these issues in mind, I would like to discuss with all of you what is necessary for the Japanese entertainment business, which is entering a new stage, to make further leaps forward in the world.

First, I would like to ask you to give a brief self-introduction regarding your careers and the works you have been involved in.

After joining Kadokawa Shoten (now KADOKAWA) in 1998, I was assigned to the manga editorial department and have worked mainly in the manga business.

Manga editors basically handle everything from creating works from scratch to producing media mixes. When I joined the company, it was exactly the time when KADOKAWA began to seriously engage in media mixes, and I participated in many works.

During that time, there was a proposal to turn a work I was in charge of into a drama overseas, which became my first international job. At that time, it was an era where people wondered, "What kind of dramas are made overseas?" but I received an offer from a famous producer at a Taiwanese production company who wanted to turn it into a Taiwanese drama.

From there, for a while, I worked mainly in East Asia from the standpoint of the original publisher, handling original work licensing for dramas, work development, and tasks involving overseas talent appearing in the works.

Entering the 2000s, talk began about KADOKAWA finally expanding into mainland China, and I became the person in charge of mainland China starting in 2008. As the first company, we established a joint venture, Guangzhou Tianwen Kadokawa, in Guangzhou, China, in 2010. Tianwen Kadokawa is a company mainly focused on the publishing business, but it also conducts media mix businesses such as merchandising, and it is a company that possesses the same functions as the KADOKAWA headquarters.

Then, in 2018, we created a 100% subsidiary, Kadokawa Qingyu Shanghai. Since the publishing business was already successful with Tianwen Kadokawa, we are operating this as a company of producers focused on media mixes—taking it a step further by expanding into the world with original Chinese works, creating works from scratch, and handling media production.

Next, Mr. Abe, please.

During my student days, I was in a documentary production seminar. When I was job hunting, I applied mainly to the video industry, such as television stations, but was unsuccessful. In 2001, I joined a company called Amuse and began working on web content production in the IT Strategy Office.

Even so, I still wanted to be involved in video work, so in 2005, I studied fundraising and the content industry at the Digital Hollywood University Graduate School in its second year of opening. While studying there, my desire to move into production grew even stronger.

From there, I changed jobs to an advertising agency and was involved in producing animation using various methods. After that, in 2015, I moved to Genco, a company focused on planning and producing anime. There, I participated as an associate producer in the film "In This Corner of the World." That work was seen by many people not only in Japan but also overseas, and it won awards at film festivals both domestically and internationally. That was when I started to become conscious of the overseas market.

From there, seeking a place where I could take on new challenges, I moved to my current company, Arch. Recently, I was involved in the collaborative theatrical anime "The Journey: A Tale of Miracles and Battles on the Ancient Arabian Peninsula," a joint project between the Saudi Arabian company Manga Productions and Toei Animation.

Most recently, I participated in "Monster Strike the Movie: Masamune - The Crimson Blade of Mission," produced by MIXI and released on YouTube at the end of last year.

Finally, Mr. Yamada, please.

When I was job hunting, I intended to go into journalism and joined TV Asahi as a news recruit. However, after working as an AD for one year and a news director for two years, I felt a difference between the state of television news and what I was aiming for. At that time, I realized that a television station could actually work on movies and dramas as well.

I submitted a transfer request and worked as a film producer at TV Asahi for a little over two years, where I had the opportunity to engage with creators and producers of roughly the same generation. One of the biggest jobs I did then was the film adaptation of the mountain climbing manga "Gaku," starring Shun Oguri.

After that, I was told to move to the drama department, and I continued as a drama producer for over 10 years. At that time, household viewership ratings were supreme, and the standard way to make a good drama to get ratings was to find a good original work. However, TV Asahi was a latecomer to dramas at the time, and we couldn't win competitions for hit manga to get the original rights.

But this actually worked out well for my career. This is because it meant we had no choice but to create original works. For an original drama, the writer and producer basically have to create a story from scratch. What is necessary then is to build relationships with excellent writers and have them write. I was able to engage in the extremely creative work of developing and creating projects from scratch together.

In terms of representative works, there is "BORDER," starring Shun Oguri. It is an original work by Kazuki Kaneshiro, a Naoki Prize-winning author, and I think of this as my first successful experience.

The work that I felt I most fully realized in the latter half of my drama career was the drama "dele." This was in a late-night drama slot, but I wanted to revolutionize the way television dramas were made. I gathered creators who wouldn't normally come to the television drama industry and made it a project of my soul, changing the very way of making it.

This was my greatest success during my TV drama days. For the first time in TV Asahi's history, a drama received the Galaxy Award for Excellence, and later, it won the Grand Prix at MIPCOM in Cannes, a market for dramas from around the world. That was my first experience realizing that Japanese dramas can truly compete in the world.

So you achieved brilliant results in dramas.

However, Japanese dramas were too focused on the domestic market and were "Galapagos" in both a good and bad sense. I had a feeling that I didn't want my career to end like this. At that time, people from Toho asked if I wanted to make movies, and I transferred.

At Toho, the first work I was able to announce was "A Hundred Flowers," the directorial debut of my friend Genki Kawamura. From the beginning, we thought about how to win awards globally and used a core creative team to make it almost like a film club. As luck would have it, it won the Best Director award at the San Sebastian International Film Festival, which deepened my confidence that our methodology was not wrong for competing in the world.

After that, I released the work "Monster." I had been developing it with screenwriter Yuji Sakamoto since my TV Asahi days. As a producer, I felt that this story could compete globally, so when I made an offer to Director Hirokazu Kore-eda, he said he would like to direct it if it was this story. It entered the competition at the Cannes Film Festival and even won the Best Screenplay award. The music was by Ryuichi Sakamoto.

Around the same time as the filming of "Monster," the "Godzilla Minus One" project was in motion. The choice fell on me, and I was burdened with the difficult task of how to compete by surpassing "Shin Godzilla." It was delayed due to COVID-19, but when it finally opened, it rewrote the history of Japanese cinema. I never imagined it would be nominated for an Academy Award (for Best Visual Effects) (Note: It later won on March 10).

I think I am currently the only producer who has fought on the two polar fronts of entertainment and art—the Academy Awards and Cannes—with "Godzilla Minus One" and "Monster." Therefore, I feel a sense of mission to share with all of Japan how Japanese content can compete in the world from now on.

Thank you for those very inspiring stories.

Next, regarding involvement with overseas markets, I would like to ask about your past experiences and the issues you perceive from them. Mr. Yoshida, what is the situation with book publishing distribution and related regulations in China, and how are you involved in that? Also, how are media mixes conducted in China?

Paper publishing in China has very strict regulations, including content screening. For the publishing of books and such, the national system restricts foreign capital from conducting business, and publishing within China must be done through a Chinese publisher.

Also, the governing departments differ depending on the medium. Regulations and screening departments are different for digital and paper, so each publisher and distribution platform handles this after properly recognizing these facts.

Overseas, the problem of piracy is also significant. While Japanese content has very high name recognition, there was an era when pirated versions were more prominent than official versions. Therefore, a trend has emerged where markets around the world have been organized by publishers granting official copyrights to overseas licensees and creating and distributing proper official versions locally.

When choosing original works to publish or discovering Chinese authors, do you tend to choose things that are not sensitive in terms of content?

Because there is content screening, we handle expressions carefully. This mainly concerns sexual or violent expressions, but this is not limited to China. For example, the United States has regulations on expression, and Islamic regions and India are even stricter. It is necessary to respond according to the religious views, culture, and values of each region.

In the process of specifically creating a work, are there cases where you proceed thinking it's okay at first, but it becomes unacceptable later?

If one has little experience with Chinese projects, such things might happen. In our case, it has been 14 years since we expanded there, and I believe we have accumulated know-how for proactive response. For example, in the case of original works, we examine internally whether there are any issues with the content from the plot stage. I believe everyone does the same for movies and anime.

What happens when crossing media? If regulations differ for each medium, such as publishing and the internet, I get the impression that media mixes cannot be done seamlessly.

That's true. Since the screening departments are separate for each medium, timing can be difficult.

However, even in Japan, while we say it's seamless, each department or company in charge handles distribution and development tailored to each medium. By collaborating, it looks seamless from the outside, but each part needs to be carefully crafted. Similarly, overseas, it is necessary to respond to each one and have the producer set it up so that it appears seamless. I believe that is one of the important jobs of a producer.

I see. Now, Mr. Abe. I have also had the opportunity to participate in meetings, but how was the collaborative anime film "The Journey" between Saudi Arabia and Japan created? Especially in the Islamic world, there are strong norms, and you often have to be quite careful with character design and clothing, right?

There were parts where it was difficult to fully understand where and what kind of concerns they had just from translated text. For example, regarding colors, we on the Japanese production staff finally understood after a detailed explanation that in Arabia, there is no image of the sun being red.

Also, I learned while considering the colors of character costumes that just with the words "blue" and "green," we don't know if the colors we are perceiving are the same, and the impressions can be very different. I learned that it is very important to create while understanding each other not just through words but as a culture.

Other topics included the extent to which a woman's skin should be covered and how much a turban could be disarranged in action scenes.

I have the impression that adjustments were made to characters to make them different from conventional stereotypes.

I was taught that the standard look for an adult male is to have a beard.

Regarding hair color, when I proposed grayish hair for a certain character, it was pointed out that there are actually no people with that hair color in that region. We adjusted it by setting the character's origin as having come from the outside.

Finally, I would like to hear from Mr. Yamada. I want to ask you straight: how can one win an overseas film award? (laughs)

I'd like to know too (laughs). There are many different types of awards, from the Academy Awards to the Golden Globes; there are countless awards, especially in the US. In Europe, there are the three major film festivals: Cannes, Venice, and Berlin. There are also various other awards with different tendencies, such as the San Sebastian International Film Festival.

What I thought was completely different about global award races compared to Japan is that the concept is important. And you need a proper respect for film history. In other words, unless you can clearly present the concept of why this work is being created now within the continuous history of world cinema, how it differs from other works, and what it wants to express as a thorough originality of the work, winning is difficult.

Creators need a broad perspective or education that goes beyond just making what they want to make. I think overseas filmmakers who break into award races, including producers, naturally possess that.

I used the word "Galapagos" earlier, but Japan has been self-contained within the Japanese market. Since we can often create hits that can somehow recoup (recover costs) with detailed, high-context stories that Japanese people enjoy and that fit Japanese sensibilities, I feel there is a significant disconnect there.

Even if you think about it in your head, it's something you won't understand unless you go outside, so my impression is that it's a realm you just have to experience vividly for yourself.

In Japan, there is a tendency to value art for art's sake, or creators making what they want to make the way they want to make it, and film criticism seems to be often avoided. Is the feeling overseas that those things are integrated?

My impression is that film criticism and film journalism are connected to the evaluation of award races and award-winning works. They function properly. Since my impression is that there is a bit of a distance between Japanese criticism and the production side, I think the Japanese film industry itself is at a crossroads.

I think "Godzilla Minus One" is a case where a so-called genre film from within Japan—a "Galapagos" work—was nominated for an Academy Award. Does this mean it also fit into the context of their film history?

I think the most important things are concept and universality. For "Godzilla Minus One," first, in terms of the concept of why we were making this movie, I believe we were able to build a concept with a perspective that was not just for Japan.

Things like "creating a movie where you experience the closest and scariest Godzilla in history," or "making it a story set in an era of zero state where the government is completely useless and the people have no choice but to stand up on their own."

In terms of universality, the story of the anguish of the returning soldier Shikishima, the protagonist who fled from a kamikaze mission as depicted in "Godzilla Minus One," became a story that moved the emotions of people all over the world across races and languages. I have the feeling that it reached people precisely because both were satisfied.

Were you conscious of that while making it?

I was conscious of it. I didn't think it would be a huge hit worldwide, but at least as a producer, I was making it with the desire to make it a story and a movie with that kind of strength.

Did you talk about those concepts and universality with the creators as well?

I think I was subtly saying that this character should be this way. It's precisely because I have a hypothesis in the back of my mind that such a universal story and historical perspective should appear appealing to many people that I guide the direction of the work by deepening it through suggestions for details.

I see. Another thing I found very interesting about "Godzilla Minus One" was that Toho handled the distribution in North America directly. Was that a policy of Toho as a company? I think it was an initiative that hasn't been seen much before.

I should convey this properly: no one predicted it, and no one even thought about doing it. It was truly a coincidence and a series of miracles.

For the North American expansion, since we had made it and Legendary Godzilla was appearing this much in North America, we felt that Japanese Godzilla might have some potential, so we thought we'd do a North American premiere just in case. Then the reputation was so good that when we thought, "Maybe there could be a hit in North America too," the strike in Hollywood happened to drag on, and there were no works available across the US at all.

Because of that, we thought maybe we could distribute it ourselves. The environment to realize self-distribution, such as building a relationship with a company called Pixelogic, was in place, and things rolled along well, with the number of theaters increasing more and more. Initially, we talked about only being able to run it in a few hundred theaters for maybe just a few weeks, but from there it kept increasing, and before we knew it, over 2,000 theaters were filled.

It would be cool if I could say, "Actually, we did it all strategically," but no one was strategizing. It was all coincidence and momentum. It felt like we tried it with momentum and ended up with this result (No. 1 in North American box office revenue among all-time Japanese live-action works).

The strike was one thing, but the fact that an environment was in place where digital data could be sent to every corner of the US was also significant. If this had been a while ago, unless a local distribution company was firmly rooted, connections with each theater and face-to-face interactions would have been necessary, and I don't think we could have done it with this much mobility all at once. Evolution in technology has also made such things possible.

Moving forward, is there a momentum to pursue direct overseas distribution for other works as well?

I believe there is no doubt that these results have opened some kind of door. Ultimately, everything changes when the mindset changes, doesn't it? In this case, a series of coincidences led to a very good outcome, and the impact of that is significant. I think it's possible that we will see in-house distribution even for animated films in the future.

We have proven that even in North America, if a work has the power to make theaters want it, in-house distribution is possible. In that sense, I think a game change has occurred.

Next, I would like to hear from the three of you about how you engage with creators.

Mr. Yoshida, you mentioned earlier that you are also scouting for Chinese authors. How specifically do you go about doing that?

Generally, when Japanese IP (Intellectual Property) companies or publishers expand overseas, they often focus on exporting things made in Japan or conducting licensing businesses.

In particular, for publishing houses expanding overseas, most were previously focused on rights businesses. Basically, overseas expansion for publishers was an extension of the licensing business, and local bases were often thought of as something like branch offices of the rights department.

Within that context, KADOKAWA has believed since 2008, when we began expanding into mainland China, that developing original IP locally in China is what is truly important. Even at our overseas bases worldwide, while the main focus is the translated publication of Japanese works, we leverage the businesses of local creators and local joint venture partners to conduct the most appropriate business for that region. I think this is quite different from other companies.

In some cases, we conduct businesses overseas that KADOKAWA headquarters does not. Specifically, KADOKAWA Qingyu (Shanghai) often carries out businesses not done at headquarters, and conversely, providing feedback to headquarters has become an important role.

It's not just manga and novels; for example, we create games from scratch with Chinese game companies, produce musicals originating in China, and make dramas and movies. We are expanding Chinese-produced content from China to the world. It doesn't matter if the creators are Chinese, Japanese, or of any other region or nationality. We want to spread the creativity born in Shanghai to the world.

KADOKAWA has the catchphrase "Global Media Mix with Technology." For example, content created by companies in New York or Malaysia can expand to various places worldwide. It's not just a one-way street from Japan to overseas; if content born in various places overseas moves back and forth around the world and spreads, I believe talent and the number of works should increase even more.

As an example, KADOKAWA Qingyu (Shanghai) produces domestic Chinese works. In 2022, based on the Japanese light novel "A Herbivorous Dragon of 5,000 Years Old," we produced a work that combined a comic adaptation and an anime in China. This was KADOKAWA's first attempt at a Chinese-produced anime, but we achieved not only streaming but also TV broadcasting in China. We also expanded it from China to the rest of the world, broadcasting a Japanese dubbed version in Japan and having Crunchyroll stream it in Western regions.

How do you find talent such as Chinese authors and manga artists?

When we established Guangzhou Tianwen Kadokawa, I said, "Let's create local originals!" but the response was, "No, to begin with, there are no editors who can guide manga artists." So, we started by creating an editorial department and training editors.

At that time, there were almost no editors in China who worked closely with authors in the Japanese style. So, we hired young local university graduates, taught them Japanese manga editing methods from scratch, created a manga editorial department, and published manga magazines for the Chinese market from there. The approach at the time was, in a sense, a hands-on, gritty process of finding and nurturing authors and refining works as we created them.

Have you ever felt that the mindset of Chinese creators is different from that of Japanese creators?

This isn't limited to China, but if that industry doesn't exist in that region to begin with, there are naturally differences. Creators grow in Japan not only because they love storytelling, but because it becomes a proper job and they can earn money. There are cases where movies, anime, or manga simply haven't been established as an industry in a particular region.

Is it that Chinese creators are less accustomed to working with editors?

That is part of it. Even if you try to implement the Japanese style of manga editing outside of Japan, there are regions where it might not work that well. Some companies, for example in South Korea or Taiwan, use a similar studio format, but I don't think it's that common globally.

I see. Mr. Abe, your company is also working on Webtoons, right?

That's right. Arch is nimbly taking on challenges with new things like Webtoons.

Currently, production costs for anime are rising due to various factors, and I think it's becoming particularly difficult to get original projects off the ground.

Therefore, while developing original IP, I think there's an idea that it might be good to first release it to the world as a Webtoon. Anime adaptations of Webtoon originals are also increasing.

Is it that Webtoons are currently being experimented with in various ways, rather than following a traditional manga-making process?

I think various companies are trying different things. There are editorial production companies that originally made "horizontal-reading manga" (traditional formats like tankobon, or manga where you turn pages horizontally using a dedicated viewer), and there are many like us coming out of the anime industry.

Webtoons have a very high number of panels and are based on weekly updates in full color. In Japanese horizontal manga, I think it's traditionally common for a single artist to be involved in all processes, sometimes with assistants. In contrast, a characteristic of Webtoons is that they are based on a division of labor from the start, with the process broken down into fine steps.

I believe such aspects have a high affinity with anime, and we are currently entering the field and learning through trial and error.

The world of live-action film where Mr. Yamada is currently situated is, in a sense, very traditional, and it seems that the way one engages with directors is particularly important. On the other hand, many new initiatives were undertaken in "Godzilla Minus One."

I think there are many things that directors or so-called auteurs want to create, but that alone doesn't necessarily make for a business. Therefore, without a strong original work and the prerequisite of it selling well, it's quite difficult to make an original film in the Japanese film industry; projects almost never get approved.

That is the very difficult world that serves as the starting point. But when considering what kind of concept would be a hit, the production side needs to historically analyze genre groups with a high probability of success, at least in terms of program pictures. It is necessary to successfully fuse what an auteur director wants to do with a genre that has a certain level of commercial potential.

Whether or not you can do that determines if you can clear the hurdle of making it domestically. But beyond that, in terms of how to break into the world, there are two main axes. One is the direction of pursuing the possibility of recouping costs by ensuring commercial viability through nominations in award races, even if the work is art-oriented. The other is the direction of pure entertainment, creating a powerful IP unique to Japan as a live-action work with Japanese resources and global strength. It's one or the other, and while Godzilla miraculously achieved the latter, it is originally an "impossible game."

This is because the scale of production costs differs by 10 to 20 times. What is called a high budget for a Japanese entertainment work is 1/10th or 1/20th of that in Hollywood, so at that point, there's simply no way to win. We have to work backward from the idea of Japanese works becoming global hits, gain the confidence to spend more on production costs, and gradually close that gap.

On the other hand, for the art-oriented side, we know there is potential because works by directors like Hirokazu Kore-eda and Ryusuke Hamaguchi can win awards at globally prestigious venues like the Cannes Film Festival or the Venice Film Festival, even with relatively low budgets.

This is about how to connect authorship with the current award race—for example, what subjects are suitable for Venice, or identifying subjects that haven't been covered based on past trends at Cannes. Of course, as a prerequisite, there must be an earnest question from the auteur about what kind of story is necessary for the modern world.

It requires a significant amount of education, information, and a sense of judgment, but I think producers and directors need to think about this from a broad perspective.

Do you have such discussions directly with the directors? Was there any pushback, such as "I'm not making films for awards"?

Yes. That is difficult, but we have extensive discussions in the sense of pursuing the quality of the work. Even with Director Kore-eda, I never spoke in terms of "winning an award." Instead, we repeatedly discussed and created things like how "Monster" could delve deeper into its theme, or how this story could be deepened as a narrative with multi-angled perspectives, distinct from the expression in Akira Kurosawa's "Rashomon."

Also, especially in Europe, various film festivals, including the big three, always have a director who manages them, and that director's influence is significant in the final selection. Therefore, ideally, the director needs to have their authorship recognized by that festival director to some extent. Being able to communicate unofficially with those directors results in a kind of creative lobbying activity. In fact, auteur directors around the world are engaging in such communication to a greater or lesser degree. Japan is still unfamiliar with this, and I have a hypothesis that this actually leads to a major difference.

Does that kind of lobbying become the producer's job?

It's the producer, or the head of a distribution company, or someone who can communicate. It doesn't matter who does it, but you need to become a resident of that "global film village." Otherwise, you won't be recognized.

We have heard various stories, and regarding the Japanese entertainment business with its various possibilities and challenges, it seems necessary for the university to further develop its systems for research, education, and human resource development. With this awareness, we have actually opened various courses related to entertainment within Keio University.

To conclude this roundtable, I would like to ask for your opinions on what you expect from universities, and Keio University in particular, so that the Japanese entertainment business can make further leaps forward in the world, from the perspective of those of you actually involved in the entertainment business on the front lines.

As you say, there is a shortage of human resources in Japan, so I hope more people will go overseas. When working with people from various regions, talented people from overseas really stand out. Employees at our various overseas bases are often people who can speak the local language and Japanese plus English, and have a mindset to interact with various people without fear.

I really want Japanese students to do their best as well. I believe the future market for the content industry needs to target the entire world from the start, rather than just looking at the Japanese market. Since we are in an era where we can broadcast from Japan to the whole world, I hope to see more young Japanese people who can create things that anyone in any country would find interesting, while interacting with various people without fear.

So language and communication are the keys?

Of course, it's better to have language skills, but I actually think that's not necessarily all. Unless the people who are doing the actual main production in Japan go out, the true message of what they want to create and what they want to do won't be conveyed.

At KADOKAWA, Japanese editors and producers are getting involved in the work of overseas bases, and foreign employees are joining Japanese editorial departments, working hard so they can one day be active globally. We are increasingly promoting such exchanges.

Since they've come to the entertainment world, I want them to enjoy doing everything. Entertainment is quite a tough job, isn't it? There are painful moments, and it takes up a lot of time and emotional energy. We need people who are committed to creativity, have passion, and can continue to communicate and solve problems even when faced with difficulties. Otherwise, I think it's difficult to create something that surprises people.

I understand that Arch, where Mr. Abe is, is a company founded with exactly that kind of frontier-spirit vision. Mr. Abe, what kind of human resources do you think are necessary?

In anime, there are also four major international film festivals, and I sincerely hope to see an increase in the number of Japanese people going to the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, which is the leader among them. It would be very encouraging to know that there are Keio University alumni there.

I also encounter people from Keio University in various places, such as event venues, screening rooms, and film festival venues. That really serves as emotional support. I want everyone to project a new vision to the world from now on, so as the game changes, I would definitely like people who find new things interesting and want to try them to come to this industry.

I look forward to many people coming who say they took a course at Keio University that served as a catalyst and became interested.

Mr. Yamada, what do you think the role expected of the university is?

For my next 10 years, my only expectation is there, and I want to say it here: please let me create a graduate school.

As Mr. Yoshida mentioned earlier, the era of being self-sufficient within the domestic market has completely ended. To make it a growing industry, it has become clear that no entertainment can survive unless we expand the market to the world and increase the denominator. We are in an era where Japan alone is not enough to survive, and whether we like it or not, we must create entertainment that generates sales in places with a large denominator worldwide.

I was consulted by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry about the future of the entertainment industry. I told them, "If your job is to newly create and organize Japanese industry, from now on, why don't you specialize in supporting how to create works that can compete in the world?" Because otherwise, it won't become an industry that carries the future.

To that end, I think Keio University should create a graduate school where people can learn at a global level what entertainment that can compete in the world is. This should not be a film studies or film department, but should be created in a form that fuses commercialism and creative learning, like a business school.

I also originally came from a journalism background and received no specialized film education at university. Even so, through OJT after entering the workforce, I was able to win an award at Cannes and get an Oscar nomination. So, what I can say to all Keio University students is that you can make it even after becoming a working professional. Starting from graduate school is sufficient.

For that purpose, I think high-quality business schools serve as a good reference. I believe the thorough case method developed by Harvard should be introduced into the entertainment business.

For example, it would be a form of learning where you use the case method to study how David Fincher created "The Social Network" based on the real-life figure Mark Zuckerberg, making it a huge commercial hit and getting it nominated for an Oscar. Film is a comprehensive art, so it includes every element: project development, storytelling, fundraising, art direction, architecture, costume design, music, and contracts.

By taking a single film as a thorough case method and completely simulating things that left wonderful results in the past but remain as tacit knowledge within the academicism of the university. By doing that, you will surely find a vein of gold through simulated experience and understand, "Oh, this is how you fight."

From there, just as Harvard has produced many business leaders through the case method, I believe many content creators who can compete in the world will be produced. Please let me create something like that.

At film schools such as USC (University of Southern California), it seems that an ecosystem of people, money, and knowledge circulates inside and outside the university, such as successful directors in the film industry donating money to the university to enhance film research and education, and the film talent nurtured there being supplied to Hollywood. Conversely, in Japan, I feel there is a disconnect between entertainment and universities.

There has been nothing but a disconnect. If we are to create a graduate school, the instructors there should first be people who have won awards or created hits globally, or who have left global results. Once we can start going out little by little, graduates can use that network to go on internships at influential distribution companies in Hollywood or Cannes, and academicism should be able to connect those external links.

It should be an extremely practical graduate school. I think Keio University might be good at creating a place where entertainment is treated as a business, while deeply understanding the essence of creation and learning through fusion.

I think there are probably many people from overseas who would want to come. There are truly many voices wanting to learn about Japanese content development and media mix.

Recently, at an on-campus event called "Hiyoshi Film Festival" that screens notable works from the Chinese-speaking world, we had the director and producer of the Chinese animated film "Chang'an" speak. I was surprised at the reception after the event when they asked very detailed questions about the business of Japanese anime media mixes and character merchandising. The need to learn about the Japanese entertainment business might exist overseas, including in Asia, more than we think.

Thank you very much for the passionate discussion today.