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Art as an Export

April 14, 2009 by Marion Maneker

Japan is looking at its pop culture as an untapped source for exports. Here’s The Independent summarizing the issue from several Japanese newspapers:

Japan’s manga-loving prime minister, Taro Aso, has long touted the importance of “soft power” content such as comics and anime to boost Japan’s global diplomatic status. [ . . . ] Included in a giant stimulus package he unveiled today was a target of raising exports from the “content” sector to about 18 per cent of exports from less than 2 per cent now.

“By linking the popularity of Japan’s ‘soft power’ to business, I want to create a 20-30 trillion yen ($200-300 billion) market by 2020 and create 500,000 new jobs.” At least one government agency is already eyeing a cultural project using funds from the stimulus package [ . . . ] The Cultural Affairs Agency wants nearly 12 billion yen to build a “National Comprehensive Centre for Media Art” that would showcase contemporary Japanese culture such as manga, anime and video games, the Asahi newspaper reported. “We are thinking of making a request for the funds for such a facility, but the amount is still being worked out,” an agency official said.

Japan Eye Comics and Pop Art to Ride Economic Storm (The Independent)

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Filed Under: General Tagged With: Featured, Japan

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