Industry expectations are decidedly low for the Japanese government’s ambitious plan to support overseas sales of domestic content. Although the content sector was named one of 17 priority industries—alongside semiconductors, AI, and shipbuilding—frontline professionals selling Japanese films, shows, and intellectual property to international buyers remain doubtful about the initiative’s potential benefits.
Following Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s announcement last November, her administration this summer set a target of more than $2.3 trillion (370 trillion yen) in combined public and private investment across the selected sectors by 2040. As part of that effort, the IP360 initiative aims to increase overseas sales of Japanese content to $127 billion (200 trillion yen) by 2033, with oversight from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI).
Experience with previous support programs has dampened expectations and fostered widespread cynicism about the latest scheme, particularly among professionals attending the TIFFCOM content market at the Tokyo International Film Festival.
“We had the Cool Japan initiative before, but Japan has never committed funding to the industry on the scale South Korea did,” said an overseas sales agent for a mid-sized Japanese film company. “There have been subsidies, such as money to send films to Annecy or attend conventions, but it feels like the support will go to the majors and to small ventures rather than companies like ours.”
Mirroring the minimum budget requirement for international production incentives in Japan, domestic live-action films must have budgets of at least 800 million yen—currently around $5.1 million—to qualify for overseas sales support.
“There needs to be new blood both in politics and the ministries,” the agent added. “METI needs to bring in more industry specialists. They should also work with non-Japanese experts who can help them understand overseas markets better; some of the big publishers already do that well.”
An agent handling North American licensing for manga and anime at a large Japanese publisher said it is too early to predict the initiative’s impact. “Our sales are growing anyway thanks to the streamers. We’re not seeing the government involved yet, but it’s early days, and it will take time for anything to trickle down to the frontline.”
A sales representative at a major Japanese publisher was blunter: “There have been many support schemes up to this point, and none of them have had much impact.”
Not everyone’s expectations are so low.
“I’ve been in the industry for over 30 years, and I can feel a change in mentality among industry people over the last decade, especially the last five years. It’s not so domestically focused now. I think IP360 is opening the eyes of production companies,” said Makito Sugiyama, executive director of the Broadcast Program Export Association of Japan and a former international sales executive at TBS.
“I’ve 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’s longer-term thinking and less bickering between ministries,” added Sugiyama, who is unabashedly enthusiastic about the new initiative.
METI’s guidelines on how to apply for support suggest a continuation of the bureaucracy and opacity that have hampered earlier programs.
“All the application processes for previous subsidies and support were very complex, involving hearings and other procedures that took so much time,” said a representative handling international sales for a major Japanese studio at TIFFCOM. “It’s 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 mid-size budget films, which are the ones that need help the most.”
That sentiment was largely echoed by an international sales agent at another major Japanese company: “They make it very complicated to get support. I’m 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.”
“The government is saying they will do all these things, but you never know whether they will actually do it,” they added. “We’re not expecting very much.”
