Anime News

Current State Of Osaka's Animation Industry
Date: 9/26/2005
On Monday, the Japan Research Institute Limited released a white paper on the "Current State and Problems Of Osaka's Animation Industry". According to the Tokyo Anime Fair Executive Committee there are 440 anime production companies in Japan, 360 (80%) being located in Tokyo. With this in mind, this new report outlines several interesting facts relating to a city whose overall contents industry profile is significantly less than that of her sister city in the east.
1. The government via the strategy headquarters of the Cabinet Secretariat has began an initiative to promote an intellectual property policy, and the Diet has passed two or more support measures laws. The expectation for the animation delivery business has increased with broadband internet rapidly coming online as the pipeline of choice.
2. The animation market scale of Osaka Prefecture was estimated at 40.8 billion Yen or an 8.6% share of the nationwide scale of 471.9 billion Yen as of a 2002 Osaka City calculation. Likewise, the number of related offices accounts for 5-16% of the nationwide total.
3. Problems include a low anime production base for the city as well as earning power. Likewise, animation production companies have not been supporting the cultivation of future talent as young people are not entering the industry. This comes even as Japanese animation is better known in the world than at any other time.
4. Personal animation as well as web animation produced in-house by singular individuals has enjoyed great success as the price of personal computers and software drops. This activity has been especially prevailing in Osaka recently.
5. The possibilities for Osaka in the animation industry has risen. The move to drawing in independent creators and cultivating talent within universities has recently began. A contents support policy subsidy in a regional fund has been accomplished. Star?ABACA?|JA?AJAWACON have setup their events to find new talent via CG animation contests. Projects related to the education and the local revitalization of animation production among young people is advancing as a possibility for the future.
6. Four points are proposed to promote the animation industry of Osaka: gaining recognition for the city as a center for personal CG and web animation production through the symposiums and the screenings; becoming a production base where new figure's promotion can be done; Supporting the legislation side such as copyright agreement etc.; Production of animation via the regional contents fund.
Source: Anime News Service