Hiromichi Masuda, Chairman of Database Working Group, Association of Japanese Animations Shuichi Suzuki, vent　Marketing,Character Business and Events Pierrot Co.,Ltd. Yu Kamiki, Producer, TV Planning Division, TOEI ANIMATION CO., LTD Natsuko Tateishi, General Affairs Department, TOEI ANIMATION CO., LTD

　Firstly, this session started with Masuda reviewing the current state of the anime industry before asking the three speakers who are working at the forefront of the industry about their reasons behind entering the industry and the impression of the industry after starting their job.
　Suzuki, who started off working part-time, doing anime product dispatching, entered the industry after becoming involved in managing staff members at events. On his impression after entering the industry, he commented, “The anime industry tends to have many people with an artisan spirit. People like that do their work with care without compromising.” On his reason for entering the industry, Kamiki stated that, “I was interested in children and education. Therefore, I picked Toei Animation because it was a job related to those two areas.” He explained the enjoyable aspects of his job by stating, “I realized that more people than one would expect work in anime. I felt that each person is involved from their position. As a producer, this is something that is difficult to adjust, as well as it being an enjoyable part.” Tateishi, who wanted to work in the entertainment industry and applied to a general affairs job recruitment that takes place once every two years, emphasized the appeal of working in the anime industry by stating, “Before working for the company, I only had the impression of the job entailing giving information on the company but I get greatly stimulated when I talk to staff members with an artisan spirit.”
　During this seminar, the following pieces of advice were given to those who wish to work in the anime industry: “I want you to get into working in the industry, even if it’s just a part-time job, and experience the atmosphere of the industry” (Suzuki), “I think it would be good to watch image products while contemplating under what kind of concept it was made” (Kamiki), and “I would like you to nurture flexibility by accumulating various knowledge and experiences” (Tateishi).
Lastly, Masuda concluded the seminar by giving the following words of encouragement to those who aspire to work in the industry: “A path to enter the anime industry is not limited to just one. Furthermore, there are a lot of jobs other than production, such as distribution and advertising. If you wish to do something within the anime industry, you can also get into the industry first and find what you would like to do afterward. We greatly welcome people with motivation.”

Writer：Ryota Fujitsu

Presenters：

Shawn Chin, Managing Director, SOZO PTE Ltd. Aiko Obayashi, Executive Producer, SOZO PTE LTD. Sane Ichii, Director General, Japan Contents Overseas Expansion Head Office, J-LOP

　During the first half of this seminar, Obayashi and Chin from SOZO, one of the companies that sponsor Anime Festival Asia (hereafter, “AFA”), gave a briefing of the festival and appealed for participation.
AFA started in Singapore in 2008 and is the largest Japanese pop culture event in Southeast Asia. It has been held nine times within the past six years, including in such countries as Indonesia and Malaysia, garnering a total of 533,000 visitors. In 2013, the festival was held in Malaysia and Singapore for three days in each country, attracting a total of 138,000 visitors. There are over 500,000 fans on Facebook, with the male to female composition ratio being 6:4. A survey result of the fans of AFA visitors on their favorite series showed that they listed approximately the same series as that of the Japanese fans.
　 The event is comprised of three parts; exhibition, stage performances (afternoon), and live concerts (evening). Goods are also sold in the exhibition area and many visitors approach the vending stands. The average revenue per customer increases towards the events taking place in the evening. The event was held on the following four grand ideas: creating brand recognition and generating consumer’s interest, learning the trends of consumers in the Southeast Asia market, test marketing, and promoting new contents. As a specific example, Sony’s new video camcorder model and the promotion for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer were mentioned. In terms of anime titles, the example of Valvrave the Liberator was cited, reporting that a variety of events took place, such as its exhibition, sales of goods, seiyu events, and the announcement of its distribution to the Southeast Asia market. Concerning the holding of the event in 2014, it was announced that the festival will be held from August 15th to 17th in Jakarta and December 5th to 7th in Singapore.
　In the second half of the event, Ichii from the J-Lop head office gave his briefing. J-LOP is a subsidy given by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications to support the localization and the promotion of Japanese contents. A total of 15.5 billion Japanese yen in subsidies has been prepared. Its objective is to create a Japanese boom overseas in order to enlarge the overseas business expansion of related Japanese industries and to promote tourism in Japan. The subsidy targets are corporations established in line with the Japanese legislation and Japanese citizens. Subsidized operations include translations of content, translations for concluding contracts related to such content, and promotion efforts to drive potential business collaborations. Specific case examples cited during this seminar were AFA and JAPAN EXPO. Lastly, the audience was advised to refer to the official site ( http://j-lop.jp ) for relevant documents and application.

Writer：Hizume Akiyoshi

Shin Sasaki, High End Works Division General Manager, SUNRISE INC. Kaori Shida, Planning and Sales Department Manager, SUNRISE INC. Ryusuke Hikawa, Anime & Tokusatsu critic

　Sunrise Inc. presented an account of how MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM , a very successful anime series, collaborated with other industries.
In the first half of the seminar, an example of collaboration with the city of Tokyo in 2009 as part of the 30th anniversary project of GUNDAM was reported, in which a life-sized statue of GUNDAM was built in Shiokaze Park, Odaiba, Tokyo. This was given the title, “Green Tokyo Gundam Project”, in which activities such as Green Tokyo Fundraising Campaign and running publicity for the Regeneration of Tokyo, City Rich with Nature Project were conducted. The difficulties in this project included ensuring safety for manufacturing an enormous statue measuring 18m and following laws related to aviation in terms of presentation aspect. As such, the company directly engaged in social involvement that exceeded the boundaries of an anime production company. The positive outcomes from this project included the perception that the company was able to conduct an event with an official aura by running a long-term event in a public space, as well as promoting the series to people of different ages, those who normally would not watch anime, and people from overseas. This event was held for 52 days and garnered 4.15 million visitors, greatly surpassing the initial forecast.
In the second half of this program, an account of the example of Char Custom AURIS was given. This was a collaboration project between TOYOTA’s automobile brand, AURIS, and the popular character Char. In order to overcome the problem of the younger generation buying fewer cars, TOYOTA sought a remedy in anime as a method for cultivating a possible new market. Instead of using a superficial character print, Toyota decided to create a back-story in which fans would be satisfied. Therefore, a setting was prepared which involved the car being manufactured by ZEONICTOYOTA, which combined the series with a real corporation (TOYOTA). A brand logo was created and “employee recruitment” was even conducted. The employees, who were users who applied for the position after agreeing with the project, shared their opinions with the AURIS Publicity team and Sunrise in Tokyo and Nagoya. Their opinions were then reflected onto the product. In addition, a special movie depicting Char getting into an AURIS and driving the vehicle was produced by Sunrise, which received a strong reaction. Not only does collaboration between a large corporation and an anime character provide a bandwagon effect to the brand image, engaging in a manufacturing process with a company that adheres to the social rules also provided SUNRISE with a new experience.
　Lastly, General Manager Sasaki stated that, “One should have a clear vision from the start concerning collaboration; whether it is for making money or to improve one’s image. It is important to tell the other party the things you would like to do with a series and then examine abiding to the social rules together.” Manager Shida said, “One should properly examine which GUNDAM series one will collaborate with and which fan base one is targeting. After that, it is important to execute the project by always thinking about how to imbue a new wave without betraying the fans.”

Writer：Hizume Akiyoshi

WORKS Takayoshi Yamamura, Center for Advanced Tourism Studies, Hokkaido University： Professor Nobuhiro Kikuchi, P.A.WORKS Inc. C.O.O./ Senior Management Director

　P.A. WORKS is an anime production company based in Nanto, Toyama. The company utilizes the regional tradition and culture in a delicate manner within their work. In related events they engage in, they exhibit the possibilities of collaboration between anime contents, traditional culture, and local regions in various formats, such as conducting collaborative projects with the local region with tradition and culture playing key roles.
Professor Yamamura first stressed that the possible outcome of collaboration between anime and local regions is not limited to financial effect, before going on to mention the following three key points as being of more substantial importance: Local branding, promotion of tourism as an act of communication, and rediscovery/creation of tradition. Next, Managing Director Kikuchi listed five works produced by his company as an example of collaborative effort between works of anime and traditional culture and local region. He then explained each example from the three perspectives of depicting the regional tradition within the work and creating tradition, collaboration with cultural assets, and a new attempt at development in collaboration between anime and local regions.
Firstly, as an example of “depicting the regional tradition within a work of anime,” he used True Tears as an example. Using Mugiya Festival and Higiyama Festival traditional to the Jyouhana District as a model, a fictional winter festival called Mugiya Festival is depicted in the series. In addition, Mugihana dance that appears in the series was created based on the traditional Mugiya dance. Furthermore, the series Hanasaku Iroha also depicts the fictional Bonbon Festival. Triggered by this series, however, Yuwaku Spa Tourism Association started to hold a Bonbon Festival annually as an actual regional festival starting in October, 2011. Managing Director Kikuchi said that the number of festival-goers was 5,000 in the first year, thereafter increasing to 7,000, and then to 10,000. However, he mentioned that the emphasis is placed on the longevity, rather than the number of visitors, stating that, “I would like them to enjoy the festival for many coming years.”
Next, as an example of “collaboration with cultural assets”, the series Another was discussed. Here, Another exhibition (April, 2013) was presented. This exhibition utilized Ganjyoukaku in Fukuno High School, a building in Nanto constructed during the Meiji era (1868-1912), which also served as the model of the old junior high school building that appears in the series. It was said that there were some alumni of the school that visited Ganjyoukaku for the first time, thanks to this event. The company places such events as one of the opportunities for the local residents to come into contact with their region’s cultural assets. Furthermore, in conjunction with the series uchoten-kazoku which is set in Kyoto, an anime-related event (advance premium screening) is being held for the first time in Minami-za, Kyoto. The manager of Minami-za stated that s/he has never seen customers take that many pictures of the interior of Minami-za after the screening. Managing Director Kikuchi stated, “I wish this could become an opportunity for people to come to understand both the new and the old culture after becoming interested in them.”
Lastly, concerning “a new attempt at development in collaboration between anime and local regions,” the Managing Director presented KOITABI～True Tours Nanto as an example. This is three love stories (each story divided into two parts), broadcasted and distributed only in Nanto by using an area one-segment function coordinated with GPS (from March 22, 2014, the first-part of each story was released to the entire nation). The Managing Director described the series by saying, “This is not an anime series to introduce tourist spots. Nanto appears strictly as the background of the story and we aimed to make a series in which the audience can enjoy both Nanto and the story with the series.”
　As a conclusion, Managing Director Kikuchi left the audience with the following words: “We make the setting of the series depending on the situation within the creator’s side. However, if the regional residents simply get on the bandwagon of the series, the fans will leave the region with time. For local residents, they want the fans of the series who visit their region to become fans of their region. Therefore, while taking into account the different degrees of interest between the creators and the regional party, we would like to aim for a result that would benefit both parties by cooperating with regional activities in a continuous manner as a creator.”

Writer：Hizume Akiyoshi

Kazuo Rikukawa, Director/Managing Executive, Character Brand Licensing Association, President and representative director of CHARACTER DATABANK, Ltd. Atsuhi Nishioka, Manager Planning & Development Property Marketing　Sony Creative Products Inc. Hiroyuki Azuma, General Manager Plarail Group Vehicle Business Division　Tomy Company,Ltd.

　Using the popular character Hiro, the steam locomotive that appeared in THOMAS & FRIENDS , the involved parties discussed the mechanism behind the licensing business and the areas to which they had to be attentive during the process.
Nishioka, who is responsible for the marketing planning of THOMAS & FRIENDS in Japan, started with the explanation of licensing.
All the rights for THOMAS lie with HIT Entertainment, who produces the video. Sony Creative Products, with which Nishioka is affiliated, serves as a contact point for businesses related to THOMAS in Japan as a master licenser who has been given the rights within Japan. Takara, who launches THOMAS Plarail products after receiving authorization to use the right, serves as a sub-licensee. There are 120 companies in Japan who are sub-licensees of THOMAS .
Hiro, the steam locomotive, is a character that was planned based on Japanese steam locomotives in order to appeal to viewers outside of English-speaking countries. After obtaining the information that a video in which Hiro appears will be released in Europe and the United States in September 2009, Sony Creative Products informed Takara of this matter. While proceeding with the creation of Hiro products from the summer of 2009, the company formulated a plan to market products at the same time as the film released in April 2010, Go, Go THOMAS , in which Hiro appears. During this process, Sony Creative Products strove to engage in a close exchange of information with HIT entertainment to realize the optimum strategy within the Japanese industry, as well as in the early provision of information toward sub-licensees.
After hearing the briefing given by Nishioka, Azuma explained the flow of Hiro product development from the perspective of Takara. During the explanation, it was mentioned that the stage in which there were the most transactions with Sony Creative Products was the trial stage. Restricted by costs and Plarail standards, toys of Hiro cannot be developed with the exact same appearance as seen in the film. Within such constrictions, the companies conduct various examinations on how to create a design that resembles Hiro.
　After such efforts, Hiro products released in April 2010 became a hit, also turning Hiro into a popular character.

Writer：Ryota Fujitsu

Kunihiko Shibata, President and CEO, DAISUKI inc.

　DAISUKI.net is a company that was established after being financed jointly by Aniplex, SUNRISE, TOEI ANIMATION, TMS ENTERTAINMENT, and NIHON AD SYSTEMS with the aim of distributing anime overseas. Shibata reported on the aims of the company who commenced its service from late May, 2013 as well as its current state.
The factor behind the establishment of this company was the rapid infiltration of pirate editions through the wide usage of the Internet. According to the investigation done by the company, there are over 90 illegal download sites in the world, with an episode of an anime series being played over 1 million times. Furthermore, links to pirated games that use characters from various anime series can be found on such illegal download sites, stepping far beyond the realms of just fans doing things for their own enjoyment.
To address this situation, the company developed an official distribution platform for countries overseas through the cooperation of production companies, aiming to deploy a new business in the overseas market that is becoming increasingly severe. Although there have been isolated hit series, the company aims to gather together fans of each series as anime fans.
　There are currently 1.3 million members. Considering that the goal for the first year was 1 million, the company is off to a good start. DAISUKI.net provides subtitles in five different languages, including English, with 45% of users coming from North America, 25% from Europe, 15% from Asia, and 5% from South America. The online shopping section of the site handles goods sold exclusively at Japanese events to heighten the site’s appeal. Additionally, the company participates in anime-related events in foreign countries, such as anime expo, in order to raise its profile among the local fans.

Writer：Ryota Fujitsu

Yuji Mori (Digital Hollywood University, Graduate School of Digital Content Management, Professor; Managing Director, Dentsu Consulting Inc.) MARVEL ANIMATION (U.S.): Kenneth T. Ito (Director of Animation Production) CANAL ONCE(Mexico): Maria Claudia Santos Sanchez(Chief in charge of Young, Music, Comedy Development Division) MERMEDYA(Turkey): Erdal Guven(Chairman)

　Three buyers who visited AnimeJapan, each from different countries and occupations, discussed the spread of Japanese anime and their expectations toward Japanese anime from their standpoint.
Ito, the production director at MARVEL ANIMATION who is in charge of series such as Spider-Man , mentioned that there are series which MADHOUSE produces after concluding a licensing agreement with MARVEL. After explaining the relationship with Japanese studios, he stated that, “I believe that the animation market will further expand. Therefore, I would like to engage in production by cooperating with Japanese anime production companies within such a framework.”
Sanchez stated that anime such as Astro Boy, Jungle Emperor Leo , and Speed Racer , have been broadcasted in Mexico since the 1970s, explaining that Mexicans have been familiar with Japanese anime for a long time. She went on to explain that 1997 onward was the golden era of anime, in which series such as SAINT SEIYA , Ranma 1/2 , DIGIMON and DRAGON BALL were broadcasted. She described how a group of devoted anime fans already exists in Mexico, with anime becoming very familiar for many viewers.
　Guven reflected upon the time back when he was a child, when there was only one TV channel in Turkey, with the only anime shown being HEIDI , AGIRL OF THE ALPS and CANDY CANDY . Presently, there are 100 channels in Turkey, with 20 of them mainly showing programs for children. Series such as NARUTO are shown and the young generation enjoys watching anime. Therefore, each channel has a high level of interest in anime. Guven emphasized the appeal of the Turkish market as an export destination of anime due to the large population of Turkey and its sizeable youth demographics.

Writer：Ryota Fujitsu