Matt Schley
September 13, 2024 
Taro Kono (or Kono Taro, to use the name order Kono prefers) is Japan’s digital transformation minister and one of the many members of the LDP vying to become Japan’s next prime minister. At a press conference this week, Kono said some interesting stuff about Japan’s “soft power” entertainment industry, of which animation is a giant piece.
For one thing, Kono said that efforts to use Japan’s soft power abroad should not be led by the government. This was a jab at the government’s oft-criticized Cool Japan Fund, which has poured tax money into pop culture projects for almost a decade with little success. Or, as Kono put it, “failed miserably.”
Kono also came out in favor of animators and other staff members within the anime industry.
“In the anime industry, those creators are suffering. They’re doing a great job but they’re not getting much out of it, so we need to protect the workers in the industry, and we need to show them they’re successful and they’re making money and they have social status so young people want to go into that field.”
Finally, Kono had some tough words for the so-called production committee system, in which lots of companies contribute a bit of money (and creative input) to create films and anime.
“If you look at Japanese movies lately, many of the movies are created by ‘production committee,’ where no one is responsible and everyone has to agree to do anything. Japanese TV stations no longer create good dramas. So something must be wrong, and something needs to be changed.”
Sounds like what lots of us have been saying for years. Nice, Kono-san!
We’ll find out who becomes the LDP’s next leader, and therefore Japan’s next PM, on September 27.
Sources: Animenomics, FCCJ
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