Japan looks to manga comics to rescue ailing economy
Exporting Japan’s manga and anime heroes could be key to creating half a million jobs and overcoming downturn, says PM
While other countries bail out banks, slash interest rates and prop up struggling industries, Japan is pinning its hopes for economic recovery on a less likely source: manga comic books.
As part of 15 trillion yen of fresh stimulus measures unveiled today, Japan hopes to raise the percentage of its exports of “soft power” - manga, animated films, video games and pop music - from 2% of the total to 18% over the next decade, creating half a million jobs.
“Japanese content, such as anime and video games, and fashion draw attention from consumers around the world,” the prime minister, Taro Aso - a self-confessed manga addict - told reporters this week as he waved copies of magazines from China and Taiwan featuring Japanese pop stars on their covers.
“Unfortunately, this soft power is not being linked to business overseas. By linking the popularity of Japan’s soft power to business, I want to create a 20-30 trillion-yen market by 2020 and create 500,000 new jobs.”
Cynics will view the manga drive as a crafty election ploy as Aso, who keeps a supply of his favourite titles on the back seat of his official car, attempts to build on a boost in his support following the North Korea’s rocket launch and the arrest of a senior aide to the main opposition leader, Ichiro Ozawa.
Manga fans lined the streets to support Aso’s bid for the Liberal Democratic party leadership last autumn, and novelty goods bearing his likeness continue to sell well in Tokyo’s “otaku” (geek) district of Akihabara.
The cultural affairs agency has reportedly requested 12 billion yen to create a national centre for media art that would promote Japanese pop culture overseas. The manga genre encompasses every possible theme, from tales involving lovable characters for children, to historical and political themes, sports and pornography.
Many of the most popular titles are turned into hit TV series and films. Sazae-san, a comic strip about a typical Tokyo family that first appeared in 1946, moved to the small screen in 1969 to become the longest-running animated programme of all time. It still airs every Sunday evening.
“Manga used to be regarded as something for children until they were around 15,” manga critic Haruyuki Nakano told Kyodo News last month on the 50th anniversary of two of Japan’s pioneering weekly manga titles. “But baby boomers in postwar Japan kept reading their favorite manga even after they entered college and became adults. That helped make manga widespread in Japanese culture,” Nakano said.
While translated Japanese manga are proving popular in the US market, sales at home have been hit by the spread of game consoles and online comics, and the dramatic growth of titles that can be read on mobile phone handsets.
The traditional manga market was worth just over 400 billion yen in 2007, down from around 580 billion yen a decade earlier, while sales of e-manga are forecast to rise to over 70 billion yen by 2012.
