Government Planning National Anime & Manga Cultural Centre

[Mulboyne]

Asahi: Culture agency plans national 'anime shrine'
The Agency for Cultural Affairs plans to spend 11.7 billion yen to build a "shrine" dedicated to anime, manga, videogames and other contemporary Japanese art. As the first government-built facility of its kind, the "national comprehensive center for media art" in Tokyo will serve as a base for promoting the popular culture. Although details have not been finalized, agency officials said it will be set up in a convenient location in central Tokyo. The creation of the center is among measures in the government's new economic package...Although Japanese anime and manga are considered "cool" Japanese exports overseas, the country so far has no facility featuring a comprehensive collection of works and information...The agency plans to make the center a venue for showcasing cutting-age Japanese culture to the world and cater to foreigners with an interest in Japanese pop culture...more...

[Coligny]

So, with these official aknowledgement of tentacle rape, bukkake, lolicon and all the other crap we have to deal with on a daily basis. When can we expect a UN resolution and the start of air strikes by forces of NATO ? I'm sure south Korea and Russia will be more than eager to allow use of their airbase.
Just need to find a witty name, "Japanese Freedom", "Ricefield Fox", "Ricefield Storm"... Damn, I'm no good at marketting...

[Mulboyne]

Yukio Hatoyama has suggested in a speech that this plan just amounts to wasting money on a "National Manga Kissaten".

[Samurai_Jerk]

Yukio Hatoyama has suggested in a speech that this plan just amounts to wasting money on a "National Manga Kissaten".

He's probably fucking right but it's small potatoes. The real waste is in the excessive number of public servants this country has.

[Mulboyne]

Mainichi: Manga artist Ishizaka says 12-billion-yen facility a waste of public money

Manga artist Kei Ishizaka has criticized an 11.7-billion-yen government project to build an art facility that displays works including anime and manga, claiming the facility is a waste of taxpayers' money. "No manga lovers will appreciate original drawings displayed in frames at the cost of taxpayers," said Ishizaka at a Tuesday meeting held by the Democratic Party of Japan, which has also criticized the project. The cost of the project will be included in the fiscal 2009 supplementary budget. "I don't want my works displayed there because I feel ashamed," added the female manga artist. Ishizaka's "I'm home" won the Grand Prize at the Japan Media Arts Festival in 1999 organized by the Agency for Cultural Affairs. "I will return the award and ask the facility not to display my works," she said.

[Typhoon]

I thought that they already have one in Kyoto:

Kyoto International Manga Museum

http://www.kyotomm.com/HP/international/english/index.html

[Greji]

I thought that they already have one in Kyoto:

Kyoto International Manga Museum

Yup, that's where this guy scored his stash.....

[Mulboyne]

I thought that they already have one in Kyoto:

Kyoto International Manga Museum

I think Aso's plan calls for more than just a museum. It's being described as a full-blown cultural centre which might host anime conventions and attract foreigners.

[Mulboyne]

Another manga artist, Shinobu Makimura, has described the idea of a national manga and anime centre as "a sick joke".

[samuraiwig]

The real waste is in the excessive number of public servants this country has.

Japan
Population: 128 mil
Civil servants: 1 mil (including 400,000 in Japan Post - not sure about wavers of red sticks)
Ratio: 1/128 (or 1/213, excluding mailmen and pension book stampers)

US
Population: 307 mil
Civil servants: 1.8 mil
Ratio: 1/171

UK
Population: 62 mil
Civil servants: 532 k
Ratio: 1/116

Statistics can lie, of course.

I agree lots of Japan's public servants do seem to have pointless or duplicate jobs. But some of those jobs are in lieu of having a decent welfare system. And despite Japanese bureaucracy's charming quirks, isn't it just as bad elsewhere?

[Mulboyne]

More bad news for Aso's plan. An LDP project team tasked with eliminating waste has declared the centre to be unnecessary and to have no redeeming features. Hatoyama, a rival for Aso's job, has also come out against the "Palace of Anime" which is provisionally set to be unveiled in 2011.

[Mulboyne]

[floatl][/floatl]The Asahi has a report (Japanese) which looks at the pros and cons of the project. On the supportive side, some have argued that many original manuscripts are deteriorating and some central body should be established to help preserve them for the future. There is concern that the centre will apparently be run by private interests which raises questions about how it will be self-financing while also meeting public interest goals. The Japan Times also printed an article recently which covers the same ground in more detail. It's also in English:
Is a national 'Manga Museum' at last set to get off the ground?

One interesting aspect about this project is that it is yet one more institution which has been pencilled in for Odaiba. If everything which has been discussed for that area actually got the green light then you'd have a National Media Centre, a casino, a Formula One city centre race track and an entertainment district to rival Roppongi. I'm fairly certain that you would need more transport infrastructure than the Yurikamome monorail offers if you had that lot over there.

[Mulboyne]

According to the Asahi (Japanese), the Agency for Cultural Affairs has now said that it will no longer insist on a new building for any Anime & Manga Centre and is prepared to consider the idea of using an existing structure.

[Mulboyne]

[Mulboyne]

Yomiuri: 'Anime hall of fame' plan revised

A controversial government project to build a national popular culture center, dubbed the "anime hall of fame," has been revised by the Cultural Affairs Agency. The agency plans to start a joint enterprise with 16 relevant bodies using a budget of 200 million yen, much smaller than the initially proposed 11.7 billion yen. The project's original form, which was heavily criticized as a huge waste of taxpayer money, was scrapped by the Democratic Party of Japan-led government immediately after it took power in September. Under the agency's new plan, the 16 bodies, which include universities, research institutes and companies, will be in charge of different functions, such as organizing exhibitions, collecting materials and conducting research, all of which will be integrated into the enterprise. The agency also envisions the enterprise would work jointly with media institutions in European Union countries. Three of the 16 bodies are in Europe. Education, Science and Technology Minister Tatsuo Kawabata, a self-proclaimed manga lover, acknowledges the importance of media arts, such as animation. After the original plan's abolishment, discussion shifted to how to revise the project using new methods, such as how to transmit content and information.

According to the new plan, the 16 bodies include universities, companies and other organizations that are experienced in five areas: animation, manga, film, games and media art, which is a form of contemporary art using cutting-edge technologies such as computer graphics. The three European institutions for exhibitions and research are in Austria, Germany and the Netherlands, countries at the forefront of the media art field. Among the group of 16 are Kyoto International Manga Museum in Kyoto, one of the organizations that will host exhibitions; Tokyo Anime Center in the district of Akihabara, Tokyo, which will issue information in conjunction with other bodies; and Tokyo University and Tokyo University of the Arts, which will take on research tasks. No new building will be constructed for the plan, but the enterprise will rent a facility in Tokyo as a base for coordinating its functions and proposing ideas for joint projects. The facility's annual rental and operating costs are likely to total just 25 million yen. The basic plan compiled by the agency's specialist panel in August noted the need for a base suitable for six functions, which include collecting, preserving and repairing materials, holding exhibitions, studying the latest trends and developing manpower.

The agency originally had planned to build a new facility and cited the Daiba area in Tokyo as a candidate site. However, even before the House of Representatives election in late August, the planned project was criticized as an example of the former Liberal Democratic Party-led government's bad habit of building new facilities without much thought. "Deterioration of old manga manuscripts is so bad that it'll be impossible to read them in 100 years unless they're preserved properly," veteran manga artist Machiko Satonaka said at the specialist panel. But the plan to build the facility was scrapped right after the DPJ took power. "Even without a new facility, we'd like to transmit to the world the Japanese culture that we're proud of by working with existing facilities," an agency official in charge of the plan said.

Toyoo Ashida, the head of the Japan Animation Creators Association, welcomed the new joint enterprise vision. "We don't need a flashy new facility to nurture anime culture," Ashida, 65, said. "We'll be grateful if, after ditching the plan to build a new building, [the agency] enables the facilities at home and abroad to work together smoothly." But Ashida also had requests for the agency. "For those of us who are actually working in this field [of anime], it'd be nice to have a base we can use for meetings and producing new work without charge," Ashida said. "If it's possible to have a disused school classroom or some quarter in a vacant public housing complex made available to us, it could become a place for creators to meet up or get to know each other, so I hope the agency will add this idea to the revised plan."

[Samurai_Jerk]

Why does everyone always propose building shit in Odaiba?

[Greji]

Why does everyone always propose building shit in Odaiba?

'Cause it's got the most available real estate since the govenbaba before Blinky vetoed the International center project, which among other things, got him run out of office...

[DrP]

I'd propose they just take all the manga books and use them as landfill. Then upon that mound of trash put a park bench so you could read whatever you brought as your ass rests on the mound.

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

I'd propose they just take all the manga books and use them as landfill. Then upon that mound of trash put a park bench so you could read whatever you brought as your ass rests on the mound.

Why not use otaku as landfill, a la Jake?

[DrP]

They pretty much covered that in the Toyama Park --

http://www.hellodamage.com/top/2009/04/29/unit-731-walking-tour-of-ookubo/

[Samurai_Jerk]

'Cause it's got the most available real estate since the govenbaba before Blinky vetoed the International center project, which among other things, got him run out of office...

Yeah, but it's a shit location and pain in the ass to get to for most people.

[Mulboyne]

Yomiuri:

Japanese anime and manga have become immensely popular among young people overseas...But this popularity has not necessarily led to overseas expansion by domestic companies involved in these industries. The domestic animation industry remains dominated by small and midsize companies, and exports of textiles have slackened. Japanese restaurants have been mushrooming the world over, but many are operated by non-Japanese. While Japan fails to transform its overseas popularity into economic growth, South Korea has been increasing its presence in other Asian countries.

The government seems content for Japan to just be extolled overseas as "cool." However, we think the government has not tried hard enough, or been imaginative enough, in taking advantage of this popularity for the benefit of business expansion... South Korean products could dominate rapidly growing Asian markets, but they are less likely to do so in European and U.S. markets, where Japanese brands' reputation for high quality is well entrenched.

Japan should emulate the Korean formula of ensuring cooperation transcends fields such as fashion, movies, food and manga, instead of promoting business through separate government ministries and agencies. If the "fences" between these government offices remain too high, the Cabinet minister and other politicians who head each ministry must step up and exercise leadership to make this cooperation a reality.