1-month festival to start this week, showcasing Japanese pop culture now+

TOKYO, Sept. 20 Kyodo -
Japan will showcase the full lineup of its creative powers ranging from games,
animation and ''manga'' comic books to films, music and fashion through a
series of events starting this week to highlight their attractiveness and seek
more international business opportunities.
The events, to be held under the banner of the Japan International Contents
Festival, or CoFesta, until late October, will begin with the Sept. 24-27 Tokyo
Game Show 2009, the world's largest computer entertainment show, at the
Makuhari Messe convention center in Chiba on the outskirts of Tokyo.
Other events of this year's CoFesta, the third of its kind, include the CEATEC
Japan 2009 cutting-edge information technology and electronics Oct. 6-10 and
the Oct. 17-25 Akihabara Entamatsuri 2009, a festival of manga, anime and other
Japanese pop culture phenomena held in Akihabara, known as a magnet for
''otaku'' geeks.
The International Drama Festival in Tokyo, the Tokyo International Film
Festival, the Tokyo Asia Music Market and the Japan Fashion Week in Tokyo are
also among the events.
''As this is the third time we will have the festival, we want to be more
conscious about internationality,'' CoFesta Executive Producer Yutaka Shigenobu
said. ''That is a big theme this year.''
In an effort to strengthen its function of promoting the attractiveness of the
Japanese content industry to an international audience, CoFesta for the first
time opened a booth at the Japan Expo, a convention on Japanese pop culture
held in Paris in July.
Shigenobu, chairman of TV Man Union Inc., a TV program production company, said
he wants to have CoFesta participate in the Shanghai World Expo next year if
possible to seek more international business and collaboration.
He said he wants to show a strange but natural mixture of traditional and
modern Japan this year as many events will be held at places along the Ginza
Line, a Tokyo subway line linking Asakusa, popular with foreign tourists for
many historical sites, and Shibuya, one of Japan's fashion centers.
''Now it's no surprise to see young foreign people drinking hoppy (a
beer-flavored beverage usually mixed with shochu distilled spirits) and eating
yakitori grilled chicken at the Asakusa Rokku (the entertainment district in
Asakusa),'' Shigenobu said.
CoFesta, the world's largest comprehensive content festival, began in 2007,
integrating various content-industry-related events under the initiative of the
Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.
It is the world's largest comprehensive content festival. More than 800,000
people visited CoFesta events in 2008.
''Japan had lacked power to highlight the attractiveness of its content
industry internationally as various events had been held separately and at
different times,'' a METI official said. ''So we have integrated those events
as one festival.''
''Now all Japanese content exists at CoFesta,'' the official said. ''Buyers
from foreign countries can see a number of things at a time.''
As demonstrated by the popularity of manga, anime and ''cosplay'' costume
games, global interest in Japanese pop culture is strong. But this does not
necessarily result in the expansion of the Japanese content industry.
Japan's domestic content market in 2008 shrank 2.6 percent from the previous
year to 13.82 trillion yen (about $151 billion) due partly to the economic
downturn and the country's rapidly aging population, according to data compiled
by the Digital Content Association of Japan.
The industry and METI are seeking to expand the business by cultivating
overseas markets. The ratio of the industry's overseas sales to overall sales
stood at a meager 1.9 percent in 2004.
CoFesta has its own original events, including ''Genki 3,'' a three-hour talk
show from Oct. 5 through 13 in which each of the 10 content creators speak
about their success and experiences in a ''passionate'' and ''dramatic''
fashion to help foster younger generations of aspiring creators.
This year's presenters include Ichikawa Kamejiro, an actor involved in the
traditional Japanese performing art of kabuki, and Kenshi Hirokane, known as
the writer of the Kosaku Shima comic series. He is the first comic writer to
talk at the Genki 3 event.
They also include anime content producer Koji Taguchi, copywriter Shigesato
Itoi and art director Kashiwa Sato.
''I want as many talented people to come from this as possible,'' said Genki 3
general producer Ryuichi Okumura. ''I'll be happy if new, interesting and
amusing things are created (through Genki 3) and we'll make efforts steadily to
achieve such a situation.''
CoFesta General Producer Shigenobu said the popularity of Japanese pop culture
is not a one-time boom but rooted in daily life in an increasing number of
foreign countries as a culture.
''There is respect in Asia for such new Japanese sensibilities and it's very
important,'' he said.
''Now that such respect is also coming from Paris and Italy, we need to catch
this move promptly and expand it,'' Shigenobu said. ''That's one of CoFesta's
roles.''
==Kyodo