Prime Minister Promises Industry Support

The Tokyo International Film Festival got underway Monday, just hours after a general election delivered a reduced parliamentary mandate for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. But if Japanese voters once again demonstrated their political apathy, there are signs that Japanese audiences have maintained their appetite for the entertainment industry – and further signals that the Japanese screen industry is coping well with sector disruption.

After a strong recovery in 2023, moderate further growth of the theatrical box office is predicted for this year. One forecast put the year end total at $1.88 billion, cementing Japan as the world’s third largest cinema market.

More importantly for the overall health of the industry, local films continue to dominate. So far this year, Japanese movies account for nine of the top ten titles, headed by the $103 million-grossing “Detective Conan: The Billion Dollar Pentagram.” But what is good for Japanese producers has become a tougher market for Hollywood to penetrate. To date, “Inside Out 2,” with $34.4 million, is the only Hollywood contender to crack the top ten.

“Encouragingly, the number of theatrical releases [in Japan] has recovered back to pre-COVID levels and local movies continue their dominance at home with roughly 70% share of gross box office,” said Vivek Couto, executive director at research and consultancy firm Media Partners Asia.

A recent report by his company’s said that that total video industry revenues will grow from $31.8 billion in 2024 to $34.1 billion by 2029, with the online segment, newly invigorated and set to grow at an annual 7% over the next five years – that is far faster than inflation or the sluggish overall economy that Japanese voters have become used to.

TIFFCOM, the rights, projects and content market that accompanies the festival, is on course to be a lively affair. Japanese companies including Fuji Television and Tokyo Broadcasting Systems are expected to unveil further details of their foreign expansion initiatives – despite holding thousands of intellectual properties, many Japanese media players have plotted deeply risk-averse strategies – while others tune in to seminars on the progress of Artificial Intelligence (AI) or the outreach programs of newly ambitious Chinese film and TV studios, such as Linmon Pictures.

In a similar vein, the Tokyo festival’s film selection again strongly favors recent Chinese films. For the second year in a row, three Chinese titles have been selected for main competition. This film-diplomacy has both preceded and accompanied a cautious thawing of Japanese-Chinese political relations. It contrasts with the isolation of China and the Chinese entertainment by certain European and U.S. entertainment institutions, especially since the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Ando Hiroyasu, festival chairman, apologized for a late start to the opening ceremony, but explained that that the number of festival guests had doubled compared with last year. “Fortunately, the weather gods were on our side,” he added.

Ishiba Shigeru, Japan’s newly re-elected Prime Minister, on his first day back in office, was understandably too busy to attend the festival’s opening ceremony in person, but he sent a video message instead.

“The Japanese content industry has an export scale comparable to that of the steel and semiconductor industries. The government is working to lay the groundwork to further encourage the development of the Japanese content industry by supporting the growth of the next generation of creators and optimizing business transactions,” he said.

He said that his government is supporting film co-productions (another area where Japanese structures have previously been notably conservative) and referenced the Japan-Italy coproduction treaty that came into effect a few months ago. (In recognition of the Italo-Japanese love-in, the festival has set “Marcello Mio,” a comedy-drama that marks the centenary of Marcello Mastroianni as its closing film, and daughter Chiara Mastroianni to serve on the main competition jury.

Had he turned up in person, Ishiba would have been treated to star Kikuchi Rinko as the festival’s ambassador, a huge purple-haired anime character that introduced the film selections and previously-announced prize winners and a frenetic but humdrum Japanese period action film “11 Rebels” as the festival’s opening gala title.

Treading the red carpet up to the Takarazuka Theater were a succession of celebrities, filmmakers and industry figures.

They included Japanese director Irie Yu (in focus at the festival this year), Japanese actor Kumi Takiuchi (star of competition film, “Teki Cometh”) and previous festival ambassador Hashimoto Ai. The biggest cheers of the night were reserved for Asano Tadanobu, Japanese superstar, “Shogun” star and fixture in dozens of indie movies, here as lead in out-of-competition biopic “Ravens.”

Others included Japan’s industry minister Muto Yuji, Midi Z (director of Chinese competition film “The Unseen Sister”), top Chinese actor Huang Xiaoming, Malaysia director Chong Keat Aun and Eric Khoo. Khoo is the Singaporean director of “Spirit World,” a film that he shot in Japan earlier this year with French veteran Catherine Deneuve in the starring role.