Japan to Launch Committee to Support Filmmakers; Young Creators to Be Sent Overseas

The Yomiuri Shimbun

15:21 JST, August 8, 2024

The government will launch a committee to support filmmakers through a joint effort by the government and private sector in early September, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Wednesday.

The film strategy planning committee will be set up inside the Cabinet Secretariat, and will be in charge of discovering and training filmmakers and improving their working conditions.

On Wednesday, Kishida observed a workshop affiliated with the Tokyo International Film Festival, which this year will take place in Tokyo from October to November. The event’s participants included film director Hirokazu Koreeda, who had been pushing the government to create the committee.

“To further develop the content industry, we’ll build a healthy partnership between the public and private sectors,” Kishida said after observing the workshop.

The committee is likely to consist of officials from the Cabinet Secretariat; the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry; the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry; and other relevant ministries and agencies, in addition to those involved in the film industry.

To foster filmmaking talent, the committee will dispatch young creators overseas so they can gain experience there and support students at high schools and vocational colleges who want to study abroad and become filmmakers. The committee will also start taking measures to improve working conditions in the film industry, as film production in Japan has been criticized for long working hours and low wages.