The Japanese film industry released 615 films last year, according to the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan. That figure may include glorified student productions and dressed-up pornography, but is still substantial by any measure. Relatively few of those films, however, are sold abroad.
Even in the world cinema centers of London, Paris and New York, Japanese films seldom appear on regular theater schedules, while in Asian markets where Japanese films find a friendlier reception releases are usually small and profits, paltry.
Three professionals trying to change this situation — British distributor/producer Adam Torel, sales agent/publicist Miyuki Takamatsu and Cool Japan Fund executive Nobuhiro Nagai — spoke at a roundtable discussion held at the Tokyo International Film Festival last October. Listening to the war stories of Torel and Takamatsu (who, full disclosure, are personal friends) and the vague policy prescriptions of Nagai, I was struck by the yawning gap between the first two, with their hard-won experience in the sales trenches, and the last, with his rear echelon view of the battle, if more ample corporate war chest.
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