Japan Rising

Mansha Daswani explores the strengths of the content-distribution sector in Japan, which is being celebrated this MIPCOM.

In the early 2000s, the phrase “Cool Japan” began entering the lexicon of journalists and academics as a way to describe the country’s increasingly popular cultural exports. Japan is, after all, the Asian economic giant that gave the world the Walkman, Nintendo, Pokémon, Hello Kitty and so much more.

Anime and gaming may indeed be the most visible of Japan’s content exports, but this year’s MIPCOM Country of Honour has an increasingly successful formats business and is finding a wealth of new opportunities for its drama series.

At the forefront of content production and export are the major free-to-air terrestrial broadcasters. The competition among them has helped set the bar high when it comes to innovation, according to Atsushi Hatayama, the president of international business development at the top-rated Nippon TV.

“The minute-to-minute viewer rating system has nurtured our producers and directors to strive for even greater creativity and sustainability,” Hatayama says.

For Akira Ichikawa, the general manager of program sales, global business headquarters, at NHK Enterprises, “The strength of the Japanese content business is its high quality. Behind that high quality is a distinctly Japanese combination of a culture born of a long, unique history and cutting-edge technologies.”

“Japanese content is truly a cornucopia of stories,” states Mamiko Maekawa, the senior executive director of Fuji Television’s international department. “Our country’s content is an array of genres, stories and settings, [with] something to please and obsess everyone. Each [show] can be morphed into animation, comics, drama, motion picture, even games—all titles [have] the versatility to be adapted for single usage or multimedia development.”

Makito Sugiyama, the chief and VP of global business at Tokyo Broadcasting System Television (TBS), stresses Japanese television’s “uniqueness and creativity. Japanese content is viewed as different, and sometimes as strange, from the rest of the world,” which is what makes it stand out, he says.

ANIMATION NATION
Of all forms of content that have made it out of Japan, none have had as much of an impact as animation. Whether it’s the legion of animators who entered the craft after watching a Hayao Miyazaki movie or the millions and millions of people who were sucked into the Pokémon GO craze this summer, the widespread influence of anime in global pop culture is clear.

“Japanese content’s greatest strength is animation as it travels broadly all over the world from developed to developing countries,” notes Satoko Shimbori, the director of the international business department at TV Asahi.

The broadcasting giant has a strong record in animation distribution, with a portfolio that includes the megahits Doraemon, Shin Chan and Ninja Hattori.

One of Japan’s biggest anime production outfits is Toei Animation, which has been in business since the 1950s and boasts a catalog that includes the award-winning Saint Seiya and Sailor Moon. Among its newest highlights is Dragon Ball Super, a sequel to Dragon Ball Z. Ryuji Kochi, the president of Toei Animation Europe, is hopeful that the show will usher in a new period of dominance for Japanese animation in the region after having lost broadcast slots to content from other markets.

“I want Japanese animation to come back in the European market,” Kochi says. “We believe there is potential…. Japan has a huge comics market. We have a lot of the story writers, the [comics’] original authors. It’s competitive, so writers want to improve themselves. That’s why the stories are improving. The strength of Japanese animation is in the stories.”

Kochi also sees strength in the licensing business for Japanese anime. “Recently, games and apps have been growing the market. Also, anime fans like collector’s items, like action figures.”

Among the biggest of the Japanese anime properties that have been retail hits in the last few years is Beyblade from Sunrights, the U.S.-based rights-management company owned by Japanese ad agency Asatsu DK and conglomerate Mitsubishi Corp. The property has been a significant hit in North America and Europe, according to Daizo Suzuki, the president of Sunrights, which is bringing the newest in the franchise, Beyblade Burst, to MIPCOM.

“Japan has a long history of producing an impressive range of manga and anime of different genres and themes with exceptional skill and expertise,” Suzuki says. “In terms of production, the format and form of expression of anime have become a lot freer, making room for the emergence of new players in the industry.” However, Suzuki adds, “In terms of the market and distribution, the traditional model of anime strictly for TV or theaters is outdated.”

Nippon TV has had a string of anime hits over the last few years, largely targeted at the young-adult market rather than kid audiences, among them Hunter × Hunter, MY Love STORY!!, Parasyte: The Maxim and Death Note. “We recently released ENDRIDE and Flying Witch, which are now ranked as the top two animation titles from our catalog this year,” says Hatayama.

IDEAS THAT TRAVEL
Nippon TV has of late also put more emphasis on its format business. “We regularly get approached by our international business partners asking for typical Japanese entertainment formats or [for us to create] original formats as co-productions,” Hatayama says.

The broadcaster developed the Dragons’ Den concept, which has been adapted in 29 countries, most recently in China and Mexico. It has also fared well with the game shows Pharoah!, Train of Thought and Ultimate Brain. Nippon TV is also working with Red Arrow International to create new formats.

“We have been teaming with foreign partners to add more of an international perspective to our choice of titles and their creativity,” Hatayama says. “We also realize the growing market demand in the scripted-format realm and are working to accommodate the various types of new client requests.”

Fuji TV’s Maekawa believes that Japanese non-scripted shows are a “gold mine of ideas that can be transformed into creative formats.” Among the broadcaster’s hits have been Iron Chef and Hole in the Wall. It also partnered with FremantleMedia on Total Blackout.

“International co-production of non-scripted formats is an area where we expect further business opportunities,” Maekawa says.

At TV Asahi, its biggest formats hits have been 31 Legged Race, Ranking the Stars and Beat the Champions. “Japanese formats are highly unique and have strong concepts,” Shimbori says. “However, we recognize our format structure does not always fit well with the international market’s needs and thus we are seeking partners to co-develop and better adapt our formats to each territory. We are also coming out with a wider range of formats this year to diversify our catalog and meet our clients’ requests.”

TBS has been in the formats business since the 1980s with early successes like Fun TV with Kato-chan and Ken-chan, most famously adapted as America’s Funniest Home Videos on ABC. Other TBS formats adapted Stateside include Takeshi’s Castle and Sasuke, which is airing as American Ninja Warrior on NBC. “We are working on creating new formats for the global market,” Sugiyama says.

CREATIVE COLLABORATION
Fuji TV’s Maekawa is of the opinion that a new generation of Japanese formats is emerging. “We feel that the novelty the Japanese physical game-show formats enjoyed has worn off in the global market. So instead, we’ve shifted to international co-production of formats, custom-made to suit the local culture and demands. We intend to further expand our format business by fully utilizing Fuji Television’s expertise to produce non-scripted programs, with help from all the favorable relationships we have built over the years with TV stations and production companies abroad.”

NHK Enterprises is also eyeing format opportunities, having launched 72 Hours at MIPTV. “We target the cameras to a single location and record for the duration of 72 hours,” says Ichikawa. “[There are] no preconceived scripts or artificial ‘re-creation’ of the stories. The purpose is to remain completely true to the reality of what the camera captures within the given time frame. We’ve received a string of inquiries from broadcasters in Asia and Europe.”

Mainly thanks to the output at NHK, Japan is also a significant force in the global documentary business, especially in regards to the development of 4K and 8K ultra high-definition programming.

“With the 2020 Tokyo Olympics coming up, Tokyo (and the rest of Japan) will attract global attention,” says Sayumi Horie, the head of global content development at NHK. “We’d like to explore how the city transforms, how its people’s values change and how advances in robotics and other areas of science and technology change society. To do so, we are thinking to treat Tokyo as a giant laboratory, joining hands with producers and broadcasters around the world to seek out stories of transition that we can tell with dynamism and depth.”

NHK is also deploying 4K filming techniques in its drama series, among them Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit, which has been one of its biggest successes on the international market.

Several Asian territories have been significant customers of Japanese drama. Fuji TV’s Hero, for example, notched up sales in markets like Taiwan, Korea, China and Thailand. TV Asahi has also had scripted hits, among them Doctor-X and AIBOU: Tokyo Detective Duo.

Premium channel operator WOWOW has done well outside of Japan with Syokuzai (Penance), which was screened at the Venice Film Festival. The company occupies a unique space in a Japanese landscape that remains heavily dominated by the terrestrial broadcasters.

“Our viewers are a little different from network viewers, and our content reflects this,” says Kayo Washio, the head of WOWOW’s U.S. operations. “For example, many of WOWOW’s original TV series are based on famous Japanese novels. We are broadcasting Shizumanu Taiyo, which is based on a very famous Japanese novel written by Toyoko Yamasaki that sold more than 7 million copies. [Our content] ideology contrasts with many Japanese networks, which place more emphasis on the popularity of actors and appeasing sponsors.”

Washio adds, “The networks produce about four original TV series every three months and WOWOW produces about 15 original TV series/miniseries per year. We are in a good place because we have a ton of material and IP to sell remake and format rights for.”

NEW OUTLETS
For many of the distributors surveyed for this piece, the Japanese content business is benefiting from the emergence of new OTT platforms.

“OTT increases the global audience reach of Japanese high-quality content such as animation, and it is encouraging that our fans are able to access our content more easily and frequently,” says TV Asahi’s Shimbori. “Also, OTT can revive the interest in our past programs that have already been broadcast in different territories and countries, and we are seeing new generations and demographics being engaged with our content. We will continue to strengthen our presence on OTT platforms.”

“Distributing our programs to OTT platforms allows us to reach the younger group, whose main medium is the internet,” says Fuji TV’s Maekawa. “We are already in partnership with several East and Southeast Asian OTT platforms. We have high hopes for them to become our passage to deliver content without the concern of various local restrictions (whenever applicable) and limited broadcast slots. There are still regions that are unenthusiastic for Japanese content due to restrictions or cultural background, but thanks to OTT platforms, our creations can be a part of the niche category and brought to light even in these reluctant areas. The interactive aspect of the OTT platforms, such as personalization and targeted recommendation, may enable us to reach to those oblivious of Japanese content. We are seeking all available possibilities.”

THE OTT EQUATION
TBS’s Sugiyama notes that “OTT platforms can be both friends and foes to terrestrial broadcasters, depending on how you look at them. They also brought new domestic factors as well as the global factors, as many operate regionally and globally. As we get to choose whether to work with them and how to work with them on a case-by-case basis, we welcome them and see them as an additional outlet for our global distribution.”

For Nippon TV’s Hatayama, OTT providers are also helping in the battle against piracy. “The speedier we place our content on OTT platforms, the better it is for us to prevent pirated versions through the internet. Although we are confronted by difficult rights’ clearance issues unique to Japan, we are tenaciously working around such obstacles to expand in this area.”

NHK has developed a fruitful relationship with the documentary streaming service CuriosityStream. “We proactively co-produce documentaries about science and nature, a field in which we share an interest,” Horie says. “NHK’s collaboration with such new platforms will also have the benefit of encouraging viewers and users who don’t watch NHK to check out our broadcast services. We also think such new platforms will be beneficial for disseminating the PR material and related stories that are a prerequisite for attracting attention to our broadcast content. We hope to build a win-win relationship that enhances services for each other’s users. Our producers are also looking at OTT platforms as ways to deliver new experiences such as virtual reality and augmented reality.”

Horie says that NHK is also in the midst of a “trial-and-error” phase to best understand how to exploit OTT distribution models domestically, without taking away from its primary linear model. “Looking ahead, say, the next five years, we’d like to envisage what new services viewers would like to have, and create a strategy for realizing them.”

Embracing new technologies is indeed a top priority for all those invested in the Japanese content business as the country looks to keep itself ahead of the curve when it comes to new entertainment devices.

“Fuji Television recently made an equity participation [in] Niantic, the company who brought to life the games Ingress and Pokémon GO,” reports Maekawa. “We intend to do [more of that] to go beyond the existing content business environment and aggressively join hands with burgeoning enterprises that carry new visions and technologies as we set out to accomplish exponential growth.”

FUTURE WATCH
International alliances are also a primary focus. TV Asahi, for example, plans to partner with a Singaporean outfit to co-produce an animated series “that embraces the local proclivities of characters and story lines while employing Japanese anime-style expressions,” Shimbori says. “We look forward to increasing our presence in co-producing content with global partners, getting involved from the development phase through the distribution stage.”

NHK’s Horie says that international co-production is “vital” for many of its major projects. “I think this trend will continue,” she says. “At the same time, I feel we need to look beyond partnerships that are aimed only at broadcast and secondary usage. We need to explore new approaches to building teams capable of working together on multifaceted productions that reach viewers in diverse ways. With bigger budgets, we can co-produce strong, compelling series for wider audiences.”

Sunrights is also eager to explore more co-pro opportunities for its anime titles, allowing for the creation of shows that will “surpass the specific cultural context from which [they are] born, to become classics that can be enjoyed by fans all over the world,” Suzuki says.

Ramping up international co-productions is on also WOWOW’s to-do list for 2017. “This would include documentary projects, TV series, feature films and made-for-TV movies,” Washio says. “We’re in a good place where we have the financial capacity and bandwidth to expand into all areas at once…. We live in a boundary-free world and are open to collaborating with producers, showrunners, filmmakers, talent and creatives from any territory if the material and story are strong.”

Pictured: NHK Enterprises’ Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit.