DMC Review On-Line
Michi Kaifu
photo by Junko Iwabuchi

Michi Kaifu,
CEO of ENOTECH Consulting

Michi Kaifu
is founder and CEO of ENOTECH Consulting, a boutique management consulting firm specialized in global telecom, Internet business and digital media, serving international clients, ranging from large corporations to start-ups. She has over seventeen years of hands-on experience in international business development and consulting in wireless, broadband and digital contents industry both in Japan and in the U.S.
Ms. Kaifu holds an MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business, and a BA from Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo, Japan.

New J-movie ecosystem

--Japanese film industry's new ecosystem

Michi Kaifu
Posted: 2006-11-28

"Total number of feature films produced in Japan has increased to 500 this year, twice as many as three years ago." Shuji Sato, Head of International Distribution, Motion Picture & Home Entertainment Dept. at Pony Canyon Inc. explains. "The number increase can mostly be attributed to small productions for mini theaters, and many of them are doing well in their niches. I hear in Europe, too, domestic film share is increasing, so I guess weakening of Hollywood is felt globally, not only in Japan."

Pony Canyon has a good reason to be confident. Its parent company Fuji TV started current "hoga bubble" by backing up Bayside Shakedown series, a detective-action story, based on its own TV-drama series. Its second feature film Bayside Shakedown 2 earned 17 billion yen, the historical highest gross among live action J-movies, in 2003.

It was the starting point of J-movie's new ecosystem. Japanese TV stations have been involved in movie making for a long time, but are putting more weight in recent years. It has become customary that a big budget film is produced by a team of one of three major studios (Toho, Toei and Shochiku) and one of three TV stations (Fuji, NTV and TBS), with the latter often taking the majority stake. TV stations provide resources both in marketing and production sides, in addition to capital. For marketing, they run spot ads and related promotional programs, and on production side, they provide access to a large pool of cast and staff through their existing relationships.

Combination of feature films and TV drama sequels/prequels, by the same director and the same cast members, has proven to be particularly successful, as in the case of Bayside Shakedown and Umizaru series.

Close relationships between feature movies and TV stations have started to work well in a relatively small market in Japan. By sharing common resources, even big films can be produced and marketed with much less budget than Hollywood. "People call Umizaru 2 Hollywood-like, but it was made with a fraction of Hollywood budget. And Umizaru 2 made much more than Poseidon in Japan," says Sato. Yet, world's No. 2 economy is large enough to sustain 500 films made domestically.

Another ecosystem has been established between comics and movies/TV dramas as well. Japanese comics ("manga") have wide variety that go far beyond kids cartoons, and with its visual presentations and popularity among each target audience, they often work as rich seedbeds for film ideas.