A Very Good Year for Japan B.O.

For Japanese films and filmmakers, 2006 has been an excellent year. Releases surpassed the total of 356 from the previous year, with six titles earning more than $42 million at the box-office. Japan’s total box-office, including U.S. movies shown in theatres, made approximately $1.5 billion. Within that amount, Japanese movies earned 53%, or $778 million. The top earner was the Studio Ghibli animated title “Tales From Earthsea,” which brought in about $66 million, followed by “Limit of Love,” which earned about $62 million. Compared with the percentage domestic movies took of the total Japanese B.O. in 2002 of only 27.1%, professionals are saying that 2006 to go down in the history of the domestic industry as the year Japanese cinema came of age.

**Reference: 12/19/06-12/25/06 Hollywood Reporter, 12/23/06 Yahoo! Japan News, 1/5/2007 Hoga News

Academy Nominee ‘Iwo Jima’ Wows Japan

Variety Magazine claims that “Letters From Iwo Jima,” which opened at five U.S. theaters on December 20th, 2006, has dazzled the Japanese. Clint Eastwood’s Japanese-language companion piece to “Flags of Our Fathers” has dominated the Japanese box office during December 2006. Drawing $13.3 million in its first 11 days, the picture nearly matched the $13.4 million “Flags” has taken during its two-month run in the country. The presence of pop star-turned-actor Kazunari Ninomiya in the cast is helping “Letters” attract a younger demo. “This is such a unique movie that it’s become a cultural phenomenon in Japan,” noted Warner Intl. As of Feb 26th, 2007, the domestic total is $12,901,188, while the foreign total has grown to $47,100,000.

**Reference: 12/21/06 Daily Variety Magazine

Nikkatsu Wears Media Suits

Nikkatsu Corp., Japan’s oldest studio, announced in December that they would merge with distributor Media Suits. Both companies are under the umbrella of Index Corp., a broadband and mobile communications powerhouse in Japan. Nikkatsu acquired all of Media Suits’ shares and made the distributor a wholly owned subsidiary. As the entertainment arm of the Index group, Nikkatsu is involved in production, distribution and package licensing, as well as satellite broadcasting and exhibition. By merging with Media Suits, Nikkatsu intends to strengthen its film production, distribution and promotional capabilities.

**Reference: 12/29/06 Variety Magazine

Kadokawa’s GHD to Utilize P2P

Starting February 2007, Kadokawa Group Holdings (GHD) began distributing their movies, such as “The Ring”, in the U.S. via Internet for a fee. Using peer-to peer technology from BitTorrent Inc., Kadokawa will broaden its consumer pool using a cutting-edge file sharing system, storing up to 200 movies in their library. People will be able to purchase the downloadable movies either by paying $10 per movie to own or around $3 for a one-time viewing. Kadokawa is currently the only Japanese firm to use this system.

**Reference: 1/31/2007 Nikkei Industrial News

Yoshimoto Delivers Compilation Movies via DVD, Satellite and Net

Yoshimoto Kogyo Co., Ltd., a major Japanese entertainment conglomerate, announced January that they will be creating one hundred 30-minute short movies this spring. The movies will be distributed to the public not only in theatres, but also through DVD, Internet and satellite broadcasting. They will also begin producing comic magazines this spring, which they plan to also make available on the Internet. Isao Yoshino, President of Yoshimoto Kogyo stated that the company was investing more than $8 million in the total project, including the comic magazines.

**Reference: 1/5/2007 Nikkei Business Daily

Urban Bendix Creates DVD Vending Machine

Urban Bendix Network and Sanden Corporation have merged to create a new company that develops vending machines that sell or rent products such as DVDs. Starting this year, Urban Bendix has begun placing these machines in various convenience stores and super markets in Japan. Urban Bendix is known for developing Coca Cola dispensers throughout Japan and now takes advantage of their knowledge in this industry to embark on this new business.

**Reference: 1/12/07 Nikkan Kogyo Shinbun

Fuji TV Tops Ratings

Fuji Television won the 2006 rating war in three major categories for the third year running, Video Research Ratings Agency announced. According to Video Research figures, Fuji averaged a leading 14.2 rating in the golden slot (7pm to 10pm), a 14.5 rating during primetime (7pm to 11pm), and a 9.3 rating for the all-day period (6am to midnight) in 2006. TBS Web finished second for golden time (12.8) and primetime (12.7) ratings, while NTV (Nippon Television Network) took second in the all-day (8.4) category.

**Reference: 1/8/06 Daily Variety Magazine

NTT Ups NTV Stake

Japan’s mobile phone giant NTT DoCoMo has invested $112 million in Nippon Television Network (NTV) for a 3% stake. The company has purchased 760,500 NTV shares so far this year. NTT DoCoMo, Japan’s largest mobile phone company, formed a partnership with NTV in February 2006, when the companies agreed to cooperate in the production of mobile phone content. The partners launched D.N. Dream Partners, an $84 million content fund, last April. Structured as a seven-year limited liability partnership, the fund has since contributed to many hits, such as the movie “Death Note” and the NTV cartoon series “Sasami.”

**Reference: 1/5/07 Variety Magazine

JANIME: The Latest Japanese Anime Information Newspaper

Written in English, JANIME is a free paper created in Japan for overseas distribution. JANIME offers you everything direct from the source in Japan, entertaining you with anecdotes from the industry itself. Titles already in the process of dubbing or subtitling are not the focus of the paper. Only new mangas and anime-related products are covered each issue. Furthermore, JANIME also brings in-depth coverage on related merchandise and goods, the growing pop culture in Japan, music, fashion, food, and technology. For more information or subscription, please go to http://www.janime.jp/en/janime/

Top 10 Manga Ranking

Based on reports from manga distributors in Japan, JANIME compiled the following ranking list in their January 2007 issue. Many manga titles are sold in America, but they are only small portion of what are actually available in Japan.”

**Reference: 1/07 JANIME

Palm-Sized Tezuka Cartoons

Sega Toys has signed a contract with Tezuka Productions to begin producing palm-sized cartoons from the Tezuka manga collection. Consumers will be able to easily take these readable pocket-sized comics around with them. Tezuka series such as the “Black Jack” and “Jungle Emperor Leo” are examples of some of the palm-sized manga collections that will be available. The manga books will measure approximately 2.7” x 2”. The complete set, consisting all volumes, will be on sale for $607.

**Reference: 1/11/2007 Nikkei Business Daily

Amazon Japan Creates Net Store for Animations

Amazon Japan has announced that they have created an “Otaku Store” that will be selling a number of anime-related products. They will provide consumers with a collection of over 30,000 anime books and anime-related DVDs, CDs, games, and toys. Consumers will be able to search for products by entering the names of their favorite artists and characters. The DVD and manga books of the “The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya” series, which has topped the sales on the regular Amazon site, and the English version of the popular anime that has been recently made into TV dramas, “Nodame Cantabile”, will also be a part of the library.

**Reference: 12/19/2006 Nikkei Business Daily

Warner Music Starts with DoCoMo’s Site

Warner Music Japan has announced that they would begin selling their music for cell phones, starting May, on NTT DoCoMo’s site, “RHINO Mobile”. In order to increase the demands of forty to sixty year olds, they contain the biggest collection of 70s to 80s American music and Japanese hit songs back in the day. Total of 1000 selections are available for purchase with a payment of 105 yen (approx $0.87) each. Cell phone music business is definitely escalating. However, the majority of the profit is still coming from young consumers. Warner has taken this opportunity to increase the amount of middle age consumers by expanding the old school library.

**Reference: 2/2/07 Nikkei Business Daily

Amateur Band Music Free to Download

A cell phone service site, ”Mahou No iRando”, known for supplying cell phone comics online, has announced that they will add another category to their downloadable library. Consumers will be able to download music played by amateur bands for free through the site by clicking on iRando Music Factory and by creating an account. Although NTT DoCoMo and KDDI will be the only cellular providers capable of playing the downloads, amateur bands will be able to view how many listeners they attracted and email listeners for comments.

**Reference: 12/21/2006 Nikkei Industrial News

Cooling Controller

Logicool in Tokyo has started selling their cooling game controller that is compatible with the Playstation 3. The Logitech® ChillStream™ technology helps keep your hands cool when gaming gets really intense. Three speed settings allow you to adjust the ventilation force of the integrated fan. The controller also has soft rubber grips and high-performance analog sticks and triggers, sold for just under $40. To purchase, go to Logitech ChillStream.

**Reference: 12/25/2006 Nikkei Business Daily

A New Movie Investment Company Arrival

T&C Holdings Group, a consulting company for investment business, has created a branch, T&C Pictures, which will focus on investment business in the film industry. With a start up cost of $500,000, T&C Pictures is located in Santa Monica, with Arata Matsushima chosen to be the president of the company. Originally from Sony Pictures Entertainment, Matsushima’s wide network and experience will make this company’s growth an exciting one to see.

**Reference: 2/19/07 Nikkei Industrial News

New Pop Museum in Tokyo!

With an exhibition space of 14,000 square meters, the National Art Center is now open in Roppongi, Tokyo. The Center also promotes outreach activities through its educational programs, and the Art Library serves to collect and disseminate information related to art. Located in Tokyo, an international city that attracts people, products, and information from all over Japan as well as the rest of the world, the Center will provide people with opportunities to experience diverse values and contribute to bringing forth a new culture based on the idea of mutual understanding and symbiotic relationship.

**Reference: http://www.nact.jp/english/index.html

Service Robots Hip in Japan

Japan’s robot industry has been inventing various customer service robots to satisfy the growing demand for replacing various services done by humans with robots. The 3-day “International Next Generation Robot Fair” took place in Osaka, Japan from November 30th to December 2nd, and was an event robot enthusiasts did not want to miss. One of the newly created robots introduced at this event was “Wakamaru”, developed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. Wakamaru is set up to greet customers, guide customers to the their destination and execute many other tasks. Furthermore, if the customer says, “News”, Wakamaru will begin reading out the current news. He is also able to recognize faces and will refer to customers by their names.

**Reference: 1/31/2007 Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun

No More DUI!

In December, KDDI Corporation, a Japanese telecommunication operator, created a system-enabling cell phones to check the blood alcohol levels of taxi and bus drivers. NTT DoCoMo, a Japanese cell phone carrier, has already produced cell phones that take advantage of this new invention and there are already 30 tour bus companies that utilize this system. Purchasing a cell phone containing this ability is quite expensive, costing around $742. However, companies requiring drivers to use this cell phone will encourage consumers to choose their service over others.

**Reference: 12/12/2007 Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun