The Japanese government learned something from the Cool Japan Fund case and its 383 billion yen in losses: that good intentions without structure don’t work. Now it’s preparing a new move: creating a central organization to boost the international growth of the country’s content industries, including anime, manga, video games, and music. The goal is to nearly triple export revenues by the 2033 fiscal year.

The aim is to raise the total value of content exports to 20 trillion yen by 2033, up from 6.1 trillion yen recorded in the 2024 fiscal year. To fund this leap, the government plans to drive a combined public-private investment of 34 trillion yen over the same period.

Video games account for the largest share of that projection, with about 24.5 trillion yen in projected investment. Music follows with 3 trillion yen, anime with 3.3 trillion yen, and manga with 1.6 trillion yen. Sector goals include raising external revenues for video games from 3.4 trillion to 12 trillion yen, with similar increases projected for anime and manga.

The new organization would serve as a coordination hub for overseas business development, international promotion, and strengthening the global presence of Japanese companies and creators. A more detailed long-term investment strategy is planned for later this summer.

This isn’t the first time the Japanese government has bet on the soft power of its creative industries as an economic driver. The Cool Japan Fund, launched in 2013 with a similar mission, accumulated significant deficits and was put under review with possible abolition in mind. The government’s stated difference with this new body is a more practical approach: direct support for companies and creators to navigate international markets, rather than investing in projects that didn’t always reach their producers.

The announcement has already sparked discussion among industry observers about the implications of greater government involvement in creative fields, including questions about how that involvement could influence content direction or creative freedoms as industries expand internationally.

Do you think this new organization will yield better results than the Cool Japan Fund, or is the problem not the structure but how far the government can realistically support industries that thrive best without direct intervention?