The nation has also deeply penetrated into the global distribution market promoting made in Japan content from movies to dramas, formats, reality series and other genres. Japanese content is highly sought after in the Asia- Pacific region, Europe and America. Taking the lead as the Country of Honour of MIPCOM 2016, the Broadcast Program Export Association of Japan’s (BEAJ) General Producer, Mr Yamada tells K. Dass of the nation’s broadcast progress and plans.
In the last few years, the Japanese television industry together with the Japanese government has promoted and distributed Japanese television programmes internationally. As the Country of Honour (COH), Japan is now in the perfect position to increase the awareness of Japanese TV programmes to international buyers. With this wonderful opportunity, the committee for COH and myself have created the theme, Spirit of Imagination to reflect the great spirit and passion of Japanese creators. This impression will be reflected in their programmes that will touch the hearts and minds of viewers all over the world.
Many Japanese TV drama creators are still deciding how to market their programmes to the international audience. Hence, we want to take our TV drama content to another level at the MIPCOM conferences and create a bang with the focus, Japanese Drama beyond Borders.
The Japanese entertainment formats are simply unique and humorous; they always attract the attention of international TV networks to their presentation. This year, we plan on presenting some brand new formats at Treasure Box Japan that should be equally as attractive. We also plan to present Japanese animation which is extremely popular world over especially with young children who grew up watching them. Today, our young Japanese creators are producing anime for young-adult viewers with a strong focus to target the same audience who enjoy TV drama programmes.
The internet video streaming service is making a global impact in the television market providing viral services to other platforms. This has also encouraged more players such as Hulu, Netflix and Amazon to arrive in Japan, taking advantage of our established streaming services. The Japanese producers find it important to keep the international streaming market in mind when planning television programming. Consequently, we are witnessing more Japanese programmes being produced for all platforms to better accommodate the worldwide audience.
Gradually, more and more Japanese programmes heading for the global market where Japan hopes to take the lead through high-quality image technology such as 4K, 4KHDR and 8K. 8K which has four times more pixels than 4K will begin broadcasting in Japan by 2018 and will redefine the visual media industry all over the world.
Since 2000, the domestic targets of Japanese TV dramas have shifted from families to individuals. At the same time, the Korean TV dramas made their way to Japan. These programmes were a hit among Japanese adult viewers and Japan’s strong interest helped to promote Korean dramas all over Asia. These days, however, the tastes of young Asian have switched back to Japanese dramas, which initially got viewers glued to the TV screens. However, this new generation fan base mostly watches Japanese dramas via the internet at the same time they are being broadcasted in Japan. To supply this increasing demand, Japanese creators are gradually producing programmes for internet distribution; and through their efforts, Japanese TV dramas will surpass the borders of Asia and touch the hearts and minds of young viewers all over the world.
