Gov't jumps into the film industry

[Mark Nornes]

The Culture Ministry announced that it's going to throw some money at 
the domestic film industry. The budget for next year will be 25 oku yen 
(maybe $20 million?). It appears they'll have a competition from young 
directors, six of whom will get  about $3 million in production monies. 
There will also be money for films about chiho Japan (?) and also 
support for promotion overseas. This will mean booths at the major film 
markets, but apparently they also want to help people who want to show 
Japanese films abroad. This might be something to keep an eye on, for 
those of you who program Japanese films outside of Japan.

Markus