Multi-million dollar 10-minute movie?

[Mark Roberts]

On Dec 10, 2009, at 9:18 AM, Aaron Gerow wrote:

> There's a comparison I would like to add: the amount that the Japan  
> Foundation supposedly wasted -- and that so far has gotten much more  
> publicity -- was only about $900,000.

To extend the comparison slightly, that 8000万円 is about 0.07 % of  
the annual budget for the Japan Foundation.

Looking at all of these numbers, another thing that belatedly struck  
me: the MOFA budget for the Japan Foundation (113 billion yen) is  
greater than the MEXT budget for all of Bunkacho (102 billion yen).  
This suggests that the Japanese government commits more money to  
"public diplomacy" -- i.e., building a favorable national image for  
foreign observers -- than to the direct support of culture and the arts.

M