Japan Foundation

[Michael Goldberg]

I was told last week by a senior JF officer in a European country that the government has told the JF that its endowment fund earns little interest, and may demand they turn it over to the government to be used in the general budget.  The party in power will then "consider" a yearly allocation of funds to JF.  If this happens, its "arms length" relationship with government will be threatened, because operations and/or projects now funded from return on investment or from higher yield, long-term bank accounts have no strings attached.  

I also applied for completion funding of a feature documentary to the Film Fund of the Culture Ministry, right after the noise resulting from "Yasukuni."  I was told then that in future (starting this fiscal year?) funds will be withheld from filmmakers until after completed films are checked for content that contravenes policies – which I assume means no political or religious themes.  Aside from political meddling in the grant process, this effectively increases censorship by increasing the risk independent filmmakers take when going into debt prodicing films.  Has anyone heard whether this has had any effect?

BTW, I am a former Video Officer of the Canada Council.



      
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