[KineJapan] The marketshare of Japanese films in Japan

[Jasper Sharp]

I write a lot about the general trends in box office growth since the turn of the millennium in the introductory essay of my Historical Dictionary of Japanese Cinema, but in a nutshell, the top earners of every year are usually either Studio Ghibli films, one of the regular theatrical films based on well-known anime characters like Detective Conan or Doraemon, or spinoffs of television series, like Bayside Shakedown, Ramblers, Umizaru, Boys Over Flowers etc - nothing that anyone in the West who hasnt seen them should feel they are missing out on.The growth in number of films is down to two things - there's a lot of the micro-budget indie "jishu eiga", which play for a very short time at select specialist indie cinemas (usually with the director paying to get his own film screened), and the growth in this sector is enough to compensate for the declining number of 'seijin eiga' pink films over the past five years. Secondly, the Eiren figures now include what the Japanese refer to as ODS ("other digital stuff"), i.e. live-streamed musical or sports events. My own feeling is Japanese film is in a pretty awful state at the moment, despite the stats.I wrote a summary too of the state of the industry for this year's Screen Japan Supplement Cannes daily: http://issuu.com/emap_/docs/screen_japan_2013?e=6122892/2453852



The Creeping Garden - A Real-Life Science-Fiction Story about Slime Moulds and the People Who Work With them. Currently in production, directed by Tim Grabham and Jasper Sharp. 
The Historical Dictionary of Japanese Cinema (2011) is out now from Scarecrow Press
Midnight Eye - Visions of Japanese cinema
http://www.midnighteye.com

Jasper Sharp, writer & film curatorhttp://jaspersharp.com/

From: macfugu at mac.com
Date: Sun, 17 Nov 2013 21:00:55 +0900
To: kinejapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
Subject: [KineJapan] The marketshare of Japanese films in Japan

Hi,
I ask a similar question every couple of years.  
According to the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan, the share of Japanese films shown in Japanese cinemas has steadily risen from 27.1% in 2002 to 65.7% in 2012.  
2012 also saw a record number of Japanese films released (554) and record box office receipts for Japanese films (¥128,181). (From 1955-2012).
Does anyone have any ideas on why this has happened?
Best regards,
John Gorman
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