Following the landmark change of government in August, meetings of its Budget Screening Committee have for the first time been opened to the public. Sadly, though, when that committee got round to arts financing in November, many members harshly criticized the amount awarded to the public theater sector. Politicians now seem set on savagely slashing that budget, with the New National Theatre, Tokyo (NNTT), for example, facing the loss of half the ¥4.8 billion grant it received earlier this year.
Not only this, but the 150 arts trainees annually awarded government grants to work and study abroad looks sure to be drastically reduced — if, indeed, the program is not suspended altogether. As supposed justification for the cuts, the committee members' rationale came down to them being unable to see clear public benefit from theater activities — along with monetarist "reasoning" that theater should operate in the private sector and stand or fall without subsidies in a free market.
As these budget shenanigans were unfolding, I was working on the 2009 theater roundup — and what should happen but my pick for the top four programs of 2009 exclusively features works by public theaters and subsidized arts sectors.