When a United Nations report warned that Japan’s storied animation sector was in danger of potential collapse, you’d be forgiven for thinking the cause was the rise of artificial intelligence.
It was not. Low pay, excessive working hours and weak protections for individuals’ intellectual property rights had created "an environment ripe for exploitation,” the U.N. human rights body said last year. If the outlook was grim then, the proliferation of AI could prove existential.
Tokyo owes more to these artists. Even as Japan’s industrial might slipped during the so-called "lost decades,” their imagination and soul propelled the nation’s soft power and global influence. "Dragon Ball," "Pokemon" and Studio Ghibli churned out internationally beloved storylines and characters. The government was arguably slow to appreciate or monetize this, but has since spent years trying to turn the nation’s creative works into a leading export — as powerful as any car or chip.
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