Video artist Michael Goldberg counts himself lucky to have been able to work on projects that inspired him: those focusing on cross-cultural communication between Japan and the world.
But the nation's protracted economic slump has hit his business severely and is casting a shadow on his recent project, the first in-depth documentary in English and Japanese on Zen philosopher Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, who is credited with introducing Zen Buddhism to the West.
The 58-year-old Canadian has had to drastically downscale International Videoworks Inc., his production company of 14 years in Suginami Ward, Tokyo, because he and his wife can no longer afford the 720,000 yen in yearly rent.