Dr Mitsuteru Takahashi, dean and professor Faculty of Digital Communication, Digital Hollywood University, hopes that Jamaican sequential art and animation creatives take up the substantial cultural and economic opportunities available to them on the world’s stage.

Dr Takahashi’s comments came at a lecture on the subject of Japanese Animation & Content Creation put on by the Embassy of Japan and Caribbean School of Media and Communication (Carimac) of The University of the West Indies (UWI), on Saturday, March 2.

The event took place at the CARIMAC Annex 2 located on the grounds of The UWI, Mona.

“There has been a collaboration with Japan and Caribbean Community (Caricom) over the past 60 years and, as a result, my Government reached out to me — anime being one of our main exports — and I’m blessed to be here to share some of the opportunities in this industry,” Takahashi told the
Jamaica Observer through his translator.

In his lecture, the professor shared not only the popularity of Japanese comics — manga, and Japanese animation — anime, but the sheer financial power their indigenous intellectual property (IP) holds on the global stage.

“America is the #1 content creator, Japan was second, until recently when we were just overtaken by China. So now we’re third,” he explained.

While Japan may have moved to third, based on numeric output, on the monetary scale, five of the global top-grossing IPs were Japanese, with Pokémon #1 with US$92.121 billion in revenue. The country produces over 70 animated movies a year, and 2021 was the industry’s largest to date totalling US$18.6 billion, of which US$8.5 billion was from overseas. On the non-animated side, the manga market drew in US$4.6 billion, just in domestic revenue. He explained that many anime are adapted from manga, as the characters gain traction and generate a base of interest making any such series ripe for visual adaptation, movie, or series.

Dr Takahashi went on to point out that the global content creation industry is expected to hit US$1.4 trillion in 2025 and even a small portion of that would be a major source of income for a country like Jamaica.

“A big part of why Japanese anime and manga have got popular is due to the Internet. In years gone past there were many works that weren’t seen by the rest of the world. And what’s happening now, with the advent of the Internet, is that there is a growing fan base worldwide that are exchanging information on these works,” Takahashi said.

He implored the Carimac students on hand to pursue their passion for art, develop original IPs of value that share the Jamaican experience through comics and animation, and if they’re unable to do it on their own, pursue international cooperation where possible.

Dr Takahashi explained that one-third of the students at his institution were from overseas, typically from neighbouring Asian countries, and that the majority of those students generally end up staying in Japan to work in the anime industry.

However, he added that some do return home, carrying with them the skills learnt to assist in boosting production in their country.

The Embassy of Japan noted that it does offer scholarships, which does include institutions such as the Digital Hollywood University, providing the opportunity to do the same for Jamaica.