Film Industry Voices Press Japan to Make Its Production Incentive More Certain as Government Plans Unified Content Body

Producer Alex Boden and Netflix production policy director Deb Richards called for changes to Japan's international production incentive at the Motion Picture Association's annual seminar, held during the Tokyo International Film Festival. Their remarks came as the government prepares a new body to gather its scattered content-industry support in one place.

Boden, a London-based producer who spent almost two years in Japan making two seasons of HBO Max's "Tokyo Vice," traced the scheme's development. It began with a 2020 research program, which "Tokyo Vice" supported, moved to the 2023 J-LOD incentive, and now stands as IP360, which offers 50% against Japanese spend.

He argued that the minimum spend, now raised to JPY800 million ($5.1 million), shuts out independent films and co-productions, since most Japanese films cost between $1.5 million and $3 million. He also urged an automatic approval system to replace panel-based selection, noting that this makes Japan one of few territories with a subjective incentive, even though projects can take three to five years to come together. "So how does a producer know that they can count on the Japan incentive in advance? That's the question, and we need a solution," he said. He cited Martin Scorsese's "Silence," "Pachinko" and "Shōgun" as Japan-set projects that scouted in the country but shot elsewhere, and suggested building in training, using the U.K.'s 0.5% ScreenSkills levy as a model.

Richards said certainty matters more than size. "You can have a lower incentive, that's fine, as long as it's certain, as long as the criteria are clear," she said, adding that for the Japan incentive the criteria are not clear. She described the process as "opaque," saying applicants can only work out why they were rejected by looking at who was approved.

Paul Muller, the MPA's VP of production policy for Asia-Pacific, pointed to Australia, where an international production must spend at least AUD20 million ($13.9 million) and direct 1% of its budget to training. Since the rule took effect in June 2023, more than AUD20 million has gone into training, he said, while the average cost of an hour of Australian TV has risen from AUD2 million ($1.4 million) to around AUD5 million to AUD6 million ($3.5 million to $4.2 million) over seven or eight years. He welcomed signs that the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), which runs the incentive, is shifting from single-year to two-year financing and raising maximum thresholds.

Georgina Pope, head of production at Toho Tombo Pictures, whose recent Japan work includes A24's "Marty Supreme" and "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters," said permitting in Tokyo remains difficult but is changing. Her team recently closed the road in front of Tokyo City Hall for a large car scene. "I'm finding that Japan is really starting to realize the value of having a dynamic international film industry," she said. Boden called Japan the hottest country in the world at the moment and warned that letting years slip by would be "a real missed opportunity."

On the government side, Nakahara Hirohiko, director-general of the Cabinet Office's Intellectual Property Strategy Promotion Secretariat, said a task force on the new entity held its first meeting on Oct. 22. The body, ordered directly by the Prime Minister, is meant to break down divisions among the ministries that each handle part of content policy: Internal Affairs and Communications, the Agency for Cultural Affairs, METI and, for overseas expansion, Foreign Affairs. The government aims to launch it in 2027.

The plan is part of a public-private investment roadmap drawn up in July, targeting JPY20 trillion ($127 billion) in overseas sales by 2033. Content is one of 17 strategic fields in Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae's growth strategy. For film, the roadmap covers attracting large-scale location shoots, backing international co-productions built on Japanese IP and tougher anti-piracy measures. "We hope to become a global hub for film shooting and production," Nakahara said.

Amari Akira, the former Liberal Democratic Party secretary-general and METI minister, recalled chairing the parliamentary league behind Japan's basic content law 22 years ago. He said the thinking was right but execution lagged, and Japan fell behind Korea in taking its content overseas. "In our day, we tried to do this through addition. This time, the government is doing it through multiplication," he said, describing the 2033 target as a plan to quadruple the industry in 10 years. Muller said that if the government delivers the discussed changes, the goal is "well within scope and well achievable."