Japan moves to scrap Cool Japan Fund while pushing content grants
The fund had accumulated losses of approximately ¥54 billion by the end of fiscal 2025.
The Japanese government is considering scrapping the loss-making Cool Japan Fund while expanding support for promoting Japanese content overseas. Established in 2013, the Cool Japan Fund aimed to help Japanese goods, food, and entertainment reach global markets but struggled from the start. Critics argued the fund lacked expertise to identify viable investments, with money wasted on unrelated companies.
Notable failures include a ¥14 billion investment in biomaterials startup Spiber, which failed and entered private restructuring. By fiscal 2025, the fund had accumulated losses of about ¥54 billion. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) plans to omit funding for the fund from its fiscal 2027 request and is evaluating whether to dismantle it or integrate it with other institutions.
Meanwhile, METI is boosting its IP360 grant-based program, which provided ¥35 billion in subsidies for the development and overseas expansion of Japanese content in March. Ben Boas, a government-appointed Cool Japan producer and cultural consultant, believes the fund's shortcomings stemmed from its inability to develop a disciplined approach to serving overseas demand.
He believes the new IP360 program shows more promise as the government learns from past mistakes. The ministry aims to increase overseas sales of Japanese content to ¥20 trillion by 2033.
Written by urgent.news from Japan Times's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
