Anime/Manga Firms Plan Anime Contents Expo in March

[Eudemon]

The Japanese media companies Kadokawa and ANIMATE announced a new event called Anime Contents Expo, which will be held at the Makuhari Messe event center in Chiba, Japan from March 26 to 27 of next year. That weekend is when the two public days of Tokyo International Anime Fair (TAF) have already been scheduled.

The companies in the new event's executive committee include Aniplex, ANIMATE, Kadokawa Shoten, King Records, Geneon Universal Entertainment Japan, Frontier Works, Marvelous Entertainment, and Media Factory.

The committee cited Tokyo's recently passed amendment to its Youth Healthy Development Ordinance as the reason for boycotting TAF and holding a new event. The amendment will expand the number of manga and anime that fall under "harmful publications," the legal category of works that must not be sold or rented to people under the age of 18.

The new event's executive committee noted that it supports The Japan Cartoonist Association, Copyright Network for Comic Authors in the 21st Century, Manga Japan, Comic 10-Shakai, and Association of Japanese Animations in their opposition to the amendment. Comic 10-Shakai, a industry group of 10 manga publishers including Kadokawa Shoten, had already announced its plans to boycott TAF next year.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government is part of TAF's executive committee, and Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara also serves as the chairperson of that committee. Ishihara was a leading advocate of a similar earlier youth ordinance amendment bill that was rejected in June, and he pushed the recent amendment that did pass.

After various organizations pulled out of TAF, the organizers of the new event said that they searched for another venue where they can announce and promote new works that will debut next spring and summer. More details about Anime Contents Expo will be provided starting in January.

Makuhari Messe is the home of such events as Tokyo Game Show (TGS) and Shueisha's Jump Festa. It was also the former home of Comic Market before that dōjinshi event moved to Tokyo Big Sight. Even though Makuhari Messe hosts TGS, the center is actually outside Tokyo in the prefecture immediately east of the metropolis.

Source:ANN