The initial meeting of the Japanese Parliamentary Association for manga, anime, and games (aka Manga Giren) was held yesterday on November 18. The majority of its members are the councilors of the Liberal Democratic Party, the party in power now. Famous manga/anime creators including Tetsuya Chiba (Ashita no Joe), Hideaki Anno (Evangelion), Ken Akamatsu (Negima!), Machiko Satonaka (Karyudo no Seiza), with Kazuhiko Torishima (senior managing director at Shueisha), were also there to explain the current status of the industry.

According to the blog report by Taro Yamada, who is a Your Party member of the House of Councilors and also serves the representative secretary general at Manga Giren, there are two main purposes for the association. The first one is to relaunch the International Media Art General Center project. It was officially announced in 2007 by LDP, the ruling party at the time, to work as an international hub for

Japanese pop culture including manga, anime, and games. But after LDP was badly defeated by Democratic

Party of Japan in the general election in August 2009 and dropped the reins of government, the project

was immediately cancelled.

The second is a tax break for manga/anime/game creators who need more financial support to keep

international competitiveness.

Currently Yamada is the only member who is clearly supporting freedom of expression in manga, anime,

and games. In contrast, there is no mention about freedom of expression in the report by Keiji Furuya,

the chairperson of Manga Giren. He thinks the association's primary mission is how to support the

manga/anime/game industry for Japan's national interest. 

Source: Taro Yamada, Keiji Furuya, Ken Akamatsu