The Essence of the Anime Industry: Creativity and Crisis

The Financial Times proclaims that the export value of Japan's content industry now exceeds its steel, petrochemicals and semiconductor sectors. Leading the content industry is Anime, Japanese-created animation that is both unique—and outrageously popular.

Overseas sales tripled during the last decade and are beginning to dwarf the domestic market. Financial analysts predict that its market size will surpass $30 billion by 2033.

But what exactly is Anime, creatively and culturally? And why are its series and features booming abroad while the Anime industry in Japan is weathering a series of severe crises, including labor shortages, overworked and underpaid staffers, and antiquated technologies?

Join us at Asia Society Japan for a truly enlightening evening with two venerated anime industry veterans—Geoffrey Wexler, formerly at Studio Ghibli and currently Chief, International at Studio Ponoc, and Shuzo John Shiota, President and CEO of CG studio Polygon Pictures—together with leading Japanese American pop culture author and journalist Roland Nozomu Kelts, as they explore the answers to these questions.