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Japan's Replacement for 'Anime Hall of Fame' Proposed (Updated)

The Japanese government proposed a new joint venture to replace the cancelled national media arts center — the controversial project better known by its nickname, the "anime hall of fame." The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology officially dropped the previous plan last month after the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) removed the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) from power for only the second time in 54 years.

The new proposal would pool the resources of 16 research institutions and other facilities to collect and display works as well as conduct research. With the cooperation of media institutions in the European Union (EU), the new proposal is budgeted at 250 million yen (about US$2.3 million) a year — compared to the 11.7 billion yen (US$132 million) that the old proposal would have needed to build a new facility from scratch. 25 million yen (US$280,000) would go towards the annual rental fees and operating expenses of the different facilities.

The planned joint venture will deal with five main fields: anime, manga, films, games, and "media arts." Among the 16 universities and organizations that will contribute to the effort are three from Australia and the EU. Instead of building an entirely new facility, the propose will utilize existing ones. For example, the Kyoto International Manga Museum (pictured above) and other institutions could display works, while the Tokyo Anime Center (pictured at left) in the Akihabara otaku shopping district and similar locales could disseminate information.

During an August conference that the ministry held for the previous proposal, manga creator Machiko Satonaka (Lady Ann) warned that without proper preservation, the severe deterioation of old manga will make them unreadable in a century.

Source: Yomiuri Shimbun

Update: The institutions involved in the proposal are as follows:

Games:

• Computer Entertainment Supplier's Association (research)

Anime:

• Tokyo University of the Arts (research, training)
• Suginami Animation Museum (exhibitions)
• Tokyo Anime Center (information dissemination)

Manga:

• Kyoto International Manga Museum (exhibitions)
• Meiji University (research, exhibition)

International institutions (research, exhibitions):

• Australia
• Germany
• The Netherlands

Media arts which use CG and other advanced techniques:

• Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media (exhibitions)
• Tokyo University (research, training)

Films:

• The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo's Film Center (preservation, restoration)
• Nihon University (research, training)