September 25, 2014

Starting from fiscal year 2014, the Japan Foundation carries out the Japan-U.S. Young Creators Exchange Program to cover four major areas of Cool Japan: fashion, design, anime and art. In October 2014, the Program will dispatch five animation creators (animation directors and animators), who have won several awards inside and outside of Japan, and are expected to be more internationally-active in the near future, to the U.S. as its third group.

The participants are scheduled to go on a seven-day tour and to visit two cities: New York that is a closest city to global entertainment industry and San Francisco where many world famous animation-related companies are based. They visit U.S. animation studios and cultural institutions, to build a network between Japan and the U.S., and go to New York Comic Con 2014, which more than a hundred thousand anime/comic fans gather from all over the U.S. At the event, the films they created are shown and they make an appearance at a talk show moderated by Justin Leach, of Blue Sky Studios, who is conversant with the animation industry of both Japan and the U.S. We aim to promote Japanese culture through their works and to deepen people’s interest in and understanding our cultural values.
The Japan Foundation would be grateful if you could cover these young animators’ efforts in the U.S.

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