The Kansai Bureau of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) is positioning games as a regional growth industry and launching efforts to create an environment where new game IPs can continuously emerge from the Kansai region.

Focusing on the gaming sector within the content industry—one of the 17 strategic fields in Japan's growth strategy—and in line with the Entertainment and Creative Industries Strategy formulated by METI, the bureau will conduct a survey on support needs and functions for businesses and other stakeholders in the Kansai region, as well as the state of soft infrastructure.

The survey results will be reflected in the formulation of a strategic action plan, contributing to the establishment of an ecosystem that fosters new game IPs from Kansai.

Overview of the Initiative to Foster a Sustainable Environment for New Game IPs from Kansai

1. Background of the Initiative

The Kansai region possesses significant potential, including game-related companies, educational institutions, developer communities, and related events. Leveraging this potential to create a sustainable environment for continuous new game IP creation is crucial for promoting the regional content industry.

However, the mechanisms connecting aspiring creators in Kansai with necessary support—from game development through commercialization and market access—are not sufficiently visible. Individual developers, small teams, mid-sized developers, and student teams each face different challenges and require different types of support.

2. Key Focus Areas of the Initiative

This initiative will clarify the following three points while forming and strengthening networks among game industry stakeholders in Kansai:

(1) Challenges faced by creators of new game IPs

Identify the challenges faced by individual developers, small teams, mid-sized developers, and student teams at each stage—creation, completion, commercialization, and market access.

(2) Support resources and strengths available in the Kansai region

Catalog the region’s potential, including game-related companies, educational institutions, developer communities, events, and support organizations.

(3) Methods to connect challenges with support resources

Examine how support functions—such as consultation services, intellectual property and contract support, publisher and market access, funding, collaboration with educational institutions, cross-industry partnerships, and ongoing networking opportunities—can be effectively linked and sustained within the region.

3. Implementation Approach

The initiative will proceed through literature reviews and analysis of public information, interviews with stakeholders in the Kansai region, discussions among experts and practitioners, and small-scale pilot projects.

Interviews will target individual developers, small teams, mid-sized developers, student teams, publishers or entities with publishing functions, support organizations (for IP, contracts, funding), cross-industry companies, and operators of game-related events and communities.

An expert and practitioner forum will be established to discuss the challenges and hypotheses identified through the survey, focusing on which support functions should be prioritized and how sustainable collaboration can be achieved in the region.

Based on the challenges, support resources, and insights gained from pilot projects, a strategic action plan will be developed to support new game IP creation in the Kansai region.

The strategic action plan will summarize policy-relevant directions on which support functions should be strengthened, who can play what roles, and how stakeholders can sustainably collaborate in the future.

4. Future Outlook

Taking into account the positioning of games within the content industry—one of the 17 strategic fields—and the direction of the Entertainment and Creative Industries Strategy, the Kansai Bureau will promote the regional game industry as a growth sector through environment-building initiatives based on the strategic action plan.

5. Related Links

https://www.kansai.meti.go.jp/creative_game.html

Contact Information

Service and Content Industries Division, Industrial Department, Kansai Bureau of Economy, Trade and Industry

Phone: 06-6966-6053

Email: bzl-kin-creative@meti.go.jp

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  • Source: PR TIMES
  • Category: 政策