Japan’s Film Funds Look Beyond Production Committees to Build New Financing Models

Japan’s production committee system, in which a group of companies jointly finance a film and share its rights, has helped spread risk across the industry. But it can also cap budgets at what the industry itself can raise, make it harder for overseas investors to take part and slow decisions when every rights holder must agree.

At a panel at TIFFCOM, the content market of the Tokyo International Film Festival, speakers examined whether film funds can ease those limits while still fitting Japan’s market.

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“Film Funds in Japan: What Works, What Doesn’t, and What Comes Next” featured Kii Muneyuki, CEO and producer of K2 Pictures, which works with filmmakers including Kore-eda Hirokazu, Miike Takashi and Nishikawa Miwa; Ibe Tomonobu, CEO of Questry, a Tokyo startup that uses digital securities to fund anime and other Japanese content; Nakagawa Keita, managing director at MUFG Bank; and Motoyanagi Yusuke, partner at law firm Nishimura & Asahi.

Kii presented K2P Film Fund I as one example of a new structure. The fund closed in February at about JPY5 billion ($32 million) and aims to back around 50 films over seven years.