Hakuhodo and Hakuhodo DY Media Partners strengthen frameworks designed to support “Cool Japan” initiatives.
Hakuhodo establishes a Cool Japan Promotion Office

Hakuhodo Incorporated (Hakuhodo) and Hakuhodo DY Media Partners (HDYMP) have announced that they will be strengthening frameworks designed to support “Cool Japan” initiatives, which seek to spark overseas demand for Japan’s cultural industries and content. On November 1, 2013, Hakuhodo set up its own Cool Japan Promotion Office dedicated to these projects. Both Hakuhodo and HDYMP are headquartered in the Minato ward of Tokyo. Hakuhodo is headed by Hirokazu Toda, while HDYMP operates under president and CEO Hisao Omori.

Hakuhodo and HDYMP have also invested in Cool Japan Fund, Inc., a joint public-private promotional agency spearheaded by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

The Cool Japan Fund emerged as a business platform designed to eliminate bottlenecks in the outflow of Japanese overseas exports by serving as a commercial hub, communications platform, and more. The chief aim of the agency is to support Cool Japan initiatives by key players across a broad range of industries—supplying funds, offering expert knowledge and skills, facilitating matchups between Japanese and local participants, and providing other forms of support to further overseas business expansion.

As members of the Cool Japan promotional agency, Hakuhodo and Hakuhodo DY Media Partners have contributed to these goals by tapping into their diverse network of companies and content holders as well as their extensive expertise in marketing technologies, production tasks for co-creative business activities, and other skill sets developed through years of experience in the advertising business. Hakuhodo and HDYMP are also working to strengthen their ability to take on Cool Japan–related projects by serving as an overseas expansion partner, using their corporate philosophy (i.e. the sei-katsu-sha concept) as a springboard to deliver powerful insights on sei-katsu-sha and the market in target countries.

Going forward, Hakuhodo will seek to further enhance the collaborative framework that links its new Cool Japan Promotion Office with related parts of the Hakuhodo DY Media Partners organization, gathering, centralizing, and communicating Cool Japan information both inside and outside the company (particularly information on corporate development projects eligible for investment from the Cool Japan promotional agency). At the same time, the company will accumulate and apply its expertise on overseas expansion while serving an administrative function as the contact and consultation point for potential business development projects.

Hakuhodo is already working with Kodansha and TMS Entertainment broadcasting the cricket-themed animated TV series Suraj: The Rising Star in India. Hakuhodo DY Media Partners is also working together with media companies and content holders to encourage the overseas export of Japanese content, adapting it to the culture and market characteristics in the target country in order to actively develop business opportunities in other industries.

As global markets become increasingly integrated, companies that deal in Japanese lifestyle and culture will be looking to ramp up their overseas expansion and take it to the next level. Hakuhodo and Hakuhodo DY Media Partners are here to drive the growth of Cool Japan projects by working as a team alongside numerous client companies and content holders.