A panel of Japanese media executives and international collaborators gathered at Mip London to discuss the evolving landscape of Japanese content in global markets across unscripted formats, documentaries, and scripted drama.
The session highlighted how Japanese creativity is finding new pathways to international success through strategic partnerships and adaptation of content for global audiences.
Fotini Paraskakis of Asia-based content incubator Empire Arcadia detailed her company’s collaboration with ABC (Asahi Broadcasting Corporation) Japan and creative powerhouse DiTurn, the Korean company of “The Masked Singer” creator Park Wonwoo, on “100,” a music entertainment show with a unique format where contestants form groups whose ages must total 100.
“It’s a three-way collaboration in music, a musical game show created by ABC Japan, DiTurn and ourselves,” Paraskakis explained. “It’s one of the first unscripted projects between Korea and Japan and us as the third party international partner.”
Nami Komo of ABC Japan underscored the storytelling strengths that Japanese producers bring to these collaborations. “Our expertise is always storytelling. At ABC Japan, we do a lot of touching feel-good stories back in Japan. So we felt that the combination between gamification and our storytelling together is very relevant.”
The show has already premiered successfully in both Japan and Korea, with each version tailored to its market – the Japanese version focusing on human stories and celebration, while the Korean adaptation emphasizes larger-scale gamification elements.
Shin Yasuda of NHK, who is heading to Los Angeles as executive producer of Emma Ryan Yamazaki’s Oscar-nominated documentary short “Instruments of a Beating Heart,” discussed the success of documentary co-productions like “The Making of a Japanese,” a collaboration between NHK and independent filmmaker Yamazaki.
“This is a great example of a documentary that was truly a 50/50 collaboration,” Yasuda said. The feature-length documentary follows children in Tokyo’s public elementary school system, examining how Japanese identity and cultural behaviors are formed through education.
Yasuda noted that co-productions allow NHK to “elevate our creativity, to diversify our way of storytelling,” while acknowledging that different versions of the content were created for domestic and international audiences. For Japanese viewers, the documentary emphasized education during COVID-19 restrictions, while the international version focused more on the educational system itself.
Fumi Nishibashi of The Seven, a production company under TBS (Tokyo Broadcasting System), outlined how Japanese manga adaptations are finding global success through streaming platforms and international partnerships.
“In the past, there will be difficulty or hurdle for Japanese scripted shows to travel, but thanks to factors that maybe the rights of the global streaming platforms, maybe in the advancement of technology, including the VFX, or maybe thanks to international partnerships, we can bring these IP or Japanese companies to the world,” Nishibashi said. The Seven, established just three years ago, has already produced global hits for Netflix including “Alice in Borderland” and “Yu Yu Hakusho,” both manga adaptations featuring significant visual effects that have reached top 10 status in numerous countries.
Nishibashi highlighted that The Seven has ongoing collaborations with American and Korean partners, including a project with “Face/Off” producer David Permut and another with Korean director J.Q. Lee on Netflix zombie series “All of Us Are Dead.”
All panelists acknowledged the challenges in adapting Japanese content for global audiences. Paraskakis noted differences in storytelling approaches: “[In Japan] you can just show a lot of things, a lot of it’s fun, and it doesn’t make sense, it’s fun. But internationally, there has to be a lot of the time a reason, like, ‘Why are we doing this?’”
She added that while companies like The Seven handle big-budget adaptations with extensive special effects, there are “many, many stories that are very relatable… that could be shot anywhere in the near future or the present day, but they’re just great stories, told in different ways.”
The panel ended with an acknowledgment that differences in expectations, budgets, and commercial terms between Japanese and international markets remain topics for future discussion, highlighting the ongoing evolution of Japan’s approach to global content collaboration.
