Japan Press Weekly

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2015 November 11 - 17 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

Arts/cultural organizations in symposium call for creation of ‘culture ministry’

Japan’s major arts/cultural association called Arts and Culture Forum together with a cross-party parliamentarians’ league for promotion of culture and arts on November 12 in Tokyo held a symposium calling for the creation of a “culture ministry”.

Nomura Man, president of the Forum which includes 15 arts/cultural organizations, delivered a speech and emphasized the need to establish a government ministry dealing with cultural affairs and to improve the current government policy on culture and arts.

Japanese Communist Party Vice Chair Ichida Tadayoshi, who holds a vice-chair position in the multipartisan parliamentary league, attended the symposium as a panelist.

Referring to a problem of the drastic decrease in the number of major theaters and halls, so-called the “Year 2016 Problem” incurred by a wave of closures and complete renovations of many facilities, Ichida said that it is required to develop short- and medium-term approaches to address this issue.

Ichida went on to point out that the poor cultural administration, such as continuous cuts in the culture budget, has provoked a demand for the establishment of a culture ministry among people engaged in cultural and artistic activities. Ichida said that as a way to achieve this goal, an effort to attract public support for the demand is essential, and expressed his hope that a new ministry will fully play a role in protecting culture and arts free from government control and providing adequate financial support to this area.

Past related articles:
> Closure of theaters mirrors nation’s inadequate culture budget [February 20, 2015]
> Ichida will work to increase more budgets for culture programs [April 27, 2012]
> Actors and artists demand increase in budget for culture [September 12, 2010]