As the head of COVER’s overseas business, I am responsible for leading the planning of strategies and implementation of measures for international expansion. There are currently 13 members in my department, and the demographic is concentrated mainly in the late 20s to early 30s. Although the members’ areas of expertise vary, they all share a strong ambition to expand Japan’s businesses overseas. Another characteristic is that the members have a deep attachment to Japanese anime culture. While each team has its own area of expertise, I am working to create a structure that will help drive global expansion as a whole.

After graduating from university, I joined Accenture Japan Ltd as a strategy consultant in charge of clients in the manufacturing and logistics industries. I was often involved in projects to roll out Japanese businesses worldwide, and gradually I came to want to work on developing overseas strategies in the entertainment field, which I had long been interested in.

I then moved to a company founded on the “Cool Japan Strategy” promoted by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. As a business development manager, I was involved in the Hollywood film adaptation of Japanese works, and worked on projects to adapt popular Japanese works into films. The know-how and connections I cultivated through this path have become major assets to my career. I then joined Akatsuki Inc. where I served as Head of the COO Office and a Director at Akatsuki Entertainment USA, leading initiatives such as Hollywood film production, the launch of immersive entertainment* ventures, and new game development. I led global expansion across a wide range of fields, from live entertainment to gaming.

Following Akatsuki’s restructuring, I established AMMO Inc. to take over the film business. At AMMO (hereinafter AMMO), I was involved in end-to-end content production, from acquiring rights to Japanese works to financing, selecting production companies, and overseeing distribution. My projects include adapting popular manga into Hollywood films and publishing award-winning mystery novels in the United States. The Japanese entertainment industry has a relatively short history in overseas expansion, but I always had the ambition to pursue new potential in this field. The theme of combining overseas markets and entertainment has been a consistent one throughout my career.

I’d say my global perspective was greatly influenced by my family. Thanks to my father, who worked for a foreign-affiliated company, I learned from a young age—even though I wasn’t a returnee—that there’s world beyond what we encounter in our daily lives in Japan.

My passion for entertainment traces back to my university days, where I was actively involved in theater. The experience of winning the grand prize at a drama competition still serves as the backbone of who I am today. The value of entertainment is at times difficult to see, and there’s a fine line whether or not a work moves you. That said, the people who are active in this world are not acting based just on simple logic, but are also putting their lives on the line as they work on their creations. I was deeply impressed by their sincere attitude, and it made me want to work in the entertainment industry.

Looking back, I think that my global perspective and passion for entertainment have always influenced and developed each other as the twin engines of my career.

By the time I finished producing two films at AMMO, I felt that I had achieved success in terms of individual projects like film production. However, when I asked myself whether these achievements led to impactful outcomes that could change the industry or the sector, I strongly felt that each project remained isolated and did not lead to a broader, industry-wide transformation. I was about to enter my 40s, and I thought that the next 10 years would be a turning point in my career. Until then, I had tended to be attracted to experiences and challenges that looked interesting, but I was keenly aware that to develop my career in the future, I needed to build up a large track record in the true sense.

In addition, “overseas expansion” had been essential keywords in my career. So, I looked for a place where I could really be successful at overseas expansion, and when I consulted with people around me about “looking for a company that is really serious about competing in that arena,” I was often told “then it’s a VTuber company.” I started studying about the VTuber industry from after that. I knew very little about VTubers at the time, and I didn’t understand the core of the business model or the fact that they were opening up such a new domain within the entertainment industry. My first impression was that it was a smaller-scale anime version of a live-action streamer. But as I actually learned about it, I came to understand that although VTubers are smaller than live-action streaming, the business model is completely different, and that their scope and potential as a business are far broader. I felt that the entire VTuber-related industry was going all out toward overseas expansion and developing new markets, so I took this as proof that the industry and the market were definitely growing.

The biggest deciding factor for me was the depth of COVER’s respect for creativity. In my opinion, the appeal of entertainment cannot always be explained through logic alone, and companies that treat entertainment merely as a product fail to grasp its true essence. In that respect, COVER felt authentic feel. Figuring out how to monetize is certainly important. Yet in my interviews I felt CEO Tanigo and the other members I spoke with truly believe the intrinsic appeal of entertainment and the company’s content is a prerequisite to that.

In addition, the fact that COVER already had a global fan base was also a key deciding factor. I have been involved in various works, but a case like hololive production which already has a solid fan base established worldwide is a very rare case indeed. Even famous manga in Japan take time to accumulate a global fan base. COVER’s content is already being watched by audiences around the globe, with fans captivated by even the smallest mannerisms and words of its VTubers. These moments of excitement accumulate like individual beads, gradually forming a vast and dedicated fanbase. I strongly felt the need to nurture and fully capitalize on this precious momentum before its freshness fades, and that conviction made me commit to join the company.

When selecting a film, I always focused on whether or not the work offers a unique charm. The feasibility of the project is a key factor in the decision-making process when adapting a Japanese work for a film. A high-context work like Always: Sunset on Third Street, for example, is highly likely to lose its appeal in the translation process. On the other hand, horror films like the Ring series are able to retain their fundamental appeal even when the setting is changed. While looking at it from such an expert’s point of view, the most important aspect is ultimately is whether or not I, as the producer, can believe in the attractiveness of the work. I think that is what’s most critical, rather than the commercial success of the work. This is because the producer’s “belief” is conveyed in a chain reaction to the director, who then passes it on to the writer, and finally to the audience. You never know how a film will do at the box office until it actually opens. That is why it was vital that the work be something I could truly believe in, right down to the final second of the creative process.

This mindset of “believing” is deeply connected to my current work at COVER. VTubers are unique in that they have a face as IP and at the same time have a performer aspect. We believe wholeheartedly in his or her attractiveness, and we believe in their potential to grow as a business. I feel that this thought pattern fits very well with my experience in filmmaking.