Industry Plans Its Own Con to Oppose TAF

Japanese media companies Kadokawa and ANIMATE have announced plans to host a convention titled “Anime Contents Expo” at the Makuhari Messe event center in Chiba, Japan next March 26 & 27, the same two days as the public days of the Tokyo Anime Fair (TAF). Aniplex, King Records, Geneon Universal Entertainment Japan, Frontier Works, Marvelous Entertainment, and Media Factory are also involved in the Anime Contents Expo’s executive committee. The planning and scheduling of the publicity expo is a direct opposition to the Tokyo Anime Fair in response to Tokyo’s recently ratified amendments to its “Youth Healthy Development Ordinance” that place additional distribution restrictions on manga and anime depicting potentially offensive or influential imagery. Earlier this month, manga publishers Akita Shoten, Futabasha, Hakusensha, Kadokawa Shoten, Kodansha, LEED Publishing, Shueisha, Shinchosha, Shogakukan, and Shonen Gahousha announced their intention to boycott the TAF to express their opposition to the Tokyo metropolitan government’s new restrictions on manga and anime.

Source: Anime News Network