"Hall-of-Fame" for Anime, Manga and Video Games to be built in Tokyo.

by Zirgo
Apr 10, 2009 2:49 AM | 51 Comments

In an effort to gather the world's attention to Japanese art in the form of anime, manga, video games and contemporary art, as well as preserving these art forms, a budget of 117 billion yen, approximately $1,16 billion, will be used to build the "Hall-of-Fame". At the same time there will be plans to improve the transportation in central Tokyo.
When finished this will be the first national facility focusing entirely on these art forms.

Japanese source: The Asahi Shimbun

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Update to this post : 2009-05-10
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The Chief Secretary for the Democratic Party Yukio Hatoyama openly criticized the budget for building the "Hall-of-Fame". He described prime minister Taro Aso as being part of the "National Tea Cartoon" and for being very wasteful and ridiculous.

Source: IZA News

20 of 51 Comments Recent Comments

The prime minister's nickname isn't Rozen Taro for nothing.

From Wikipedia

Manga fan

Aso argues that embracing Japanese pop culture can be an important step to cultivating ties with other countries, hoping that manga will act as a bridge to the world.[56] He is referred to as an Otaku.[57]

Aso is a fan of manga since childhood. He had his family send manga magazines from Japan while he was studying at Stanford University.[58] In 2003, he described reading about 10 or 20 manga magazines every week (manga make up only part of Aso's voracious reading) and talked about his impression of various manga extemporaneously.[58] In 2007, as Minister for Foreign Affairs, he established the International Manga Award for non-Japanese manga artists.[59][60][61]

It was reported that Aso was seen reading the manga "Rozen Maiden" in Tokyo International Airport, which earned him the sobriquet "His Excellency Rozen".[62] He admitted in an interview that he had read the manga; however, he said he did not remember whether he had read it in an airport.[63]

Aso's candidacy for the position of Japanese Prime Minister actually caused share-value to rise among some manga publishers and companies related to the manga industry.[56]

Ah. The perks of being prime minister.

May 16, 2009 4:56 AM by Unregistered00

This is what makes the prime minister so incredible, he contributes quite a lot to Akihabara.

This "Hall of Fame" is a brilliant idea!

(^_^;)

May 13, 2009 1:32 PM by Kira01

Zirgo said:
At the same time there will be plans to improve the transportation in central Tokyo.

Combine these two things, and it will be a great effort to save Japan's economy. Hope to see it someday.

May 13, 2009 7:33 AM by YuaLaurant

Oh this would be excellent!! I think it's a great idea! I would totally go!

May 12, 2009 10:48 PM by Animegal9215

an anime hall of fame..... this will be Legen.....wait for it.....dary! Legendary!

May 12, 2009 11:26 AM by Tenori

Pop culture sells, classical culture stuff don't. The prime-minister realized this...

Ha! Pop culture taking over the world, I have hope in the future now!

May 10, 2009 1:21 PM by NeverSleep

News post updated.

May 10, 2009 2:04 AM by Zirgo

This sounds epic~

Apr 12, 2009 2:54 PM by Chimichoco

About time.
I expect to see: Mario, Zelda, Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, some Nintendo game characters other than Mario, Naruto, One Piece and Bleach, the longest running manga out there.

Apr 12, 2009 1:42 AM by Rebella

Omg! first thing i'm going to visit when i go to japan!

Apr 11, 2009 11:46 PM by kenny35

Holy_KnightXIX said:

seishi-sama said:

MackDaddyHart said:
I don't know how they'll decide this, but I'm pretty sure Cowboy Bebop will be the first inductee.

No, the first one will be some Miyazaki movie. The second will be some Miyazaki movie, and the third, well, some Miyazaki movie. That's obvious.

Astro Boy will be the first. This should be obvious.

Also, is there a need for such a facility? Sounds like a waste of tax money to me.

hmm i can think of thousands of tax money waste dumps that nobody even cares enough to know about. people actually like anime. besides...in this deep recession, it will create jobs :P

Apr 11, 2009 11:17 PM by kisami

NikuiKira12 said:
wow, doesn't seem like a good idea since we are in a recession, and they did just spend about 99 Billion I think on a stimulus package

Why not?
it's a tourist attraction that will make them a lot of money

Apr 11, 2009 7:22 PM by Hamel

Great. Just another nice reason to visit Japan one day.

:)

Apr 10, 2009 10:01 PM by Rikko_Teardrop

No wai!

Apr 10, 2009 7:45 PM by iTom

Lol, economy.

But yeah, I better see some damn Pokemon and FF.

Apr 10, 2009 5:34 PM by HappyPear

llxwarbirdxll said:
I hope Code Geass is in it.

Ohlala Lelouch. Yummy.

Apr 10, 2009 5:33 PM by Kittenia

tondake_omake said: