This paper is an on-site report from the Osaka Creative Industry Promotion initiative, in which the author has been engaged for 14 years at Creative Network Center Osaka Mebic Ogimachi.
Osaka’s creative industry is faced with the following four challenges:
(1) A strong underlying perception that “there are no creative jobs in Osaka”
(2) Scant recognition of Osaka’s creative potential
(3) Weakening of genuine interpersonal communication due to digitalization
(4) A mismatch between the increasingly complex market and the way the creative industry is segmented
On this basis, I believe we must aim to create a business environment that generates truly innovative relationships with the potential for completely original and unexpected insights and actions, by (1) emphasizing relationships between people and people, more than the functional matching of needs and seeds, and (2) creating a community where open, person-to-person communication is possible.
At Mebic Ogimachi, we are engaged in an ongoing process in which coordination duties are delegated to currently active creative professionals, who work with Mebic Ogimachi staff to discover new creators, meet them, and encourage participation in the community, while publicizing these creators’ activities via various channels including the Internet.
As a result, networks among creators, and among creators and enterprises, are expanded, and new collaboration occurs through commercial transactions and project creation. As of the end of 2015, we have verified 2,369 case examples of such collaboration, and there is a trend toward expansion in terms of both creative field and geographic region.
This Creative Community functions as an intergenerational “ecosystem,” contributing to the autonomy and growth of participating creators by creating possibilities for new collaborations, delivering stimulation, creating a climate of mutual self-betterment, broadening horizons, and fostering greater originality. As such it serves as crucial infrastructure for the creative industry in Osaka, and moving forward, there is a need for increased public- and private-sector support to contribute to its further maturation.
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