Japan Looks to Keep Sun Up On Animation Exports

Boasting some of the world's most respected leading animators such as Oscar-winner Hayao Miyazaki, Japan is looking at whether formal training will enable animation to become a mass-market export industry.

Japanese universities have begun to establish schools aiming to tie up animators' creative talents with some solid grounding in business, teaching them how to finance and market their work.

But the question remains how successful it will be to treat animation as another Japanese industry like selling hard drives or motorcycles, as animation has thrived - artistically, at least - leaving artists to their own devices.

Last fall, the graduate school of Tokyo University established a department of digital contents creation where star animators can share their creative and business know-how with students.

Among the instructors is Mamoru Oshii, famous for the 1995 animation Ghost In The Shell, a sc--fi film in which a government uses cyborgs as undercover agents.

Also on the faculty is Toshio Suzuki, executive of Studio Ghibli, the production company of Hayao Miyazaki, the Oscar winner whose Howl's Moving Castle broke box office records in Japan.

The Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music in April began a film production department where students can learn from the likes of Beat Takeshi Kitano,