S.C.V.F「Shizuoka Contents Valley Festival」2005 vol.1

Recently, Japanese comic books (manga), animation (anime), video games and music, all of which represent Japanese subcultures, are thought of as being “cool” overseas.
The American journalist, Douglas McGray, who introduced the words “Gross National Cool (GNC)”, referring to Japan’s cultural power, which is based around the idea of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), wrote an article called “Japan’s Gross National Cool” and started a cultural boom in Japan. In the article, he said that Japan looks more like a cultural superpower today than it did in the 1980s, when it was an economic one. Last May, the words “Cool Japan” led to a new law called “Contents Shin-Kou-Hou” (the law concerning the promotion of creation, protection and application of contents) being established, and has become a national strategy to promote the content of industries which include movies, music, anime, and gaming software etc…
In the 21st century, the age has shifted from a time in which “hard powers” such as military strength and production power were emphasized to a time in which “soft powers” such as intelligence, cultural power, and information are more emphasized. In this new era, “cool” has become a brand which forms Japan’s image, and it has not only remained as “cool Japan”, but it has spread to a regional level as “cool local”. 「Cool- Shizuoka」will advocate the existence of communication between artists, creators and their fans, who are the target of future content policies and regulations. Cool-Shizuoka will also become an opportunity to reexamine what makes Shizuoka’s culture so rich and fascinating.
From “Cool Japan” to “Cool-Shizuoka” — By searching Shizuoka’s history and traditions, we will reevaluate the local culture, and hope to promote the creation of a new local culture.

Year2005Websitewww.scv.jp