In an effort to strengthen the country's "soft power" through the "Cool Japan" strategty of boosting cultural exports and attracting foreign vistors, the Japanese governments is drafting a bill that would ease special economic zone regulations on foreigners seeking to work as designers, animators or cosmetics professionals at Japanese companies.

The bill would in effect deregulate current laws in which foreigners are given different visa status according to their profession, with strict restrictions being placed on foreigners working in certain sectors, such as fashion, animation and cooking. In regards to animation, the bill would apply to foreigners who seek to work on storyboards and other design tasks at an animation studio after graduating from a Japanese animation school. If passed, the next step would be to formulate visa status guidelines detailing possible scenarios for employing foreign workers in the sector.





Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will chair Council on National Strategic Special Zones council meeting on Wednesday to decide on the bill. This will then be presented to the diet on June 1st.





Before deciding to pull up stakes and move to Tokyo, bear in mind...

The average income for a young (20~30 yo)Japanese animator is less than $10,000/year. It doubles for 30~40 yo animators but it's still low. — ThomasRomain ロマン・トマ (@Thomasintokyo) March 1, 2016





via Nikkei Asian Review



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Scott Green is editor and reporter for anime and manga at geek entertainment site Ain't It Cool News. Follow him on Twitter at @aicnanime.