“What’s really good about Japan is that organizations are coming together to create an infrastructure,” says Mayu Rei, Project Manager for Singular Japan. “Change is happening fast — it was just announced that Coinbase will soon be entering the Japanese market, for example — and leaders in the space are putting work into self-regulation even before official legislation. The government itself is very open to blockchain. They know that the technology will be the new form of data. That’s what the Japanese government is interested in: application of blockchain tech from a functional standpoint.”

Growing roots in the region, earlier this year, SingularDTV launched Singular Japan. “Singular Japan is an entertainment fund that will be used to launch Japanese artists and filmmakers,” explains Rei. “The opportunities for independent art are minimal in Japan. It’s tough to get funding, both domestically and foreign.”

The SNGJ Project is just one of many that SingularDTV has launched to create content for the Ethervision distribution portal, all of which are hoping to conclude production in concurrence with the launch of the platform. For SNGJ, it’s all about finding genuine, independent creators and allowing them to flourish on their own terms. “We don’t want to do the whole cultural standardization process. In Japan, there are a lot of Hollywood productions and foreign films that present the culture from the outside in,” says Rei. “The opportunity with SNGJ is that we can revisit japanese artists in the way that they see themselves. We’re looking for self actualization. We’re looking for the next voices of Japan.”

Next steps for Singular Japan include setting up the governance framework for the fund and inviting a swath of intrepid launch artists to join in the grand experiment of decentralization alongside the likes of Steven Soderbergh and Gramatik. “Right now, we’re in the process of building an advisory board of people from the entertainment industry, with backgrounds ranging from acquisition to production,” says Rei. “They’ll act as administrators for the SNGJ Fund.”