[Namsan Stroll]Time for K-Content Policy 'Wave' to Evolve with a New Strategy

Recently, the Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA) has been busy welcoming guests from overseas. Curiosity about how Korea supports its content industry—beyond mere interest in K-content itself—is coming from government agencies, industry representatives, and academia worldwide. They want to know the concrete details of how the system is operated. Korea, which once looked abroad for policy models in the content sector, has now transformed into a nation that others are benchmarking.

This signifies another dimension of global influence that extends beyond the competitiveness of K-content. When legal frameworks, budgets, and administrative structures in other countries begin to establish links similar to our own content industry ecosystem, it broadens the foundation for cooperation with respect to companies, talent, and intellectual property (IP). In this sense, policy itself has become another export, evolving into a new form of the Korean Wave.

The drive to foster content as a national strategic industry, as Korea has done, is gaining traction especially among neighboring countries. Recently, Japan designated the content industry as one of 17 strategic sectors and announced the "Entertainment·Creative Industry Strategy 2026" as a roadmap. Key points include achieving overseas sales of 20 trillion yen by 2033, expanding public-private investment to 34 trillion yen by 2033, and establishing a specialized execution organization to comprehensively support overseas expansion. This comes in response to assessments that having individual ministries—such as the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry, and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology—manage content-related support separately in the private sector-oriented system has been inefficient, as well as to requests from the industry. Yomiuri Shimbun has featured KOCCA in detail as a key case study.

The administrative corporation TAICCA, established by Taiwan's Ministry of Culture in 2019, directly cites KOCCA as a reference case in its legislative materials. Thailand is also working toward making THACCA a statutory institution. The significance of these nations’ moves for Korea is considerable. They are creating "evolutionary models" tailored to each country's industrial environment, moving beyond simple policy benchmarking.

Japan is consolidating content-related policies and information, which have been scattered across various ministries, through mechanisms such as public-private councils, IP360, and the Japan Creative Portal. Japan is also putting emphasis on budget centralization, strengthening overseas bases, and supporting large-scale growth investments.

Taiwan is connecting investment and finance for content, planning and development, production, distribution, overseas expansion, talent nurturing, and industry research within a single agency, with a particular emphasis on international cooperation and the global commercialization of IP. Taiwan highlights the functions of investment and international co-production platforms.

The case of Thailand’s THACCA is also noteworthy. Thailand is broadening the scope of support beyond content to encompass the entire "creative culture," including food, tourism, and sports. Simultaneously, it is approaching these sectors as economic industries capable of generating employment, income, and exports.

The strategies of these countries, in turn, pose new questions for Korea. Can the Korean "policy wave" continue? As neighboring countries benchmark our policies, it paradoxically highlights the need for advancement and refinement in the scope and methods of Korea’s own content policies. First and foremost, there needs to be a stronger system for supporting overseas expansion, with content functioning as the core axis of "creative culture" and driving Korean cultural exports. It is also essential to consolidate the content-related policies scattered across multiple ministries and agencies more organically. Establishing an ecosystem in which investment, production, distribution, overseas expansion, and the growth of related industries can be driven by IP is equally important. This requires expanded financial support, as well as backing in terms of talent and information, to help companies grow.

The Korean Wave of content policy marks the start of a new phase of competition. For example, in Southeast Asian markets, where K-content has been highly popular, local content—such as in Thailand—is now quickly gaining competitiveness. Policies related to K-content must also evolve into models that stay a step ahead. Now is the time for Korea to marshal its full capacity and support not only for content itself, but also in the design and implementation of its policies.

Song Jin, Director of Content Industry Policy Research Center, Korea Creative Content Agency

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.