Korea-Japan Co-Productions Expanding with "Made with Korea" Concept (Comprehensive) [K-Content Japan]

Policy Initiatives and Achievements Unveiled at "Korea-Japan Content Co-production Week"

Differences in Rights Allocation and Production Practices Remain Key Challenges

Co-productions that combine Korean intellectual property (IP) with Japanese production capabilities are achieving results in the global market. However, differences in rights distribution and production practices remain challenges that must be addressed.

Japanese version poster of "Marry My Husband"./CJ ENM Japan

At the 'Korea-Japan Content Co-Production Week' organized by the Korea Creative Content Agency in Tokyo on the 29th, government agencies and companies from both countries presented a range of policies and use cases in succession.

Song Jin, Head of the Policy Research Division at the Korea Creative Content Agency, unveiled the 'Next K' initiative. While the export size of K-content has grown 10.4 times over the past 20 years, recently the growth rate has slowed and production costs are on the rise.

Song highlighted 'Made with Korea' as the core direction of 'Hallyu 5.0'. He emphasized, "Now is the moment we need to go beyond 'Made in Korea' and consider the perspective of 'Made with Korea'." The strategy is to proactively collaborate with overseas production infrastructure and professionals. He also noted that experience from Japan's production committee system offers insights into extending the lifecycle of IPs and strengthening their global competitiveness.

Japan is taking a similar approach. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has selected content as one of the nation's 17 strategic sectors. It projected the economic ripple effect to be 326 trillion yen, ranking third after artificial intelligence (AI), semiconductors, and new drug development. Its target is to boost overseas sales to 20 trillion yen by 2033.

Song Jin, Head of Policy Research Division at the Korea Creative Content Agency, is discussing the 'Next K' concept at the Korea-Japan Content Co-Production Week held on the 29th in Tokyo, Japan. / Korea Creative Content Agency Tokyo Business Center.

The basic strategy is to produce content in Japan and distribute it worldwide, but Hiroyuki Oiwa, Deputy Director of the Creative Industries Division within the Commerce and Service Group at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, stated, "There are limits to creating content solely within Japan and among Japanese." He added that a system for collaborating with international creators within Japan is being considered.

The IP360 program at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry supports the production of large-scale projects. The program is divided into general support and location support. While only Japanese corporations can apply for general support, Korean companies can participate as subcontractors or external vendors. For location support, the target is works produced by overseas companies where the equity share of Japanese entities is less than 50% and spending on location in Japan exceeds 800 million yen. Both supports have an upper limit of 1.5 billion yen.

The collaboration targeted by these policies is already yielding results. Crunchyroll, a global streaming platform under Sony Group, has led the adaptation of Korean webtoons into animation, starting with 'Tower of God' in 2020 and continuing with 'The God of High School' and 'I Alone Level Up.' Kanako Takahashi, co-production team producer at Crunchyroll Animation, said, "We judged that combining Korea's outstanding IPs with Japan's excellent animation production technologies would allow us to create blockbuster works at a global scale."

Animation still cut from I Alone Level Up.

'I Alone Level Up' was produced with the participation of Aniplex and A-1 Pictures in Japan, targeting the global market from the planning stage. The issue of translating Korean webtoon personal and place names, long a challenge, was solved by recording separate double audio tracks for the global version’s protagonist Sung Jin-Woo and the Japanese version's protagonist Shun Mizushino.

The world premiere events held in five cities before the broadcast sold out every seat, and the series received a 4.9 out of 5 rating from 1.06 million users on global platforms. Crunchyroll will introduce simultaneous dubbing—offering both subtitles and dubbing at the same time—for 'Temppal,' which airs next month.

There have also been cases where a Korean production company achieved success in Japan. Jayuro Pictures set a new record for the highest-ever Japanese viewership on Amazon Prime Original Video with the Japanese version of "Marry My Husband," combining support systems from both governments and local casting. The follow-up work, "Merry Berry Love," recognized as an official location support project by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, will be released via Disney+ on the 7th of next month.

Remaining obstacles were also discussed during a Korea-Japan audiovisual industry cooperation forum. Chun Jaewon, CEO of Jayuro Pictures, remarked, "It is realistically difficult to achieve a model of perfect joint IP ownership with an even 50-50 split." This is due to the complexity of sharing rights when generating profits and bridging the differences between the two countries' production practices.

Chun Jaewon, CEO of Jayuro Pictures, speaks about the Korea-Japan media collaboration project at the 'Korea-Japan Content Co-Production Week' held in Tokyo on the 29th. / Korea Creative Content Agency Tokyo Business Center.

Production structures also differ. In Korea, it is standard for the production studio to directly secure funding, acquire original rights, develop early scripts, and carry out main casting, securing a broadcast slot through network negotiations. In Japan, rights are held by a production committee comprised of multiple investors, while the production company remains a subcontractor. When the Korean side demands equal rights, friction can arise with the Japanese side, who are familiar with the committee system. Also, decision-making takes longer in Japan, which requires internal committee consensus, compared to Korea, where creators are able to make fast, centralized decisions.

Chun stressed, "Simply mixing nationalities through cross-casting actors is limited." He went on to emphasize, "By developing localization strategies and bringing together original IPs and scripts with global appeal from the earliest planning stages, production teams from both countries must form an organic collaborative relationship. Only then can a truly competitive co-production model take root in the global platform environment."

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