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

Joint productions that combine Korean intellectual property (IP) with Japan's production capabilities are generating results in the global market. However, differences in rights distribution and production practices remain as challenges to overcome.

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

At the “Korea-Japan Content Co-Production Week” hosted by the Korea Creative Content Agency in Tokyo on the 29th, government agencies and companies from both countries consecutively presented various policies and cases.

Song Jin, Head of Policy Research Division at the Korea Creative Content Agency, unveiled the “Next K” initiative. While K-content exports have grown 10.4-fold over the past 20 years, growth has recently slowed and production costs are rising.

Song introduced “Made with Korea” as a core direction of “Hallyu 5.0,” emphasizing, “It is time to move beyond ‘Made in Korea’ and adopt the perspective of ‘Made with Korea.’” He outlined a plan to actively partner with overseas production infrastructure and professionals. Drawing from the Japanese production committee experience, he noted that it offers lessons on extending IP lifespans and strengthening competitiveness.

Japan is moving in the same direction. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) identified content as one of seventeen national strategic industries. METI projected the economic ripple effect to be 32.6 trillion yen, making it the third largest after artificial intelligence (AI), semiconductors, and new drug development. The goal is to increase overseas sales to 2 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 direction is to create content in Japan and distribute it worldwide. However, Hiroyuki Oiwa, Assistant Director of the Cultural and Creative Industries Office of the Commerce and Service Industry Policy Group at METI, stated that “there are limits to producing only among Japanese people within Japan,” and revealed plans to establish a system that allows foreign creators to collaborate with Japanese counterparts on Japanese soil.

The large-scale production support project under METI's IP360 initiative backs this vision. The project includes general support and location support. Only Japanese corporations can apply for general support, but Korean companies can participate through outsourcing or subcontracting. For location support, works produced by foreign companies are eligible if Japanese corporate investment accounts for less than 50% and on-location production spending in Japan exceeds 800 million yen. The upper limit for both types of support is 1.5 billion yen.

The targeted collaborations of these policies are already delivering results. Crunchyroll, a global streaming platform under the Sony Group, has spearheaded turning Korean webtoons into animation, starting with “Tower of God” in 2020, followed by “The God of High School” and “I Alone Level Up.” Kanako Takahashi, Co-Production Producer at the Crunchyroll Animation team, stated, “We believed that combining Korea’s outstanding IP with Japan’s excellent animation production technology could create globally successful hits.”

Animation still cut from I Alone Level Up.

“I Alone Level Up” was co-produced by Aniplex and A-1 Pictures of Japan, targeting the global market from the planning stage. When adapting the Korean webtoon, the challenge of name and place localization was resolved with dual audio tracks: one featuring the global protagonist Sung Jinwoo and the other featuring the Japanese protagonist Shun Mizushino.

The world premieres held in five cities before the broadcast were all sold out, and it received an average rating of 4.9 out of 5 (based on 1.06 million reviews) on global platforms. Crunchyroll will introduce “simuldubbing”—simultaneous release of subtitles and dubbed audio—for “Quest Supremacy,” airing next month.

There are also cases where a Korean production company has succeeded in Japan. Jayuro Pictures, leveraging government support from both countries and local casting, produced the Japanese version of “Marry My Husband,” which set a record for the highest viewership among Amazon Prime original videos in Japan. Its follow-up, “Merry Berry Love,” is an official METI location-supported project and will be released on Disney+ on October 7.

Yet, issues to overcome were also raised during discussions on bilateral industry cooperation. Chun Jaewon, CEO of Jayuro Pictures, said, “It is realistically difficult to create a model where IP is owned jointly on a perfect 50-50 basis.” This is due to complex calculations regarding how to divide rights during revenue generation and how to bridge differences in production practices between the two countries.

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.

The production structures also differ. In Korea, it is typical for the production company to directly secure funding, acquire original rights, develop the initial script, and proceed with main casting before negotiating broadcast placement with television networks. In Japan, a production committee comprising multiple investors holds the rights, with the production company serving mainly as a subcontractor. When the Korean side seeks equal rights, it can easily cause friction with the Japanese side, which is accustomed to the committee system. Decision-making in Japan, which requires internal committee consensus, also takes longer compared to Korea, where creators play a central role in making rapid decisions.

Chun added, “There are limits to simply mixing nationalities by having actors make cross-appearances.” He emphasized, “To establish a joint production model with competitiveness in the global platform environment, localization strategies must be formulated and production teams from both countries must organically combine from the initial planning stage, based on original IP and scripts that can succeed globally.”

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