Yitang designed and ran the first Japan Creative Industries Study Tour for Tencent Interactive Entertainment Group (IEG), held in Tokyo from 13 to 18 October.
Japan is the most dynamic source of original entertainment in the world, home to top game companies and producers and a world-class force in animation, television, film and design.
Creating games and animation has much in common with the way a craftsman hones a piece of work: both demand enormous time and design effort, an uncompromising standard of quality, and countless rounds of carving and polishing before the work is complete...
This visit was built around face-to-face conversations with the masters: how they bring that craftsmanship to their work, read what players want, fold in their own understanding of culture and entertainment, and create products with depth, a great user experience and appeal for the whole world.
Expert talks and discussions
Hideki Kamiya (神谷英樹)
Game designer
A member of PlatinumGames and former producer in Capcom's Production Studio 4, his credits include Resident Evil, Devil May Cry, Viewtiful Joe, Okami and Bayonetta.
Atsushi Inaba (稲葉敦志)
Game designer
A member of PlatinumGames, former head of Capcom's Production Studio 9 and president of Clover Studio, his credits include Devil May Cry, Bomberman and Ace Attorney.
Shinichiro Inoue (井上伸一郎)
Former President of Kadokawa Shoten, now Senior Managing Executive Officer
Credits include Your Name, The Miracles of the Namiya General Store, Legend of the Demon Cat and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time.
Hajime Tabata (田畑端)
Game producer, CEO of JP Games
A producer at Square Enix from 2004 to 2018, he led development on the Final Fantasy series; his signature title, Final Fantasy XV, has sold more than 10 million copies across console and PC.
In 2018 he left to found his own studio, JP Games.
Kensuke Tanaka (田中謙介)
Game producer
A producer at Kadokawa Games and head of the doujin circle C2 Kikan, best known for the browser game Kantai Collection (KanColle).
Hayato Date (伊達勇登)
Acclaimed anime director and producer
Credits include Naruto, Naruto Shippuden and Saiyuki.
Tenmon, a.k.a. Atsushi Shirakawa (白川篤史 / 天門)
Renowned composer
A composer for video games and animation, he joined Nihon Falcom in 1990 and scored celebrated series including Brandish and The Legend of Heroes.
His anime credits include Makoto Shinkai's 5 Centimeters per Second, She and Her Cat, Voices of a Distant Star, Children Who Chase Lost Voices and ef: A Tale of Memories; his game credits include The Legend of Heroes and Brandish series.
Daichi Nakagawa (中川大地)
Noted anime and game critic, visiting professor at Meiji University
Also deputy editor of the culture magazine PLANETS, he has written and edited books including A Complete History of Modern Games: A Civilisational View of Play, A New Era of Game Studies and Tokyo Tree Theory.
Company visits
Kadokawa
Leading Japanese publisher
Founded in 1945, Kadokawa has grown far beyond publishing: through its parent Kadokawa Corporation it spans print media, film, software and games. Beyond magazines, its light-novel imprints have incubated major IP including Sword Art Online, A Certain Magical Index, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend.
Shochiku
One of Japan's big five film studios
Shochiku's history stretches back more than a century to 1895, when it began running traditional theatres in Kyoto. From its founding it has been in live performance as well as film, including kabuki, opera, comedy and symphony, and it built some of Japan's most famous performing-arts venues, among them the Kabukiza in Tokyo and the Minamiza in Kyoto.
ANIPLEX
Sony Music's anime company
Commonly abbreviated ANX, Aniplex is a subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment Japan that plans, produces and distributes animation, and a full member of the Association of Japanese Animations.
Aniplex has been involved in at least 200 anime productions, including the planning, production and distribution of TV series, feature films and OVAs.
