Collaborative Authors without Rights: Creative Consumption, Intellectual Property and the Governance of Global Cultural-Commodity Chain of Japanese Animation, Manga and Subcultural Goods

While Japanese animation, manga and subcultures (for example, hatsune miku or niconico dôga) now became a widely discussed creative industry both within and outside Japan under the slogan of “Cool Japan,” current discussion focused mainly on either its production or consumption side. Yet given the rise of the amateur derivatives creation movement (or niji-sôsaku in general discussion within Japan), the division between production and consumption is no longer distinctively clear. This new trend requires our re-conceptualization of the cultural industry.

Taking an economic-sociological view, this paper will take the framework of “global cultural-commodity chain” that derives from discussion on “global commodity chain” and “global value chain.” Through interviewing with different players in the chain like mangers of copyrights in established publishing firm, amateur manga writers and managers, as well as other players in the commodity chain, the research pays attention to different steps within the long chain of production, distribution and consumption of Japanese animation, manga and subcultural goods, which were now produced widely with the help of the internet. By locating and identifying major players in the distribution sector, the paper wishes to develop a more sophisticated picture of the newly developed cultural-commodity chain of Japanese subcultural goods, in which creative consumption will gradually be re-incorporated back to the production side. In the case of Japan, the global idea of intellectual property remains ironically contested among producers and consumers. Players rather take a more cultural-specific model of consensus-making instead of taking the concept of intellectual property right legally in organizing collaborative creative works. It presents a framework to analyze especially the impact brought by consumers, who actively participate in the amateur creation and distribution of these amateur products, thus transforming the landscape of the cultural industry as well as concepts like originality, copyright and cultural commodities.