GENERATIVE AI
AND MANGA:

Left: Sadoshima (farright) attends a meetingas a member of theCabinet Office’s AI
Strategy Council.
Right: Sadoshima, whoused to work for a
publishing company,
brought the popularmanga Space Brothers
to the world as aneditor. The manga’sauthor, KOYAMA
Chuya, is under anagency contract withCork.

TAKING ADVANTAGE OF JAPAN’S STRENGTH IN REFINEMENT
Generative AI is a rapidly advancing technology. How will it impact such entertainment as anime, manga, andvideogames, all of which represent Japan’s soft power? The big question for creators is how to make the best use of AI.
Japan’s anime, manga, and videogames haveglobal fan bases. Recently, generative AI, a productof remarkable technological innovation, has begun
significantly impacting those kinds of entertainment.
While the pool of potential creators is expanding,some have called for guidelines governing the useof AI across borders. In 2023, G7 leaders endorsed
the Hiroshima AI Process Comprehensive Policy

SADOSHIMA Yohei, President
and CEO of Cork, Inc. His
agency has signed numerous
creators, editing their work,
creating their e-books, andmanaging their copyrights, fancommunities, social media,character merchandise planningand sales.
CORKFramework, the first international framework aiming
to promote safe, secure, and trustworthy advanced AIsystems.
How should AI be managed in the context
of Japanese entertainment? “AI itself holds only
potential. That’s why it’s important to know how
to use and fine-tune it in a way that creates diverse,
appealing kinds of entertainment, which is Japan’s

KOYAMA CHUYA,SPACE BROTHERS, KODANSHA

forte,” says SADOSHIMA Yohei, President andCEO of Cork, Inc., and a member of the Cabinet
Office’s AI Strategy Council. After working as amanga editor at a publishing company, he founded
Cork, an agency for creators, putting him in aposition to protect those creators’ rights.
He says, “For example, the internal combustion
engine was invented abroad, but Toyota Motor
Corporation succeeded worldwide by improving its
quality in the form of better automobiles. That shows
how Japan excels at making products that are easy touse. In terms of AI, there is a good possibility thatJapan can take a leadership role in various industries
by providing unique services that can do subtle thingsin the form of fine tuning.”
One positive outcome that AI will bring to Japaneseentertainment content is the ability, in Sadoshima’s
words, “to break down language barriers.” If AI
could take on the task of translation, creators could
distribute more of their works overseas, while fansworldwide could enjoy new releases without delay.
While some manga artists are starting to utilizeAI, he says, there are still some things that AI cannot
do. For instance, it can create the setting for sciencefiction manga, and interacting with it is an effective
way to “brush up” a work to make it more interesting,no matter what genre it is. However, AI cannot
understand the subtle “waves” and changes in humanemotions.
There is also the question of managing the copyrightprotections that AI might threaten. Sadoshima

thinks that copyrights are not about prohibitions
and protections. “Rather, I believe that they serve togenerate profit. In the future, I expect that the rules
for how we manage copyrights will change rapidly,
and that will be done in many ways. In our era, thequestion for the agents protecting authors’ rights will
be whether they have accumulated the knowledge tomanage copyrights in various cases.”He also points out that “Japan has the advantageof being able to adapt quickly to the diversifying
entertainment landscape.” As a case in point, theworld’s first VTubers (virtual YouTubers) came fromthis country. Japan, meanwhile, continues to produce
a wide variety of quality content that captivates theworld, including anime, manga, and videogames, allof which are conducive to integration with AI.Although not a work directlyinvolving Cork or Sadoshima,
Cyberpunk: Peach John, theworld’s first full-color comic
drawn with an AI image
generator, was released byShinchosha in 2023.
ROOTPORT, CYBERPUNK: PEACH JOHN,SHINCHOSHA