In conjunction with the Anime Festival Asia (AFA) 2016, the Cabinet Office of Japan has curated a booth in to showcase Japanese animation, digital content and Japanese culture to consumers throughout the event period (November 25-27, 2016).

On November 26, the Cabinet Office of Japan held a special talk session called "Imagination Drives Future" where the Japanese Minister of State for "Cool Japan" Strategy, Mr. Yosuke Tsuruho, gave a speech to over 1000 anime fans to communicate the attractions of different regions in Japan and its significance to anime and also robot technology brought about by the influence of anime. The special talk session was held at the AFA Main Stage and Mr. Tomotaka Takahashi, Associate Professor at University of Tokyo's Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, Robot Creator and CEO of ROBO GARAGE, also demonstrated his creation, RoBoHoN, to fascinated audience members. On November 28, Mr. Takahashi also conducted a special lecture titled, "The Creation of a New Robot Era," at Singapore Polytechnic.

In addition to the Cool Japan booth at AFA which was aimed toward consumers of Japanese digital content, the Cabinet Office of Japan and Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) organized a business seminar called "Japanese Content Drives Industries." Attended by over 100 C-suite and marketing executives, the seminar aimed to demonstrate the ways Japanese content can contribute to Singapore's economic activity through success stories from the front lines of content development.

The seminar was opened by Minister Tsuruho where he introduced the Cool Japan policy and spoke about the importance of content from the Japanese government's point of view. Minister Tsuruho also expressed belief that the combination of businesses in Singapore and Japanese content business can result in creation of new values out of the current content that both sides hold. He also affirmed that the "Japanese government, JETRO and similar agencies will do their best to support this endeavor."

The seminar consisted of 3 segments:

Segment 1: Dynamic Marketing in Synergy with Content

Mr. Mitsuhiko Goto, Chief of the Media Solution Office, MC Planning Division, Dentsu Inc.,  introduced examples on how anime and original characters in marketing activity can create a WIN-WIN situation for expanding businesses as well as content creators.

Segment 2: Why is "Midnight Diner" Being Adapted All over the World?

The Chief Movie Producer of the MIDNIGHT DINER series, Mr. Hitoshi Endo, shared examples of adaptations of Japanese content in different countries and the benefits of localizing Japanese content.

Segment 3: Artificial Intelligence Changing Future Communication Tools

Mr. Tomotaka Takahashi conducted a forum discussion on "The Current Development of Robots," "Commentary on AI Development Progression and Future Communication Tools," "The Future Robots," and "Content that Inspired Me."

After the seminar, participants were invited to a networking reception together with Minister Tsuruho and the speakers. The reception provided a platform for individuals to share their thoughts on Japanese content and also exchange ideas with other industry players.