Mr. Tsuguhiko Kadokawa Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Kadokawa Group Holdings, Inc.
Kadokawa has held various top positions in a range of Japanese companies in the motion picture industry, including Chairman of Tokyo International Film Festival, Chairman of Japan Video Software Association and Director of Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan. With his diverse experience across publishing and film, he is one of Japan’s most prominent industry figures.
The Kadokawa Group has a total of fifty-six affiliated companies and under its publishing arm, has published many manga titles that have become popular anime titles.
The group has expanded into the multimedia sector (namely video games) and has its own film and distribution company, Kadokawa Pictures that recently released ‘SORA NO OTOSHIMONO’ an adaptation from the hit manga published in Shonen Ace by Suu Minazuki.
The group owns Japanese original Ring series as well as more than 1,600 titles produced under the Daiei label, including the Zatoichi and Daimajin series.
Mr. Mamoru Hosada Director of SUMMER WARS’ and ‘THE GIRL WHO LEAPT THROUGH TIME’
Hosada’s latest film ‘SUMMER WARS’ was made with Madhouse and scriptwriter Satoko Okudera, and distributed by Warner Japan. The film explores the effects of digital culture and provides a social commentary between an analog world and one that has been in the animation industry for quite a while, and directed mostly family-oriented movies and shows. Aside from the critically acclaimed The Girl who Leapt Through Time, his previous works include Ashita no Nadja, the Digimon series as well as its movie.
Hosoda studied oil painting at the Kanazawa University of Arts and Crafts before becoming an animator for shows like Crying Freeman and Slam Dunk. Hosoda has previously collaborated with the artist Takashi Murakami on Superflat Monogram, a short piece screened exclusively in Louis Vuitton stores, and was initially commissioned by Studio Ghibli to direct Howl’s Moving Castle before the project was passed on over to its famous creator Hayao Miyazaki (who came out of retirement a second time), while Hosoda went off to make the One Piece movie Baron Matsuri and the Secret Island. Hosada was awarded Tokyo Anime Award for Best Director in 2007
Mr. Shiro Sasaki Chief Executive Officer, Flying Dog Inc.
Producer for many Anime Music Blockbusters
Sasaki has produced music for countless anime titles over the past 20 years, many of which are some of the world’s most popular classics. With Flying Dog, Sasaki works with his team of music talents like like May’n, Fiction Junction and Maaya Sakamoto, to stage popular anime music productions featuring “anison” music which has raised the popularity of music from anime shows into mainstream success.
Sasaki’s musical productions include. Hack series, Aquarion, Macross 7, Macross Plus, Rahxephon, Record of Lodess War, the Cardcaptor Sakura movies and Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex series.
Sasaki will speak about business opportunities related to anime music IP during the conference.
Mr. Kotaro Sugiyama Senior Vice President, Head of Solution (Strategy) / Creative Department, Dentsu Inc.
Sugiyama is an internationally renowned creator who has received worldwide attention. He has served as a jury member at the Cannes International Advertising Festival for two years, as well as being featured in the English periodical “Campaign”. Sugiyama has headed a large number of major creative campaigns, including those for Shogakukan (publisher), Seven-Eleven, Suntory, Toyota, and Sony, among many others.
In 1997, he became Deputy Director of the Interactive Solution Center, being in charge of Dentsu’s Digital Business Design Division and later, the Internet Business Division. In 2004, he was appointed as Executive Officer and Deputy Managing Director of the Media & Contents Business Headquarters.
Sugiyama is currently a Senior Vice President and Head of Dentsu’s Solution and Creative Division, a division which oversees all of Dentsu’s strategic and creative areas that are related to communication design, such as promotions, marketing, Internet and CRM.
He is also a committee member of the International Manga Award, which is an initiative started by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to promote Japanese Manga culture. Additionally, he is an author with a number of published books. Sugiyama’s current activities include lecturing at Rikkyo University and Tokyo Geijitsu Daigaku (Tokyo National University of Fine Arts & Music), specializing in the field of communication.
Sugiyama continues to be a leading figure in Dentsu’s new and innovative communication-related businesses. His unique strength and ability is backed by his extensive experience and expertise in both traditional as well as modern/interactive creative and media work.
Mr. Danny Choo Chief Executive Officer, Mirai Inc.
Top influencer of Japanese Pop Culture to the English-speaking world
Amongst all the English language blogs in the Japanese pop culture blogosphere, dannychoo.com is the most popular with over two million unique users and twenty million hits a month, Danny Choo has come a long way since he studied Japanese and Korean at London University.
After previously serving at Japan Airlines as a Computer Engineer, Amazon as Website Manager and Microsoft as a CGM Product Manager, Danny incorporated a Web solutions company called Mirai Inc. that specializes in providing e-commerce solutions. Clients include major Japanese companies like Good Smile Company and Kotobukiya amongst others.
Apart from being a full time enterpreneur, he is also a full time otaku/blogger where his main topics usually revolve around anime-related figurines, the pop-culture as well as life in Tokyo, and has been featured in media such as CNN, BBC, and G4TV, and recently picked up as "Best Japan Blog" on Forbes.
Mr. Edmund Shern Founder and CEO of Storm Lion Pte Ltd.
Senior Vice President at Radical Publishing
Shern is a writer/director/producer based in Singapore and Los Angeles. His latest projects include: ‘FREEDOM FORMULA’, which is currently produced by Bryan Singer for New Regency/Fox; in addition to producing ‘HISSS’, directed by Jennifer Lynch (Boxing Helena), he is also executive producing ‘SHRAPNEL’, directed by Len Wisemen (Die Hard 4.0); ‘ANIMAL SQUARES’ a production with Johnny Depp's Infinitum Nihil shingle; and the anime feature, ‘YONA YONA PENGUIN’ (Madhouse).
His two companies specialize in integrating publishing (graphic novels, books) into feature films/television and is now working on developing several comics to film projects including ‘GHOST MOON’, ‘NEBULOUS’ and ‘DRAGON IN THE SAND’.
Mr. Vince Shortino President, Crunchyroll Kabushiki Kaisha
San Fancisco based start up Crunchyroll is hands down the leader in the field of rebroadcasting Japanese Anime to the World over the Internet. Today, Crunchyroll simulcasts 20 shows with English subtitles to fans of anime around the globe. The revenue stream that Crunchyroll has created for the Anime industry is rapidly growing in size and importance. With 5 million unique users per month and over 100 fully licensed Anime series, Crunchryoll.com is by far the most popular website for Anime fans.
Today, Vince is the President of Crunchyroll Japan branch, where he and his team work hard on industry relations and content licensing. Vince's Japan-business career spans over 20 years. Before joining Crunchyroll, Vince headed up Skype in Japan, worked several years in the telecom industry with 3Com and he started his working career at Panasonic in Osaka. Vince also studied for 3 years at Sophia University in Tokyo.
Mr Phoon Chiong Kit Deputy Chairman, Imagi International Holdings Limited
Phoon is a veteran investment banker and private equity manager. Since taking up his current role as head of private equity at Winnington Capital Limited in 2008, Mr Phoon has driven the restructuring and turn around of CGI animation studio Imagi International Holdings Limited. He now sits on Imagi’s board as Deputy Chairman.
Prior to joining Winnington, Mr Phoon was Managing Director of Golden Harvest Entertainment (Holdings) Ltd, the leading Chinese filmed entertainment group in Asia. He held that position for 10 years until the company’s controlling shareholder sold in 2007. Mr Phoon came to Golden Harvest by way of Schroders Singapore Ltd, formerly known as Singapore International Merchant Bankers Ltd. He has a successful record in corporate reorganization and turnaround in Hong Kong and South East Asia. Notable transactions include the reorganization of Associated Hotels Ltd in 1986; the recovery of the Ka Wah Bank loan portfolio on behalf of the HK Monetary Affairs Board as a member of the Special Asset Section in between 1987 and 1989 and the reorganization of the Golden Harvest Entertainment Holdings Ltd.
Mr Phoon was also a founding director of Suez Asia Capital Management Ltd, one of the earliest venture capital firms in Hong Kong. Mr Phoon holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Singapore (now the National University of Singapore).
AAC's Emcee
Mr. Justin Sevakis MC, Panelist
Since founding Anime News Network in the summer of 1998, Justin Sevakis has worked in nearly every facet of the American anime industry, from content licensing to Blu-ray authoring. After learning the business at home video distributor Central Park Media (where he was a PR representative and video editor), Sevakis worked to develop the startup cable television network
ImaginAsianTV's technical infrastructure as well as its anime programming, home video label and theatrical division. He returned to Anime News Network in late 2007 as Director of New Media, and has since been developing ANN's own ad- supported video streaming services, as well as producing original
video content. He also co-hosts a weekly podcast on the business of anime ("ANNCast") and contributes a bi-weekly column on obscure back- catalog anime ("Buried Treasure").
