Japan extends location incentive to “industry friendly” two-year programme

Japan’s location incentive programme has been extended as a two-year programme, signalling increased support from the government for the film and TV production industry.

The incentive, which offers a 50% rebate on production costs, previously required annual approval by the government, which limited the months when selected projects could shoot.

The shift to a multi-year programme will ensure international productions can now visit in some of the best months of the year to film in Japan.

“The previous system meant we had to have our paperwork in by January, which meant we had to down tools by the end of November so had limited months to shoot in,” said Georgina Pope, head of production at Tokyo-based Toho Tombo Pictures.

“This new system is really a gamechanger in that the programme can run throughout the year. It has become industry friendly where before it was more government friendly.”

Pope, who worked on the Japan unit of The Smashing Machine and Marty Supreme spoke on a panel at the Focus conference in London today (December 9) where the extension was confirmed.

The incentive is funded by a supplemental budget measure titled JLOX+ and is not a permanent fixture in the government’s annual budget so previously required renewal each year.

It is managed by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), and operated by the Visual Industry Promotion Organisation (VIPO) with coordination from the Japan Film Commission.

VIPO and the Japan Film Commission are in conversation with METI, and further changes to the programme are expected to be announced at Cannes, where Japan will be the country of honour at the Marche du Film.

The location incentive was officially launched in 2023, following a pilot scheme, and currently has four application windows. It applies to selected productions whose direct production costs in Japan exceed $3.3m (¥500m) or whose total production costs exceed $6.7m (¥1bn) and whose direct production costs in Japan exceed $1.3m (¥200m). The upper limit for subsidies is $6.7m (¥1bn).

Feature films that shot in Japan and received support from the initiative include Brendan Fraser vehicle Rental Family, Benny Safdie’s sports biopic The Smashing Machine, which filmed in summer 2024 for A24; Ha-Chan Shake Your Booty from US filmmaker Josef Kubota Wladyka (Max’s Tokyo Vice); and David Tomaszew­ski’s fantasy film Yoroi, co-produced by Cine France and Japan’s Toho Tombo.

TV series that have benefited from the incentive include season two of Apple TV+’s Monarch: Legacy Of Monsters; South Korean drama What Comes After Love; and Neuromancer, an upcoming US adaptation of the 1984 William Gibson sci-fi novel, produced by Skydance Television and Anonymous Content with Japan’s Wowow.

This story originally appeared on Screen’s sister site Screen Global Production.