It appears that the plans for the highly anticipated Manga Museum aka the “anime hall of fame” has been shelved. The building was officially referred to as a national media arts center and was meant to be a place where people could study manga comics, their historical context, behind-the-scenes details etc.

This project has been the source of much controversy for a long time now. Many who were against it pointed out that it was a costly endeavor. They figured that there were better ways to promote manga and anime to the outside world. Well, looks like these protests were taken to heart by the new bigwigs in power. Soon after the newly-elected PM Yukio Hatoyama came to power, the government announced that the media center was getting the chop.

You can understand why they were apprehensive about such a  project. It would have been an expensive project and seemed rather fool-hardy in times of global recession. In such cases, the argument that 'Hey, it'll bring in more tourists and, thus, more money' didn't seem like a good enough reason.

As it is, I don't think some of the powers that be are against manga promotion per se. They appear to prefer other methods of encouraging young talent and providing help to artists. I am not sure what their take is on the whole tourism angle but then again, they are pro-building manga-based statues. You can tell many of the authority figures take pains to point out their leanings towards the comic culture. The newbie PM himself has referred to his favorite manga and anime series in various news sources. Clearly that is also showing pride in a cultural good that is highly valued, locally and abroad.