Get Licensing & Rights Information for Adaptation Opportunities from Japan Book Bank
Do you know what the movie “Silence” directed by Martin Scorsese, “The Pillow Book” with Ewan McGregor and Vivian Wu, and “Edge of Tomorrow” with Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt have in common? These movies are all derived from Japanese books. Japan’s rich literary history has been an infinite source of inspiration for moviemakers. From manga to historical journals to dramatic epics to contemporary science fiction masterpieces, works written by Japanese authors span the spectrum. The number of popular films, both live-action and animated, derived from Japanese books is much larger than many audiences may realize.
The Visual Industry Promotion Organization launched The Japan Book Bank (JBB), the largest Japanese publishing contents catalog in March 2021. This service is Co-Operated by Japan Book Publishers Association (JBPA) and supported by Tohan, one of the main publication distributors in Japan.
The JBB aims to introduce Japanese book titles worldwide for the purpose of translation and visualization and adaptation (animation, film, etc.). As of August 15th, they have 88 publishers with 1,194 titles in 16 genre categories registered in this service. Every title registered in this service aims to introduce overseas copyrights traders, agents, publishers, and motion picture industry officials. The site enables you to find the Japanese publishing contents by its title, author, publishers, issued date, and the ISBN. On each page of the title, you can see the rights information, the abstract, author’s information, bibliographic information, and the interest in adaptation. Once you create your own account, you can check the detailed information on rights availability and find the licensor contact. The service allows you to browse this information all at once at no cost!
For more information, visit Japan Book Bank’s website.
The Japan Book Publishers Association will host a booth at Frankfurt Book Fair from October 20-24, 2021 featuring a Japan Book Bank display with over 400 titles. Find them in Hall 6.0 C129
