Cool Japan Fund lost ¥54B exporting Japanese culture — now it may be scrapped

The Cool Japan Fund, a public-private investment vehicle established in 2013 as a pillar of the Abenomics growth strategy under then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, was created to promote Japanese culture and content overseas. The government invested 140.6 billion yen alongside 23 private companies including Dentsu and Mizuho Bank, with the aim of catalysing investment in projects too risky, or needing too long a horizon, for the private sector alone.

By the end of fiscal 2025 the fund had accumulated losses of 54 billion yen (about $334 million), on revenue of just 4.4 billion yen against a fiscal 2025 loss of 15.6 billion yen. High-profile bets failed — most dramatically Spiber Inc., a biomaterials maker in which the fund invested 14 billion yen in 2018 and 2021, a holding that was written off completely when Spiber posted a net loss of 40 billion yen.

Under public-private fund rules, the government must consider a merger or cuts once cumulative deficits miss improvement targets three times. The fund had already missed targets in fiscal 2020 and 2021, and failed again this time, prompting METI to set up a review panel to weigh possible consolidation or abolition. If abolished, the government would sell stakes in portfolio companies for far less than it paid.