Franchising and Film in Japan: Transmedia Production and the Changing Roles of Film in Contemporary Japanese Media Cultures

Franchising practices in Japan are controlled by production committees that are collapsing the boundaries between media productions as Japan’s media industries work in collaboration to create large transmedia intertexts. This article examines the promotional discourses circulating around Japanese franchise fi lm releases to understand how these new franchising practices are affecting the roles and status of popular cinema in contemporary Japanese culture.