Collaborative project aims to drive the growth of Japanese music industry

The Japan Culture and Entertainment Industry Promotion Association (CEIPA) is collaborating with the Toyota Group to launch the Music Way Project aimed at supporting and driving the globalisation and sustainable growth of the Japanese music industry.

The market for entertainment content is expanding with lifestyle changes brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise of the streaming business, and Japanese culture is capturing international attention. As Japanese content continues to excite people around the world, the Music Way Project will focus on nurturing talent and creating opportunities for those who take on the world through music based on the slogan ‘Japanese music drives the world’.

This project will serve as a guide for young musicians by helping refine their talents so they can thrive internationally, including discovering talented students, training young people in the music industry, and holding workshops with creators.

The project will also create opportunities by promoting Japanese culture in Japan and overseas, including the use of the new arena in Tokyo's Odaiba Aomi area, scheduled to open in 2025 - Toyota Arena Tokyo.

The project will also organise live performance showcases that share the appeal of Japanese music in cities in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. Furthermore, the project will collaborate with the Toyota Group’s overseas bases to support relationship-building activities that serve as a foothold for global activities. In doing so, the project will provide opportunities for young talent to play an even greater role.

CEIPA Chair of the Board Shunsuke Muramatsu noted "CEIPA was established by five major music organisations to expand Japan's entertainment industry and promote it globally. We want to prepare a path for the young people who will pave the way for the future of Japanese music to connect across borders.

“To achieve this, we will develop projects that promote the creation of people and opportunities necessary for this purpose. Mr. Akio Toyoda is the strongest and most powerful supporter of our project, who shares our vision and is willing to lend us his strength."

Toyota Group Representative Akio Toyoda added "when I was President of Toyota Motor Corporation, my driving force was my love for Japan. I hope that Japan will continue to be a country that is needed by the world. When I learned that Japanese entertainment is also trying to compete globally for Japan, it made me genuinely want to support it. Toyota vehicles have stories and music also has stories. What is even more interesting is that each person who drives or listens has their own story as well. We want to make cars more emotional, so I feel that Toyota has much more to learn from music."

The Japan Culture and Entertainment Industry Promotion Association (CEIPA) is an organisation crossing organisational boundaries comprising five major entities in the music industry: the Recording Industry Association of Japan, the Japan Association of Music Enterprises, the Federation of Music Producers Japan, the Music Publishers Association of Japan, and the All Japan Concert and Live Entertainment Promoters Conference. They established CEIPA to contribute to the sustainable growth of Japan's arts and culture industries by promoting projects that will revitalise these industries and expand talent development and cultural dissemination activities, thereby achieving the globalisation and digitisation that Japan's arts and culture industries must do to survive.

CEIPA will hold the Music Awards Japan in May 2025 as one of its main projects to disseminate music from Japan and other Asian countries to the world, increasing Japanese music culture's global reputation, while also promoting the entry of overseas artists into the Japanese market.

The Toyota Group is also slated to be a sponsor of this event.

Image. CEIPA x Toyota Group 'Music Way Project' Announcement. From left: Akio Toyoda, Toyota Group Representative; Shunsuke Muramatsu, Chair of the Board of CEIPA; Shunichi Tokura, Composer/Producer, Commissioner for Cultural Affairs