If it feels like Japan has been ever-present in pop culture for the past decade,that isn’t an accident. Back in 2013, the Japanese government established the Cool Japan Fund with the aim of investing in projects that would push the country’s cultural influence in overseas markets. However, that time has ended as Japan has decided to withdraw funding from the Cool Japan Fund in the 2027 fiscal year.
While the success of the anime and manga industries in the US could be tied to the Cool Japan Fund, it ultimately wasn’t a good investment. Since its establishment in 2013, the Cool Japan Fund has accumulated around 54 billion yen ($351.5 million) in debt. That was the thing that ultimately sealed its fate; in August 2026, the Japanese government announced that they would abolish the fund rather than try to pull it out of debt.
One of the most notable projects that the Cool Japan Fund invested in wasKadokawa’s efforts to encourage manga and anime artists outside of Japan. However, even as they seemed to be succeeding in their aim,the fund itself wasn’t able to profit from these efforts. Even as Japanese ‘soft power’ spread across the globe, the specific companies and initiatives that the Cool Japan Fund picked up routinely failed to return their investment.
The Cool Japan Fund was a Public-Private investment fund, which mixed taxpayer money with private investments. It is currently unclear how much of that $351.5 million debt the Japanese public is responsible for.
