11 Comments
User's avatar
Tim Bunting - Kiwi Yamabushi's avatar

Wait… Spiber! That’s down the road from us, I had (keyword) tons of friends who worked there, they went into private liquidation!!

Matt Alt's avatar

Cool Japan, dude!

Tim Bunting - Kiwi Yamabushi's avatar

Turns out Spiber was 26% of the loss, and 90% from the last year… wonder if we’ll ever see Cool Japan again?! It’s not really a question anymore though is it!

Matt Alt's avatar

The Fund put 14 billion yen into Spiber, urged on by MOFA, according to the Asahi. And the company still just goes poof? Man, does that whole thing sound fishy.

Tim Bunting - Kiwi Yamabushi's avatar

So I think they put it in a while back, including in 2021 when things were looking quite bad, so yes it does sound fishy.

KOF11's avatar

$330 million is roughly equivalent to one-quarter of Ubisoft's recent losses.

Matt Alt's avatar

Good comparison. Another: Disney lost $300 million on The Marvels. All of this goes to show that the fund wasn’t really a major player in comparison to other entertainment/pop culture investment efforts.

Buzen's avatar

How does it compare to what was spent on Trump’s UFC fight on the White House lawn?

Matt Alt's avatar

That was, according to reports, 60 million USD. So Japan could stage FIVE kaiju-wrestling events in front of Parliament for what Cool Japan Fund lost.

YF's avatar

> weirdos with taste

Immediately jump to mind are Aogiri High School and Sora the Troll.

Korey Martin's avatar

Sign me up.