{"id":62924,"date":"2026-03-13T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=62924"},"modified":"2026-03-13T15:23:34","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T06:23:34","slug":"japanese-government-makes-indie-game-developers-eligible-for-grants-of-up-to-60000-usd-covering-production-costs-and-promotion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japanese-government-makes-indie-game-developers-eligible-for-grants-of-up-to-60000-usd-covering-production-costs-and-promotion\/","title":{"rendered":"Japanese government makes indie\u00a0game\u00a0developers eligible for grants of up to $60,000 USD, covering production costs and promotion\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Japan\u2019s Ministry of Economy,&nbsp;Trade&nbsp;and Industry (METI)&nbsp;recently&nbsp;announced&nbsp;a new support&nbsp;initiative aimed at&nbsp;boosting the global competitiveness of Japan\u2019s content industries,&nbsp;including&nbsp;significant measures targeting game developers.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Called&nbsp;<strong>IP360<\/strong>&nbsp;and nicknamed \u201csanrokumaru\u201d&nbsp;in Japan,&nbsp;the program&nbsp;will provide funding&nbsp;for the creation of new IPs,&nbsp;and notably,&nbsp;it&nbsp;makes&nbsp;even&nbsp;indie developers eligible for grants of up to 10 million yen (about $62,000 USD), according to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/gamemakers.jp\/article\/2026_03_11_133119\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">GameMakers.<\/a>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>IP360 is part of&nbsp;METI\u2019s broader efforts to push domestic content like anime and games in&nbsp;the overseas market. The government has set a target of increasing annual overseas revenue related to Japanese content to 20 trillion yen (or about&nbsp;$125.5 billion USD), and in 2025, this goal&nbsp;was&nbsp;elevated to an \u201cofficial national policy\u201d through a cabinet decision&nbsp;(source:&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/news.denfaminicogamer.jp\/kikakuthetower\/260312q\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Denfaminicogamer<\/a>).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1779\" height=\"840\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1779px) 100vw, 1779px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20241213-62924-header.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-62926\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20241213-62924-header.jpg 1779w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20241213-62924-header-380x179.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20241213-62924-header-768x363.jpg 768w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20241213-62924-header-1536x725.jpg 1536w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Against that background, the IP360 program&nbsp;is&nbsp;meant&nbsp;to support&nbsp;activities&nbsp;like&nbsp;creating new IPs and expanding them&nbsp;internationally. The initiative includes several funding&nbsp;options,&nbsp;but the&nbsp;\u201cNew IP Creation Support (Startup Support)\u201d&nbsp;program (unofficial translation)&nbsp;has been at the center of attention among Japanese&nbsp;devs&nbsp;ever since it was announced.&nbsp;Unlike many government funding programs that require a registered company, the startup support&nbsp;program&nbsp;is open to individuals and&nbsp;unincorporated entities,&nbsp;making it&nbsp;a&nbsp;very&nbsp;attractive option for&nbsp;indies.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The grant provides, according to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/indiegamesjp.dev\/?p=11330\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">IndieGamesJP<\/a>,&nbsp;a subsidy rate of up to 50% of eligible costs&nbsp;and maximum funding of 10 million yen. The money can be used for multiple stages of development, including pre-production, production, post-production (including localization)&nbsp;and&nbsp;promotion.&nbsp;Additional&nbsp;examples of what \u201celigible costs\u201d&nbsp;means include:&nbsp;commissioning artists or composers, travelling to overseas conventions,&nbsp;and&nbsp;communication expenses&nbsp;related to the project.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To apply for the program, developers will have to present a prototype and business plan that\u00a0explicitly\u00a0involves international\u00a0distribution\u00a0(such as localizing and releasing the game overseas), which makes sense given IP360\u2019s purpose.\u00a0Projects based on existing IPs such as sequels and remakes\u00a0are not eligible for the program.\u00a0On the\u00a0flip side, METI guarantees that it will not interfere whatsoever when it comes to the project\u2019s creative choices and content,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/no-interference-in-creative-works-japanese-government-proposes-new-policy-for-anime-and-game-expansion-in-the-west\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reiterating on\u00a0existing policies<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the past few years, Japan\u2019s indie scene has\u00a0seen\u00a0several\u00a0massive hits, with even\u00a0small,\u00a0solo-developed\u00a0titles like The Exit 8\u00a0evolving into\u00a0global\u00a0multi-media\u00a0franchises. In this sense,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0not surprising that\u00a0there\u2019s\u00a0now a conscious effort to capitalize on the domestic indie scene\u2019s potential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Related: <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/the-exit-8-movie-producer-on-how-a-game-without-a-story-became-japans-highest-grossing-live-action-film-of-2025\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Exit 8 movie producer on how a game without a story became Japan\u2019s highest-grossing live-action film of 2025\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/overwhelmingly-positive-indie-visual-novel-magical-girl-witch-trials-surpasses-500000-units-sold-and-25000-reviews-less-than-a-year-after-launch\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>\u201cOverwhelmingly Positive\u201d indie visual novel Magical Girl Witch Trials surpasses 500,000 units sold and 25,000 reviews less than a year after launch<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Japan\u2019s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) has launched &#8220;IP360,&#8221; a program that will provide funding for new IPs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":24857,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[64,3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-62924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-development","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Japanese government makes indie\u00a0game\u00a0developers eligible for grants of up to $60,000 USD, covering production costs and promotion\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Japan\u2019s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) has launched &quot;IP360,&quot; a program that will provide funding for new IPs.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japanese-government-makes-indie-game-developers-eligible-for-grants-of-up-to-60000-usd-covering-production-costs-and-promotion\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Japanese government makes indie\u00a0game\u00a0developers eligible for grants of up to $60,000 USD, covering production costs and promotion\u00a0 - 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Currently devoted to growing Automaton West to the size of its Japanese sister-site, while making sure to keep news concise and developer stories deep and stimulating.","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/author\/amber-vjestica\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62924"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62924\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62927,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62924\/revisions\/62927"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}