CIRPA Trade Mission To Japan

Summary: The Canadian Embassy in Tokyo hosted the largest ever trade mission of representatives from the Canadian Independent Record Production Association (CIRPA) to Asia from November 4-9, 2008. Over 30 Canadian delegates attended representing 20 different companies including Arts&Crafts, Marquis Records, Paperbag Records and MaGaDa. To ensure value for the money invested in this mission, the Embassy of Canada invited other missions in the region resulting in the participation of Hong Kong and Korea. As a result of this mission, many deals are presently under negotiation with outcomes expected to be announced in the near future. With Japan being the world’s second biggest market for pre-recorded music, this trip had been long overdue.

CIRPA delegation attending a Japan market orientation session.

Report:

1) The two day Embassy program began on November 6th with a Japan market orientation for delegation members which included presentations by Japanese business leaders covering all different sectors of the music industry. The Embassy was very fortunate to have the participation of representatives from Hong Kong and Seoul who presented market overviews on their countries, making this a truly regional affair.

Embassy Cultural Officer, Sebastian Mair

2) In the evening, a showcase was held in the Embassy’s Oscar Peterson Theatre featuring artists Hillario Duran, Hawksley Workman, Justin Nozuka and Jason Collett. The positive reaction of the industry focussed audience to the showcase was much appreciated by the artists, the Ontario Media Development Corporation (OMDC), which sponsored the event, and the CIRPA delegation. The Canadian artists truly highlighted the great diversity of Canada’s population as well as the music industry today. The concert was followed by a networking reception which was also hosted by the OMDC.

Hawksley Workman

3) On November 7th, the Embassy hosted a flurry of activities beginning with Canadian label presentations to the Japanese music industry followed by a trade market fair during which representatives from the Japanese and Canadian music industries networked and negotiated through one-on-one meetings . Over 250 music industry and press representatives came through the Embassy for the day’s events, with the majority coming away with very positive impressions of our music industry, reinforcing Canada’s image as a leader in this sector – both artistically and from a business stand-point.

Justin Nozuka performing in the Embassy’s Oscar Peterson Theatre

4) Japan is the world’s second largest market for pre-recorded music and it is the Embassy’s intention to ensure that Canada gets its market share. Our efforts are facilitated in Japan with the special interest in Canadian artists. The top selling international artists in Japan for the last 2 years have been Canadian with Avril Lavigne leading for 2007 and Daniel Powter, who debuted in the Embassy’s Oscar Peterson Theatre, winning the title in 2006. This year, bands like Sum 41 have hit #1 on the international sales chart in Japan, while new artists like DB Clifford and Matt Dusk have reached #1 on the radio charts. Missions such as this one will certainly help Canadian artists and companies to continue the wave of success which Canadian music has found in this country.

Comments: We have recently received a lot of extremely positive press coverage concerning the CIRPA mission and we expect to see very favourable commercial results for both the participating companies and artists in the coming months. This was the first mission of this kind to come to Asia and the first time for a group of this size representing the Canadian music industry to participate in an international event other than the standard music industry conference. At the closing reception hosted by the Ambassador, the majority of the CIPRA delegates expressed a strong interest to making this an annual event. As the music industry generally thrives on personal relationships and the fact that Japanese also base decision-making on personal interactions, we are hopeful that this mission is just the beginning of what is yet to come. We understand that there are business negotiations being conducted with our regional partners who participated in the mission which hopefully will result in favourable outcomes for those countries as well. We take this opportunity to thank everyone who assisted in making this mission a success with a special thanks to the missions in Hong Kong and Seoul, whose participation really added value to the mission.

Trade Fair held with 20 Canadian companies

Drafted by: S. Mair / Consulted and approved: C. Nakamura