2008年から日本のビジュアルノベル(アドベンチャー、美少女、女性向け作品含む）を海外向けにローカライズし販売するMangaGamer及び日本アニメコンテンツ株式会社の代表を勤めてきましたが、この度代表を退任しました。

今後私は自身の音楽・バンド活動などに専念させて頂き、新社長に元開発部長の堀田浩二氏に事業を引き継がせて日本のビジュアルノベル文化を更に海外に広め続けて貰いたいと思っております。

実際にこの10年は、彼が中心となって現場を回していたのでご安心下さい。07th Expansion、Alicesoft、CLOCKUP、minori、MOONSTONE、NOVECT、waffleなどを含むたくさんの著名なメーカーを海外事業に踏み出すよう説得し、今日まで動かしてきたのは彼の功績ですし、彼とその仲間が動かなければこういった作品が英語で、またSteamで販売出来ていたかどうかすら分かりません。本人はMangaGamerのパッケージ版デザインなどに勤しんできた技術屋ですが、どうぞよろしくお願い致します。

日本のビジュアルノベルを海外展開するのは非常に大変でした。
当時の欧米圏では、ビジュアルノベルはゲームとしてほぼ認識されていませんでしたが、MangaGamerや業界による長年の広報活動によって今では新しいビジュアルノベル作品がSteamやSwitchなど、様々なプラットフォームで毎週のようにリリースされ、何千万人をも超えるユーザーに遊んで頂けるようになりました。

それでもビジュアルノベルの海外展開は今でも大変です。
例えばテキスト量が多いビジュアルノベルはどうしても翻訳費が膨大になってしまい、またアダルト作品の決済に関しては最近は国内でも厳しい状況にあります。ですがまだ海外では未発売の日本の作品がまだまだたくさんあります。こういった作品の海外版をMangaGamerでサポートする事はクリエイターにとっても活動が続けられる大きな助けになるかと思っております。

日本のビジュアルノベルを応援してくれている海外のファンの皆様、及び、ご協力頂いたメーカーの皆様に最大の感謝を贈りたいと思います。
今後もMangaGamerと堀田新社長を引き続きよろしくお願いします。

Since 2008 I’ve been representing MangaGamer in leading the effort to localize and sell visual novels from Japan to the global market. However, today I am announcing my retirement as president of MangaGamer and its parent company, Japan Animation Contents, Inc. I’m at the stage of my life where I want to concentrate on my music and band activities. But with that said, MangaGamer’s new president, Koji Hotta— formerly MangaGamer’s general manager—will continue to work to bring the visions of Japanese artists and creators to fans around the world.

Rest assured, MangaGamer is in good hands. Koji has essentially been at the helm of the company for the past ten years, and I couldn’t be more proud of him and the work he has done. Koji was essential in persuading many of MangaGamer’s key partners—such as Alicesoft, 07th Expansion, CLOCKUP, minori, MOONSTONE, NOVECT, and Waffle just to name a few—to step into the overseas market, and were it not for his leadership and team, it’s an open question as to whether any of these titles would have ever been available in English, letalone sold on Steam. Koji is a tech-savvy guy too, and he enjoys designing hardcopy packaging for MangaGamer and has done so for many years. I hope you can give him your support going forward!

Following MangaGamer’s inception, marketing Japanese visual novels to the western video game market was an uphill battle with both the market’s unfamiliarity with the medium and questions from even within the industry as to whether visual novels even qualify as games at all. However, thanks to the publishing and PR efforts of MangaGamer’s staff and the rest of the industry as a whole, visual novels are now published on Steam, Switch, and other platforms every week, allowing tens of millions of fans around the world to enjoy these works now.

That being said, there are still many challenges facing the visual novel industry today. For one, localization costs can be quite high given the sheer volume of text involved in any one of these games. And payment processors have historically proven hostile to adult content, even here in Japan. There are still many properties here in Japan that are yet to be translated and made available overseas, but Koji and I both understand how important our work localizing these titles can be when it comes to supporting creators and ensuring that they can keep creating the games they want to make for all of us, so I’m looking forward to MangaGamer’s continued growth under his leadership.

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all our fans who love visual novels and have supported us all these years, as well as our partners who've worked with us. Please continue to support MangaGamer and President Hotta as they continue to work hard to bring these games from Japan to the world!