Much of the industry works in the red, money speaks loud and foreigners are quickly becoming the main buyers for it, with Sony trying to buy up all their competitors for streaming anime it only takes one man's whim to drastically alter what content is allowed
Sony doesn't exactly have as high a reputation in Japan as you think, especially with Japanese gamers and creators a like managing to push it off from its attempts to implement similar censorship plans as seen in California.
I know Sony isn't liked in Japan anymore, especially now that they force Japanese game devs to translate game submissions into English and send them into California in hopes of being approved when they have no intention of even releasing outside of Japan.
But regardless of how hated they are if the talks Sony and AT&T go through for Sony buying Crunchyroll, Sony will have a monopoly for Western anime streaming and as manga is greatly attached to anime with so much of it getting adopted into their own shows that gives huge influence to Sony no matter how hated they are, and Sony's not even the only American company buying up the industry
Not necessarily the government, but private enterprise could still pull it off.
Dismissing it cynically only serves to embolden the censors and repeat the cycle.
Much of the industry works in the red, money speaks loud and foreigners are quickly becoming the main buyers for it, with Sony trying to buy up all their competitors for streaming anime it only takes one man's whim to drastically alter what content is allowed
Sony doesn't exactly have as high a reputation in Japan as you think, especially with Japanese gamers and creators a like managing to push it off from its attempts to implement similar censorship plans as seen in California.
It's not a "done deal" that's dead on arrival.
I know Sony isn't liked in Japan anymore, especially now that they force Japanese game devs to translate game submissions into English and send them into California in hopes of being approved when they have no intention of even releasing outside of Japan.
But regardless of how hated they are if the talks Sony and AT&T go through for Sony buying Crunchyroll, Sony will have a monopoly for Western anime streaming and as manga is greatly attached to anime with so much of it getting adopted into their own shows that gives huge influence to Sony no matter how hated they are, and Sony's not even the only American company buying up the industry
China’s cancer company tencent has also been making moves into japan’s gaming industry as well. Just another thing to keep an eye on.