The Income Security System in Japanese Traditional Performing Arts： A Strategy for Utilizing the Nation＇s Traditional Arts Resources

The objective of this paper is to examine an effective strategy for maintaining and utilizing the traditional arts resources of Japan. The authors explore two pillars of the strategy. One is to improve the quality of Japanese traditional performing arts by securing incomes for artists. The other is to utilize the traditional arts as a medium to expand Japanese cultural influence in foreign countries and to improve Japan＇s branding as a nation. First, the authors focus on the income security system practiced in traditional Japanese music and describe the discrepancy between short- and long-run optimality. The authors prove that the reputation of this art form affects its popularity and that it is optimal for the Iemoto （the head of the music school） to restrict the number of pupils in onstage performances in order to maintain stage quality. Second, the authors provide evidence that effective methods for a country to expand its cultural influence across the world differ among nations. The authors conduct willingness-to-pay （WTP） experiments and find that while German audiences largely prefer traditional Japanese music, those in the USA are slightly partial to its mixed fusion form. Therefore, the effective ways to expand Japanese cultural influence in foreign countries differ from one country to another.