The action industry in Japanese film and drama is at a turning point. Samurai and ninja remain popular around the world, Japanese action and stunt techniques are drawing renewed attention, and demand from Hollywood and other overseas markets is growing. At the same time, the action directors, sword-fight choreographers, action actors and stunt performers on the front lines are gradually aging, and there are not enough young people ready to carry the next era.
So JAG decided to raise, from the ground up, the people who can carry the next generation of the action industry — and opened this school.
Why a "school"?
An action boom — and a labor shortage
What the 1980s action boom had was a place where young people could shine. In fact, JAG's founding members all entered the action industry in that era, and the people who built their careers on action sets in the 1990s and early 2000s are the ones now working on the front lines.
Action, however, takes budget, time and skill. After the 1980s boom faded, trendy dramas took over, fewer action works were made, and productions could rarely spare the budget or schedule action needs. Pay for professional action performers and stunt performers was low, and many professionals kept part-time jobs to keep doing action.
In the last few years the situation has changed dramatically. With the growth of streaming services, the arrival of international companies and more productions aimed at overseas markets — along with more live-action adaptations of manga — the number of works with action is increasing. Japan's action industry is now becoming short-handed, and more newcomer stunt performers can make a living without part-time work. In other words, an action-film boom has arrived.
What's needed next: people who can create the action set itself
The industry is doing well, but like the 1980s boom, we do not expect it to last forever. As production volume grows, we are concerned about a shortage of action directors and coordinators who can lead a set and keep it safe — and, at the same time, about inexperienced performers reaching sets more easily. Left as is, the quality of Japanese action could decline. JAG wants to use this second action boom so that it does not end as a passing trend, by producing many people who can create action content and rooting an environment in Japan where many action works — and the sets that make them — are produced.
Our goal is to establish the image of "Japan, a great nation of action content" throughout the world.
What do you learn, and what is the goal?
Being able to express "action" takes a great deal of learning. The JAG Action Creator School curriculum broadly covers the following:
[Action Practical Skills] [Directing] [Cinematography] [Video Editing] [Safety Management]
From high-end film and drama sets to social-media videos on YouTube and TikTok, people who can deliver professional action expression in any situation — Japan Action Guild defines such people as "Action Creators", and aims to send them out into the world.
More action creators means more action sets
Graduates can work in many places: on film, drama and commercial shoots or at stage shows and live-performance events, as action directors, coordinators or performers. Because students also learn cinematography and editing, they can work as social-media video creators or editors, and there are paths in games and other works that use motion capture. As our graduates' activities grow, so does the number of action sets.
We believe that producing such people — people who can work not only in Japan but around the world — can change the situation. And if anyone can produce them, it is JAG, whose members include some of Japan's top action directors, sword-fight choreographers and stunt coordinators.
JAG is looking for people who:
- Want to become actors with action as their weapon
- Want to use action to make social-media content
- Love action films
- Want to work in film or drama
- Want to make a living in entertainment
- Want to create video content with a difference
- Want to enter show business with action as a special skill
- Want to work as professional video creators
- Want creative weapons such as video, 3DCG and action directing
We pass on the skills to work as a professional in the future.
What matters is the drive to succeed in action
"I'm already in my late 20s / my 40s — isn't it too late?"
"I have no experience at all..."
We get many questions like these, but age and lack of experience are not big problems.
Students in their late 30s and 40s studied and graduated together in the first term. What matters most is "the will to see it through" and "openness".
Action and stunts certainly demand advanced skill and athleticism in many scenes, but there are also many roles in the process of creating action where you can make your mark.
