AOKI Tamotsu / Commissioner for Cultural Affairs

The Japan Media Arts Festival celebrates its 12th anniversary this year.
Each time we hold the festival, the number of entries increases. This year, we received 2,146 applications, the most ever.

I am delighted that Japanese media arts such as animation, manga, and games have become established as an aspect of Japanese culture of which we can feel proud.This year, there were 512 entries from 43 overseas countries and regions. I feel that this festival has now gained international recognition, and grown to a point where it is held in high esteem as a comprehensive festival of media arts.
At the exhibition of award-winning works, we exhibit and screen works that garnered the Grand Prize and the Excellence Prize in each division, together with a selection of media art works that are representative of this year's festival, with hope that more people will have the opportunity to experience and gain an appreciation of these works.

Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to the jury members, for sharing so much time with us from their busy schedules to conduct the rigorous and objective screening process. I would also like to thank everyone involved for their support and cooperation in organizing the Japan Media Arts Festival.

HAYASHIDA Hideki / Director, The National Art Center, Tokyo

It is our great pleasure to be able to hold the 12th Japan Media Arts Festival at The National Art Center, Tokyo for the second time. I am deeply moved when I see the extent to which this festival has expanded, and also by the knowledge that the number of applications has increased more than threefold, since, as the Commissioner of the Agency for Cultural Affairs, I organized the 1st Japan Media Arts Festival, which was held at the Small Theatre in the New National Theater, Tokyo.

We, at The National Art Center, Tokyo, believe that the training of young artists is of fundamental importance for the further development of media arts, and this is why we have become joint sponsors of the Inter College Animation Festival, which was held at The National Art Center, Tokyo in September 2008. We are hoping that the Inter College Animation Festival will reveal many talented artists who will then compete in the Japan Media Arts Festival in the future.

We intend to keep working to make the Japan Media Arts Festival exhibition the best place for visitors to enjoy the vital essence of one of the leading countries in media arts, Japan. It is our wish that many people will visit the exhibition.

NAGATA Keiji / Chairman, CG-ARTS Society

In an age when the very meaning of the word 'media' is transforming, the role of the Japan Media Arts Festival becomes even more important.

Every year, we receive numerous entries from all over the world, and of these the works that are selected to receive prizes can be said to be representative of their time. The Japan Media Arts Festival exhibition is a place where Media Arts can be experienced generally, and its transformation in conjunction with the progression of technology and media.

Many of the award-winning works of this year have taken human physicality as their theme, not only sight but also sound and touch, and they transcend the borders of genres, such as art or entertainment. During the exhibition, and as part of it, there Award Winners Symposia will be held to introduce the artists themselves.Other events are held simultaneously, and are better than ever; these include Computer Graphics Contest for Students: Award-winning Works on Exhibition, Leading Edge Technology Showcase, presenting the latest technologies for art expressions, Media Art in the World, introducing foreign media related festivals, and much more.

Although our society faces a number of troubling issues at the moment, most prominently the destabilization of the global environment, and the fluctuation of the international money market, the latter triggered by the subprime loan crisis, it is at this Japan Media Arts Festival that one can feel most strongly the possibilities of the future. I hope that many people will visit the exhibition and discover that feeling.