International standardization to maximize the content industry and Japan's national interests

1. International standardization has become a strategic tool for nations. A proposal originating in Japan was adopted by a technical committee for blockchain

Inaba: In recent years, the importance of international standardization in the field of digital content has been increasing. Could you explain the background behind this, taking into account the global standardization trends?

Mr. Tanaka: Previously, standardization has been used as a means to realize a safe and efficient society, through efforts such as ensuring safety and improving the convenience of products and services. However, recently, standardization has evolved beyond its role of simply creating an order, and its nature as a more strategic tool, for example to create a new market value or introduce a new yardstick of competition into existing markets, is growing. In other words, because setting standards that are advantageous to one's own country or company can give them an edge over others, standardization is increasingly being seen as important, as a policy tool for enhancing national industrial competitiveness for the country, or a management strategy tool for the company.

Recent examples include the Digital Product Passport (DPP), which originated in Europe. DPP is a new system that requires product lifecycle information to be made accessible and traceable, from material procurement to disposal, and multiple international standards related to DPP are currently being discussed. If a situation were created where certain products could virtually be "unable to enter the European market without certification from a European certification body," then valuable data and know-how from various countries would accumulate in Europe, potentially strengthening Europe's competitiveness even further. In this way, taking the lead in standardization has the potential to lead to the creation of rules that give domestic industries an advantage.

While I used DPP as an example this time, the introduction of technologies such as blockchain and generative AI has begun in the area of digital content, and I believe we are currently in a crucial phase where rule-making in various countries is becoming increasingly active.

Inaba: As international standardization is increasingly being strategically pursued by countries and companies, the NTT DATA Group, in collaboration with JCBI, proposed a "Draft International Standard for Non-Financial Digital Assets Using Tokens in Blockchain" at ISO/TC307 (*), and it was adopted as the first New Work Item Proposal (NP) originating in Japan. This will promote standardization not only for technology but also for people concerned, frameworks, lifecycles, and data categories, creating an environment where diverse stakeholders such as creators, consumers, and companies can confidently utilize digital content, aiming to create new market opportunities and streamline existing processes. Although the distribution of digital content in non-financial sectors continues to expand, and issues such as interoperability and rights protection have been pointed out, such a standardization proposal hasn't been made until now. What do you think were the reasons why?

Mr. Ito: In the IT field, unlike manufacturing and other industries, more de facto standards than de jure standards (standards established by standardization organizations) such as ISO and IEC have spread in many cases. I think this is the reason why standardization has not been proposed until now. Amidst such a situation, speculative trading of NFTs began to escalate around 2021. At that time, there was no de facto standard for NFTs, and no rules existed. So, problems such as consumers becoming victims of fraud and rights holders suffering infringement occurred. This has led to calls for rules to be established to ensure that buying and selling digital content using blockchain technology can be done safely and securely.

2. Become an international standardization leader and increase the overseas sales of the Japanese content industry to 20 trillion yen

Inaba: From the perspective of Japan's national interests, what do you think this newly adopted standardization proposal originating in Japan means?

Mr. Ito: In international standardization, a country that first proposes standardization and is provided with adoption can become the project leader, lead the discussions, and establish rules. With the adoption of this proposal, Japan has secured the position of the project leader in the draft standard focused on the content field. Therefore, just as Europe took the lead in the standardization of DPP, as Mr. Tanaka mentioned earlier, it will become easier to incorporate elements necessary for Japan into the standard.

Mr. Tanaka: In that sense, it is important that Japan was able to serve as the proposing country in the standardization related to the content industry, in which Japan has an advantage. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has set a goal of increasing overseas sales of the entertainment and content industry to 20 trillion yen by 2033. By taking the lead in pursuing international standardization, Japan will be able to easily create a flow through which to confidently expand the content industry overseas while protecting the creators' rights.

3. The driving force of NTT DATA, which is at the forefront of the global IT industry

Inaba: What do you think is the meaning of the pursuit of international standardization, which has such important implications, by a private company like NTT DATA?

Mr. Ito: We at JCBI have a network with various content companies throughout Japan, and that allows us to gather a wide range of needs for standardization from people across the industry. Furthermore, this is a preparatory stage before market expansion and profit generation, and the standardization is in the field of cutting-edge technology and is difficult for a private company to tackle alone. Therefore, we believe that JCBI as an industry association should take an active role in it. In the meantime, in order to take on the role of project leader in driving international standardization at ISO, which involves many members from all over the world, we needed someone with a track record and expertise in leading international standardization on behalf of Japan. Therefore, we asked NTT DATA, a global leading company that has such capabilities, to join us as the project leader. Furthermore, in our activities at ISO, NTT DATA is moving ahead with all aspects of project management, including coordinating agendas with other countries before discussions begin, facilitating international conferences, and managing schedules and tasks.

Mr. Tanaka: The government is taking the stance of actively supporting standardization, and in principle, we have strategy formulation at the forefront and project promotion assumed by private companies that are strong in technological trends and specific areas. The standardization involves a long-term commitment. So, we understand that any participating private company would be uncertain when the investment of time and personnel will pay off, and it is not easy to invest their people and time. In such circumstances, NTT DATA's efforts to steadily pursue the standardization with a long-term perspective are very encouraging to us.

Inaba: The NTT Group has also started working on several content businesses. We believe it is very meaningful for us to proceed with negotiations with various countries and discussions with domestic companies regarding the standardization while envisioning a future where the NTT Group will expand its business.

4. Expanding the scope to encompass a wide range of areas in the future, as discussions among countries are becoming vigorous

Inaba: The NP proposal was adopted in August 2025, but what phase is this international standardization project currently in?

Mr. Ito: Last year, we completed the PWI (Preliminary Work Item) phase, which involved confirming the meaning of this standardization through discussions with participating countries. This year, we have finally entered the phase of writing documents that define the specific content of the standard. In the future, after several revisions and approvals, an official international standard document is expected to be issued by ISO.
We are very grateful that at the international conferences held monthly within ISO, participating countries actively express their opinions such as, "We should also include this kind of perspective," making the discussions very lively. Currently, the draft international standard covers "non-financial digital assets," encompassing a broad range of assets beyond just digital content. In other words, this means that if the standardization moves ahead with this scope, it may become an international standard for rulemaking regarding not only comics and anime, in which Japan has strengths, but also digital assets in general that other countries are paying attention to, such as items within the metaverse, and may expand in the future. Therefore, each participating country is actively expressing their opinion from a wide range of perspectives concerning the digital asset field, on which they place a focus.

Mr. Tanaka: You're absolutely right. While lively discussions among the countries may, of course, mean that it will take a long time to reach an agreement, I see this is basically a desirable trend. International standards are generally voluntary in nature, and do not have any legal force, unlike laws. The fact that countries are actively participating in discussions even though they also have the option of not complying with the standard may be proof that many countries are looking ahead to the future use of this international standard.

Mr. Ito: That's right. Furthermore, if any market emerges for digital assets other than the content field in the future, and if it is for a non-financial sector, Japan can take the lead in rulemaking through this revision of the standard. Therefore, I believe the fact that Japan has held a project leader position on such extensive topics is meaningful for a wide range of industries in Japan.

Inaba: Taking the lead in standardization across the broad field of non-financial digital assets is immensely significant, isn't it? At this point, do you see the outline of what the scope of the standardization will be?

Mr. Ito: The international standard document that we are formulating includes an agenda that describes specific use cases in which the standard will be used. The current scope primarily focuses on use cases related to the Japanese content industry, such as those in which content viewing rights and event participation rights are dealt with. Of course, if any other country makes a proposal for including use cases where avatar ownership is dealt with, XR businesses in such use cases may be added, and the scope could expand further.

5. Promote the creation of domestic markets, in addition to the issuance of international standards

Inaba: How will the project proceed from here towards the issuance of an international standard?

Mr. Ito: The purpose of the project is not standardization itself, but is rather to use it as a means to create businesses and markets. In considering the content of the standard, we are not only discussing it within the technical committees of ISO, but also conducting interviews with various domestic content companies to incorporate real-world opinions from the industry. Furthermore, the standardization has provided us an opportunity to exchange opinions with the industry this way, securing valuable time for considering future business opportunities. The mere issuance of an international standard would be meaningless. I think the real goal is to prepare the market for acceptance by the time when an international standard is issued, and vitalize business through actual use.

Furthermore, I hope that the project will also contribute to achieving the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry's goal of expanding overseas sales of the content originating in Japan to 20 trillion yen. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, major video delivery platformers have begun distributing animated cartoons, serving as a tailwind allowing Japanese anime to be distributed overseas and its value to be increased. However, on the other hand, a large portion of the profits flows overseas during the distribution process, and not enough of them have been returned to Japan. With this new standard, we also plan to protect creators' rights and ensure the safe and secure global distribution of digital content, thereby securing the domestic revenue of Japan, which is a leading global content powerhouse.

Mr. Tanaka: I appreciate you saying that. To achieve this goal, I hope that we will first work together through a public-private partnership toward the issuance of this international standard for blockchain technology.

• (*) ISO/TC307 is a technical committee established within ISO with the aim of formulating international standards for blockchain and distributed ledger technologies