Taiwan and Japan sign MOU to train manga artists and share research

Taiwan's National Comics Museum and Kyoto Seika University signed an academic collaboration agreement on November 8. The agreement extends the cooperation that both institutions began in 2025 with the exhibition Taiwan and Japan: A Century of Manga and takes it into research, exhibitions, and creator training.

The first step after the signing was a remote drawing workshop. Thirty Taiwanese students followed video lessons from Kyoto Seika's GoMAP program, worked on their pages by hand, and then received feedback from Japanese teachers via videoconference. It is the first time the university has offered this type of remote teaching in Taiwan.

Kyoto Seika is not just any institution in the manga world. It was the first Japanese university to create a department dedicated to comics and has been training creators for more than fifty years. It also runs the Kyoto International Manga Museum, with around 300,000 pieces related to the medium.

From a joint exhibition to a stable agreement

The agreement stems from the exhibition that both museums organized in 2025. That exhibition brought together 324 pieces and helped build the bridge that is now formalized. According to Chen Jingkuan, director of the preparatory office of the Taiwanese museum, the agreement will cover researcher exchanges, joint projects, exhibitions, and circulation of academic publications.

Taiwan's Deputy Minister of Culture, Li Jinghui, attended the signing and noted that Taiwanese comics cannot be understood without Japanese influence. For her, this memorandum works as "a first entry pass" to deeper cooperation.

On the Japanese side, Kyoto Seika's vice president, Mikawa Kaori, read a message from the university president in which the university made its position clear: manga is not just entertainment, but a form of expression, culture, and knowledge. She also stressed the responsibility to preserve works and pass them on to the next generation.

A workshop with live feedback

The workshop included a special talk and a live drawing demonstration by manga artist Yarei Reo. Attendees completed original pages during the session and sent them to Japanese instructors for feedback. No loose theory: finished page and review.

The agreement leaves several lines of work on the table that remain to be seen how they will materialize. The signing is recent and, for now, only one workshop has been held.