Although dissolved earlier this year, the Akira Kurosawa Foundation is in the news again. The city of Imari, where the foundation was planning to open an Akira Kurosawa museum, has published a report looking at what went wrong, and how it could prevent something similar from happening again in the future.
The city also appears to have a fairly good reason for doing so, for news seem to suggest that the city, or more specifically the Imari citizens and local businesses, donated around 288 million yen (some 3.7 million US dollars) to the foundation for the construction of the museum. This money appears to have predominantly gone into the maintenance and operating costs of the temporary “satellite studio”, which was closed last year, more than 12 years after the original contract was signed to build the museum in Imari. In retrospect, the city seems to express regret for not keeping a closer eye on the details of the cash flow.
The report also points out some major mistakes that the city made with the contents of the original contract, including that it never stipulated a date by which the museum would have to be ready. The report suggests specific policy changes to prevent similar mistakes in the future.
Sources: Yomiuri Online, Saga Shimbun, MSN. Please note that my Japanese skills are weak to say the least. While I have done my best to make certain that the information provided above is correct, I may have overlooked something. If you spot mistakes, let me know.
