Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is based in Culver City, California, has announced an ambitious program to produce animated feature films in Japan.  The Tokyo newspaper Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported that Sony has set up an animation unit in Japan. Sony's plan is to produce two feature length films per year with the first film appearing in 2005.  No word yet on the nature of the first projects underway at the studio.

Interestingly enough, the news of Sony's Japanese animation studio came hard on the heels of an announcement from the Walt Disney Company indicating that Disney was shutting down its Japanese animation unit.  Disney's Tokyo-based operation was responsible for numerous direct to DVD sequels including 101 Dalmatians II, and several lower budget theatrical features including The Tigger Movie, Piglet's Big Movie, and the yet-to-be-released Winne-the-Pooh spin-off, The Heffalump Movie.  Disney's move follows the closing of Disney's French animation division and the layoff of more than 50 animators and related personnel from its Orlando, Florida animation studio.