Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Association of Japanese Animations began as a coalition of 52 animation production companies. Most members were small to medium-sized firms struggling against larger industry forces. These smaller studios needed unity to tackle systemic issues like intellectual property infringement and rampant piracy.
Since April 2014, the association took leadership of an annual project originally launched in 2010. The Japanese government's Agency for Cultural Affairs funded this initiative to support training animators. Various animation studios produced a series of animated shorts each year under this program.
China placed first in contracts while the United States dropped to fourth place according to the 2017 annual report. Overseas markets expanded 1.5 times the previous year that same year. This growth reached a record high level for the industry during that period.
The Tokyo International Anime Fair stands as the biggest anime related event in Japan today. AJA organizes this gathering to promote member works to major distributors across different regions. They target R1 license holders in the US, R3 partners in Southeast Asia, and R2 entities in the UK.
The group formed to resolve conflicts and improve the general production environment for its members. Piracy became a critical threat after peer-to-peer networking software gained widespread adoption across Japan. Illegal file sharing rose sharply during the early years of digital distribution.