- Share
- Tweet
MUMBAI: Japan’s anime business has found a new gear. And it shows no sign of easing off the pedal.
Spending on Japanese anime worldwide hit a record JPY4.45 trillion ($28.2 billion) in 2025, up 15.8 per cent on the year before. The growth rate is a record too, edging past the 15.7 per cent posted in 2024.
The numbers came from Association of Japanese Animations (AJA) Anime Industry Report editor-in-chief Masahiro Hasegawa, who unveiled the preliminary figures on Friday at TIFFCOM, the market that runs alongside the Tokyo International Film Festival. The final tally lands in the 2026 edition of the report in December.
Overseas revenue climbed 17.2 per cent to JPY2.54 trillion ($16.1 billion). The home market grew 14.1 per cent to JPY1.91 trillion ($12.1 billion). Foreign fans now own 57.1 per cent of the pie, up from 56.5 per cent a year earlier.
The real twist is at home. For years the domestic market plodded while overseas sprinted. In 2024 local growth was a modest 4.6 per cent as overseas raced ahead by 26 per cent. In 2025 Japan’s own fans got off the couch and both markets ran hard.
“Many Japanese business entities are going overseas to pursue revenue opportunities, so we expect this trend to continue,” said Hasegawa.
He did add a caveat. Exchange rates and global conditions colour the comparison, and the overseas number reflects wider market forces, not just how well individual titles travel.
The AJA counts the business two ways. The big number tracks what consumers spend on everything anime, from TV, film and streaming to merchandise, music and live events. The narrower one tracks what the animation studios themselves pocket.
Studio revenue rose 8.4 per cent to a record JPY505.5 billion ($3.2 billion), a shade slower than the 9.1 per cent growth of 2024. Overseas business made up 27.9 per cent of that, up from 25.5 per cent. The share stays lowish because studios often do not deal directly with international partners.
That is changing. More studios are taking an equity stake in their shows, hanging on to the IP and grabbing a cut of the foreign money that used to flow mostly to the production committees that bankroll the work.
“The idea of studios holding the rights to their own works and managing them to generate revenue is growing year by year,” said Hasegawa.
Then there was the monster hit. ‘Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba The Movie: Infinity Castle’ sliced its way to around $800 million worldwide in 2025 and became the highest-grossing Japanese film of all time. Infinity Castle, infinite cash.
The party has rolled into 2026. ‘Chiikawa The Movie: The Secret of Mermaid Island’ has grossed around $159 million worldwide. It sits at number 31 on Box Office Mojo’s global chart for the year, just below ‘Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie’ and ahead of Bollywood hit ‘Dhurandhar: The Revenge’. Sorry, Mumbai.
“Just last week, I saw a report that a Japanese anime was No. 2 globally,” said Hasegawa. “I believe the breakthrough has truly been achieved.”
The fan votes back him up. Japanese anime make up 100 of the 300 TV series with the most user votes on IMDb, including nine of the top 20. ‘Attack on Titan’ leads the pack with 726,000 votes, ahead of ‘Rick and Morty’. ‘Death Note’ sits at No 3 and ‘One Piece’ at No 9.
The government smells money. Under its IP360 initiative, Tokyo wants content exports to hit JPY20 trillion ($126.9 billion) by 2033, with anime chipping in JPY6 trillion ($38.1 billion). Japanese content earned JPY6.1 trillion ($38.7 billion) abroad in 2024 and anime accounted for roughly a third of it. So anime has to nearly double its overseas haul in eight years.
Studios surveyed for the report want two things in the new growth markets. Localisation that fits local language, culture and law. And a firm hand on piracy.
Hasegawa’s game plan is to export the Japanese playbook. At home, anime has long sold goods and services on the back of the shows. Abroad, it has mostly been something people watch. The next leg is selling the merchandise to go with it, and he picked family anime, loved across generations in Japan, to lead the charge.
“By taking the structure that has been built up in Japan overseas, I believe we can grow toward the JPY6 trillion target,” he said.
AJA and Nippon Animation chief Kazuko Ishikawa, who opened the session, kept the spotlight on the people at the drawing board. “Above all, it is essential that we build a better environment in which the creators who make the works, and everyone involved in production management, can devote themselves to creating with peace of mind,” she said.
The world has already pressed play. Now Japan wants it to head to the checkout counter.
