Growing overseas appetites make Japanese anime an export business – data shows a consumption tilt that is attracting big company investments.

The global market value of Japanese anime grew by 15% in 2024, to just under US$25 billion, according to data to be published in December 2025 by the Association of Japanese Animations (AJA). 

That is a punchy figure in a country that is more familiar with deflation and a strong one for a sector that is not new, driven by fashionably new technology or that was previously overlooked. 

But with the pirate flag and straw-hat symbol from One Piece now becoming icons of protest against authoritarian regimes in places as far apart as Indonesia, Nepal and the U.S., it seems clear that manga and anime are increasingly entering pop culture worldwide. 

The theatrical performances of Demon Slayer Kimetsu no Yaiba – Infinity Castle Arc, which recently broke a 25-year record to become the highest-grossing foreign language movie in North America, and the recent Chainsaw Man – Reze Arc, which topped worldwide box office on two weekends in October, further suggest that success is not limited to a single product. For younger demographics, anime is no longer seen as ‘alternative content’ and could be on its way to becoming mainstream.  

“Overseas revenue is now climbing and has not yet reached the peak. We believe it has potential to expand to even more markets,” said Onouchi Megumi, an AJA committee member and CEO of Japan’s HumanMedia.

The AJA’s data shows that overseas revenues (using a broad definition that includes licensing and advertising) have grown by 75% since 2020 and the beginning of the Covid pandemic. Domestic Japanese revenues recorded 41% growth in the same period. 

Indeed, the domestic growth of anime within Japan itself in 2024 was just 3%, meaning that the genre’s accelerating overseas success is what is now driving the industry growth – and is attracting attention from government and fresh investment from giant corporations such as Sony, Toho and Toei Animation. 

The AJA has a handy chart that shows that the overseas market overtook the Japanese one in 2020 (due to lockdown consumption around the world), that the position reversed in 2021, but then reversed again to become a well-established trend from 2022 onwards. (With overseas business typically billed in U.S. dollars, the Japanese industry also benefits from the weakening of the Japanese yen.) 

The Japanese government has designated anime as a core industry and part of its “Cool Japan” rebranding and outreach strategy. It suggests that anime could even expand to US$130 billion (approx ¥20 trillion) of value. 

There’s plenty to indicate that Japanese companies have already seen this for themselves. They are gearing up to grow their international businesses through co-productions, diversified production strategies (including the limited use of AI) and greater corporate control of ancillary businesses such as licensing, characters and merchandising whose revenues currently accrue to overseas partners. 

“We would like to see the domestic model (including merchandise and spinoffs) expand into the international marketplace,” said Onouchi.

Describing the strategy behind her company’s (fully hand-drawn) Chao, which won the jury prize at the recent Annecy animation festival, Tanaka Eiko, producer, president and CEO of Studio 4 Degrees C, said that everything was done to maximise the film’s international potential. Examples range from: controlling the international sales (20 territories licensed to date); an insistence on theatrical releases; a story for grown-ups; and even reducing the size of the characters’ eyes to make them look less stereotypical of Japanese anime. 

Bandai Namco Filmworks says it is doing many of those things already and aims to grow its overseas revenues to 50% by 2030. Owner of the Mobile Suit Gundam franchise, which currently stretches to 26 series and 34 theatrical films, the company recently used Epic Games’ Unreal Engine to digitally animate an English-language series spinoff that is exclusive to Netflix. It is also close to production start on an even larger Gundam series with Hollywood’s Legendary Pictures.

According to executive officer Ogata Naohiro, “in order to fill in the gaps between films” the company is also stepping up licensing, games derivatives and location-based entertainment. These include giant statues and pavilions in Fukuoka (Japan) and Shanghai (China) that have attracted over a million paying guests.

The sector giants have not been resting either. In addition to buying back all the overseas ancillary rights to its Godzilla live action franchise, Toho last year acquired GKids, a specialty U.S. animation distributor that has previously handled Studio Ghibli’s Oscar-winning The Boy and the Heron; Bandai’s Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX: Beginning and Studio 4 Degrees C’s Chao. And Toei Animation is in the process of elaborating plans that ambitiously could see it become bigger than the rest of the Japanese anime sector. 

What is known so far is that it is building a new production facility in Osaka and aims to open another in Southeast Asia. While the location is not known, Toei Animation says it is investing over US$150 million in the two new plants. (The company’s main production unit is in Oizumi, Tokyo, and it has an offshoot in the Philippines, doing repetitive animation tasks, that it has owned since 1999.) On top of that, it plans to spend ¥109 billion/US$810 million on IP production, international licensing and distribution. 

- By Patrick Frater

▶ Published in ContentAsia's December 2025 Magazine