Tokyo Wrap: Anime's Record $28.2B Haul Meets Japan's $126.6B Export Ambition

Anime just posted its biggest year ever. Worldwide spending on Japanese animation climbed 15.8% in 2025, landing at a record JPY4.45 trillion ($28.2 billion), per preliminary figures the Association of Japanese Animations presented at TIFFCOM by Hasegawa Masahiro, editor-in-chief of the group's annual anime industry report. Studio revenue also set a record, up 8.4%, now at JPY505.5 billion ($3.2 billion).

The growth leaned domestic this time. Local spending jumped 14.1%, a big leap from 4.6% a year earlier, reaching JPY1.91 trillion ($12.1 billion). Overseas revenue rose 17.2%, hitting JPY2.54 trillion ($16.1 billion) — slower than the 26% clip of 2024, but still 57.1% of the total. Hasegawa credited a shift in mindset, saying studios holding and managing the rights to their own works is becoming more common each year.

The industry is building institutions to match. The AJA unveiled its new national prize, the Nippon Anime Awards, with the first ceremony set for Nov. 21, 2027 at SGC Hall Ariake in Tokyo. On the market side, TIFFCOM and the Cannes Film Market confirmed a second Japan IP Market in Cannes for May 14–15, 2027, after a first edition in May when Japan was Country of Honor. Back in Tokyo, eight rights holders pitched in English, including Shochiku's long-running film series, Takara Tomy's Beyblade franchise and Toei's Inugamimura.

Money is moving. Buddy Marini, head of Amazon MGM Studios Japan, said the studio is doubling its investment to bring its content up to global standards, sharing a stage with Kokuho producer Matsuhashi Shinzo and One Piece executive producer Steven Maeda. TIFFCOM CEO Shiina Yasushi wants Japanese companies to keep their IP and overseas distribution, Hollywood style, and plans to expand the market well past its current size by around 2030. The buyers noticed: registered visitors rose 13%, reaching 1,425, with overseas attendees up 9%, North America up a third and Europe up nearly 70%. Overall participation slipped from 4,610 to 4,405 on fewer Greater China attendees, though the market drew 51 countries and regions, up from 46, with 317 exhibitors against 322 last year.

Government ambition ran high — and ran into reality. At the opening ceremony, Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Akazawa Ryosei and Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae, appearing by video, restated the goal of JPY20 trillion ($126.6 billion) in overseas content sales by 2033, with a Cabinet Office task force that first met Oct. 22 working to consolidate scattered support under one roof. Producers want the existing tools fixed first. At the Motion Picture Association's seminar, Tokyo Vice producer Alex Boden called the IP360 incentive's JPY800 million ($5.1 million) minimum spend a blocker for indies and co-productions, since most Japanese films cost between $1.5 million and $3 million. Netflix production policy director Deb Richards said a lower incentive would be fine if it were certain and its criteria clear — and that Japan's criteria are not.

The view from the director's chair was starker still. O Mipo, who shared this year's Kurosawa Akira Award with Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof, told Variety she doesn't believe any Japanese directors currently make a living solely from directing, and that planning-stage work pays nothing. Festival programming director Ichiyama Shozo said support for low-budget films remains insufficient even as overall backing grows. The festival tried to help, launching TIFF Work-in-Progress for films needing finishing funds and turning Nippon Cinema Now into a competition, where Tanaka Miki's debut Silver Express took the top prize. Meanwhile, the co-production hunt stretched far past Asia — panelists floated partners in Mongolia, the U.K., South America, and, per Toho Europe chief content officer Andrew Partridge, emerging markets like Africa and the Middle East.