Revenue of the anime industry Japan 2022, by segment

The animation industry in Japan generated a revenue of approximately 1.46 trillion Japanese yen via overseas sales in 2022. Merchandising accounted for the largest share domestically, reaching a value of more than 669 billion yen during that year.

The anime market

The anime industry is a booming enterprise in Japan. One major contributing factor is the growing demand in other countries, which has led to a strong increase in overseas sales particularly since the mid-2010s. A notable area of growth for the industry is the streaming business, which overtook television in the domestic market for the first time in 2020. Due to the competition between major streaming services, such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney+, this segment has received a lot of media attention in recent years. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, live entertainment, which encompasses live performances, exhibitions, and cafés, among other things, also constituted a segment that enjoyed increasing popularity. The segment was able to recover after two years of being negatively affected by the pandemic and reached a revenue that was higher than in 2019.

Anime production companies

In Japan, animation works are usually produced by so-called production committees, which represent cooperative endeavors between companies that belong to various related industries. The production of content often goes hand in hand with further products, such as merchandise in the form of toys or other character goods. While this cooperation reduces the risk each company has to carry and allows for the utilization of a highly specialized know-how when it comes to the various market segments, the actual animation production companies only earn a small proportion of the revenues generated in the anime market.