Big bucks manga

Japanese Anime- Within sight of a $10 trillion Yen global market

Unlike in the U.S., "anime" and "manga" in Japan are central to popular culture and everyday life. Here is a report on this market that is expected to soon amount to Y10 trillion -- a whopping US$100 billion.

The Association of Japanese Animations, which today represents 52 animation studios, held its seventh Tokyo International Anime Fair in March 2008. In its first Anime Fair in Stockholm almost 7 years ago, media were impressed with a turnout of 7,500 people over 6 days. This year, over 100,000 visitors attended the Tokyo event in the course of 4 days. While some participate in a "cosplay" ("costume play", or masquerade), others seek their favorite childhood character, like "Doraemon", or newest pop cultural hit, such as "Death Note". The term "anime" is now globally synonymous with Japanese animation and related Japanese words, such as "cosplay" and "otaku" (a person with little social life but a keen interest in techno-gadgets), have crept into everyday use.

The anime fan base continues to grow rapidly, especially among young people. The anime market, which includes movies, television, video games, and music, was measured in Japan at Y242 billion in 2006, a 220% growth since 1990, reports the Anime News Network. Adversely, the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) reported in 2004 that the manga market, strictly comic books, decreased 2.1% to Y504.7 billion. Hence, while the overall anime and manga indutry grows, the preference of media slowly shifts from the traditional ink pages to colorful motion productions.

Today, anime and manga are not only popular in Japan, but have begun to widespread around the world. Culturally shifting hits Pokemon and Miyazaki’s Academy Award winning “Spirited Away” have paved the road for parallel success to that of Japan. Four years ago, one could find 20 anime events across the U.S.. Today, that number has more than doubled to 52. Such events have attracted close to 100,000 visitors, a number nearly rivaling the core anime fan base in Japan, estimated at 50,000 to 100,000 people. The size of the U.S. graphic novel market also continues to increase, from $165M to $174 in the past year. Manga today represents 16 out of the 20 best selling comic books in the U.S., with “Naruto” dominating the numbers. In China as well, about half of the top ranking popular character are from Japan. Plans are also in the works to begin television broadcasts of "Doraemon". The perennial hit anime "Pokemon" is already broadcasting in 70 countries and "Crayon-Shin-chan" in 50. These days, regardless of language, religion, and national borders, anime has the power to influence people.

As Japanese anime continues to take on new media, the international anime market is expected to continue its growth. If the Japanese market is set to "100!, then the size of the U.S., Euopean, and Asian markets are estimated to grow to "200", "100", and "50", respectively. According to an estimate made by the Stanford Japan Center, the anime industry is expected to grow into a global market worth more than Y10 trillion.

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