Essay About Japan Animation Industry Trends And Film Production

Japanese Animation Industry Report
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Industrial Report (C) JETRO Japan Economic Monthly, June 2005
Japan Animation Industry Trends
Japanese Economy Division
Japanese animation is in the spotlight not only in Japan, but overseas as well. Amid an expanding
domestic market for films, television and videos, Japanese animation film producers have also been
turning their eyes toward overseas markets. At the same time, new developments have been seen in
terms of diversified funding methods for film production. Against this background, the Japanese
animation industry is working hard to deal with shortages in certain human-resource skills, reductions
in domestic film-production sites and the challenge of expanding operations overseas.
1. Market Overview
Japanese Animation Market in 2004
The talk of the Japan animation market in 2004 was Studio Ghiblis smash hit, Howls
Moving Castle, the studios first new release in three years, which opened in November. Director
Hayao Miyazakis work exceeded 10 million viewers in just 44 days, faster than any movie in Japan.
Its popularity continued thereafter, with viewers rising to 14.23 million as of March 8, 2005, breaking
the mark set by Miyazakis Princess Mononoke and placing it number two in Japanese film history.
The question now is how close it will get to Japans all-time record of 23.5 million set by Spirited
Away. Howls Moving Castle has also been shown in South Korea and other countries, including 60
cities across the U.S. beginning in June 2005.
Market Environment
Japanese animation (“anime”) has been acclaimed worldwide for its original, Japan-based
culture and content, to the extent that it is called “Japanimation.” Director Mamoru Oshiis animated
film Innocence was nominated for an award at the 57th Cannes film festival in 2004. Innocence is the
sequel to Ghost in the Shell (1995), which reached number one on Billboards video chart in the
United States. Miyazakis Spirited Away won the feature length animation Oscar at the 75th Academy
Awards in 2003, reprising its capture of the Golden Bear at the 2002 Berlin Film Festival and proving
once again Japan produces world-class animation.
Many American and Asian animators reportedly want to work on Japanese anime
productions, indicating that Japanese animation is viewed by professionals as leading its field. Spirited
Aways commercial success, however, demonstrated Japanese animes merits and international
competitiveness among the global general public as well. The world clearly views Japanese anime as
having potential for big business.
Nonetheless, the industry has not yet shifted its posture sufficiently to respond to overseas
acclaim. Moving forward, the Japanese anime industry not only must expand overseas, it also must
develop the necessary production/distribution systems and personnel to capitalize on the global
business opportunities for anime and other content. Production systems have in fact been set up, but
the industry still has many glaring weaknesses in domestic/overseas distribution and rights, such as
licensing and international business expertise in general. In the field of personnel development,
animators do not have a suitably high social standing, so the exodus of such personnel to other
industries and countries has become a large problem.
2. Shifting Market Size
Japans domestic anime market can be broadly divided into three categories:
1) Feature-length films
2) TV shows
3) Video and DVD versions of the above two, and original productions
Summary
Industrial Report (C) JETRO Japan Economic Monthly, June 2005
According to the Media Development Research Institute, Japans anime market sales fell
10.4% to 191.2 billion yen in 2003, including box office revenues for anime films, TV animation
production fees and profits from sales and rental of video and DVD titles. This was the first decline in
two years (Fig. 1). The substantial gains realized in 2001 and 2002 were largely due to Spirited Aways
success at the box office (30.4 billion yen) in 2001 and then in DVD form in 2002. The lack of this sort
of hit led to market contraction in 2003, but sales are estimated to have grown in 2004 due to the
success of Howls Moving Castle.
The market for anime content, including character licensing/merchandising, selling rights
to use character images on other products and the sale of character toys, is estimated to be worth about
two trillion yen.
3. Industry Structure
Figure 2 provides a simple description of the anime industrys structure. The diagram
below is an actual example of television animation in general. Of course, circumstances can vary for
each TV program or film, especially in the planning stage.
Television