Latest statistics from industry group show overseas revenue surpassing domestic for only the second time in history.

The Association of Japanese Animation has sort of a strange timetable for its annual Anime Industry Report. The full report is published in December, but preliminary data is released in the middle of the year, and it actually reflects the state of the industry for the previous calendar year.

In other words, the 2024 Anime Industry Report was only recently made available to the general public, and the data points are measurements from 2023. Nevertheless, it’s got some significant statistics about how and where the anime industry is growing.

Starting with the biggest number, in 2023 the anime industry grew to 3.3465 trillion yen (roughly US$21 billion), its largest size ever. That’s an increase of over 14 percent compared to the previous year, and the first time for the anime industry to as a whole to surpass 3 trillion yen in revenue.

Of that, 3.3465 trillion yen, 1.6243 trillion yen came from domestic, i.e. in-Japan, sources. Conversely, 1.7222 trillion yen came from foreign sources, meaning that, as of the Association of Japanese Animation’s most recent completed research, the overseas market for anime is larger than the Japanese one, with a roughly 51.5 percent/48.5 percent split.

This is actually the second time in history for this statistical phenomenon to occur, following 2020, for which the association’s 2021 Anime Industry Report showed domestic revenue of 1.1805 trillion yen versus overseas revenue of 1.2394 trillion yen.

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So does this mean that anime is now officially more popular overseas than it is in Japan? Not necessarily, as there are some very substantial circumstances for those two years.

In 2020, the coronavirus pandemic hit its full force, and while Japan had numerous public health protocols (such as restrictions on inbound international leisure travel), there wasn’t anywhere near the shutdown of shopping, restaurant dining, and other leisure activities as there were in several other countries, where so many people spent much of the year essentially under self-quarantine at home and, while searching for entertainment options, decided to add anime to their video-streaming diet. Conversely, the in-Japan anime market actually shrank slightly in 2020, likely due to less spending at fan events, voice actor/actress concerts, and other large, in-person events (which were put on hold during the pandemic).

So what about 2023? By then, neither Japan nor the overseas anime market were feeling much in the way of lingering pandemic effects. However, while it’s easy to zero in on the numbers of 1.6243 trillion yen for Japan and 1.7222 trillion yen for foreign countries in the most recent Association of Japanese Animation report, the non-numerical element of those statistics is also important: yen. The yen has been plummeting in value versus foreign currencies over the past few years, so if you’re measuring the total value of the anime market in yen, as the association’s report does, then the amount of revenue from foreign sources is going to increase even without a correspondingly large increase in foreign-currency revenue. It’s also worth noting that in-Japan anime revenue hasn’t been stagnant, with the report showing a 10.6-percent increase between 2022 and 2023.

Whenever the subject of the comparative sizes of the Japanese and overseas anime markets comes up, there’s the related question of what it means, creatively, for the artists and other creators who produce Japanese animation. Some would argue that anime achieved its global popularity by offering something distinct from entertainment options in other countries, and may worry that with a greater proportion of revenue coming from overseas anime studios will be pressured to water down or otherwise alter their artistic visions in order to be more palatable to non-Japanese audiences. Others may point to such statistics as a sign that anime has become a global medium, and so now has a responsibility to abide by standards such as those major Hollywood movies operate under. However, considering that the 2023 results likely have more to do with currency fluctuations than anime resonating more with foreign fans than Japanese ones, it’s probably a little early to declare that a cultural tipping point has been crossed.

Reference: NHK, Anime News Network/Rafael Antonio Pineda
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