Anime Spending Hit a Record in 2025, Japan's Industry Reports
Worldwide spending on Japanese anime reached a record 4.45 trillion yen ($28.2 billion) in 2025, up 15.8% on the year before. Hasegawa Masahiro presented the preliminary figures from the Association of Japanese Animations (AJA) at TIFFCOM, a business market where film and TV companies buy, sell and license projects. The market ran Oct. 28 to 30 in Tokyo, alongside the 39th Tokyo International Film Festival.
The festival ran for 10 days, from Oct. 26 to Nov. 4, and screened more than 200 films. Its centrepiece was Godzilla Minus Zero, which was scheduled for Japanese release through Toho on Nov. 3.
Most of the money now comes from abroad. Overseas anime revenue rose 17.2% to 2.54 trillion yen ($16.1 billion) in 2025, making up 57.1% of total spending. Domestic revenue grew 14.1% to 1.91 trillion yen ($12.1 billion), after growth of 4.6% in 2024. Anime studios, the companies that actually draw and animate the shows, reported a record 505.5 billion yen ($3.2 billion) in revenue, up 8.4%.
The government is also watching those numbers closely. Japan promoted a target of 20 trillion yen ($126.6 billion) in content exports during festival week. The same 20 trillion yen goal, for overseas sales of Japan-originated content by 2033, appears in the country's growth strategy.
Rights holders, meaning the companies that own the stories and characters, used the market to pitch their properties to buyers. Eight of them presented titles in English at the Tokyo IP Market's Adaptation & Remake session on TIFFCOM's first day. Shochiku offered its Otoko wa Tsurai yo film series, Takara Tomy pitched the Beyblade franchise, and Toei put forward the film Inugamimura.
Streaming companies were part of the conversation too. Buddy Marini, head of Amazon MGM Studios Japan, said at TIFFCOM that the studio is doubling its investment to bring its Japanese content up to global standards.
Next year, the business will gain a second Japan IP Market in Cannes, France, on May 14 and 15, 2027. TIFFCOM and the Cannes Film Market announced the plan on Oct. 29. The AJA has also named a new national honour, the Nippon Anime Awards, and set its first ceremony for Nov. 21, 2027, at SGC Hall Ariake in Tokyo.
Attendance moved in different directions. TIFFCOM's preliminary registered visitors rose 13% to 1,425, including 814 from overseas, up 9%. Total participants, however, fell to 4,405 from 51 countries and regions, down from 4,610 from 46 last year. Exhibitors numbered 317, compared with 322 a year earlier.
For anyone who only follows the films, the message from the week is simple. The anime business is now mostly an export business, and the people deciding what travels next are the ones who met in Tokyo this week.
