Government aims to triple overseas market for anime, games, manga in less than 10 years
The Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) held its 18th Entertainment and Creative Industrial Policy Seminar on March 27, where it announced how specifically to meet the Japanese government’s goal to expand the overseas market for its domestic creative industries to 20 trillion yen (about US$125 billion) by 2033. During the seminar, the government outlined its goals for specific industries, the anime industry among them.
Image via METI
© Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry
Japan’s goal for the anime industry is to roughly triple the overseas market in less than 10 years, with a 6 trillion yen (about US$37 billion) goal for 2033. The overseas market for anime in 2022 was 1.4592 trillion yen (about US$10.25 billion in December 2023), and had reached 1.7222 trillion yen (about US$10.94 billion in January 2025) in 2023, and reached 2.1702 trillion yen (about US$14.1 billion in October 2025) in 2024.
The government’s basic strategy for the anime industry is to increase the production of “blockbuster” works and to raise the performance-based pay rate of workers. It aims to allocate its budget to support three elements: the production of releases at a large scale, the expansion of distribution platforms, and the buildup of development platforms.
The government similarly aims to increase the game industry’s overseas market from 3.4 trillion yen (about US$21 billion) to 12 trillion yen (about $75 billion) by 2033. Its basic strategy is helping Japanese companies acquire more of the mobile and PC markets, by supporting the production of releases at a large scale and the construction of development platforms, as well as tax incentives for research and development.
The government also aims to increase the manga industry’s overseas market from 300 billion yen (about US$1.9 billion) to 1 trillion yen (about $6 billion) by 2033. Its basic strategy is to help take down pirated copies and distribute authorized works. It aims to do this by supporting the expansion of distribution platforms and localization efforts, as well as taking anti-piracy measures.
The 2033 goals for the anime and game industries combined amount to 18 trillion yen (about US$113 billion yen), covering 90% of the government’s 20-trillion-yen (about US$125 billion) goal for the entire overseas market. The other two industries targeted for growth in the report as part of the 20-trillion-yen goal include music and live-action works.
The global anime market grew to a record level of 3.8407 trillion yen (about US$25.1 billion) in 2024. This includes the aforementioned 2.1702 trillion yen overseas market, as well as the 1.6705 trillion yen (about US$10.9 billion) domestic market. The overall global anime market grew by 14.8% in 2024 — the second highest annual increase (after 2019’s increase of 15.3%). While the domestic market grew 2.8%, the overseas market grew by 26%. 2024 was the third year in which the overseas market was bigger than the domestic market (after 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic and 2023).
Sources: METI (link 2), Animation Business Journal (Tadashi Sudo)
