News

Tokyo Int'l Anime Fair Public Day Attendance Up 22% (Updated)

The Tokyo International Anime Fair has released attendance information for the 2008 event. Total attendance for the two public days was 51,912 people for Saturday and 50,231 for Sunday — an increase of 22.53% over 2007, which saw 45,764 attendees on Saturday and 37,595 attendees on Sunday.

TAF 2008 also saw a significant increase in press and foreign business attendance. The total press attendance was up 23.37% from 2007, while foreign business visitors increased by 12%. TAF does not distinguish between foreign and domestic press. Despite an increase in foreign business attendees on both business days, and an increase in press attendance over all four days, the number of domestic attendees on the business days diminished by 0.42%, bringing the business day attendance to an increase of only 0.51% over the two days.

Total attendance over all four days was up 17.55% from 107,713 attendees in 2007 to 126,622 attendees this year. TAF counts total attendance as a sum of the daily attendance, not the total number of unique visitors. Individuals returning multiple days are counted multiple times. Most of the Japanese public attendees do not return for multiple days.

Errata: This article's introduction originally stated, "Foreign business registration up 0.51%." This was incorrect, as foreign business registration was actually up 12% as is stated in the article proper. Total attendance over the two business days was up 0.51%. ANN apologizes for this error.