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Japan's Anime Home Video Market Drops 2.9%, Streaming Grows 13% in 2017

The Association of Japanese Animations (AJA) published on June 8 a summary of its "Anime Industry Report 2018" document that examines industry trends from 2017. The AJA published the Japanese version of the document last December, with the overall value of the anime market and the growth of the overseas market revealed at that time.

The English summary revealed that the home video market for anime in Japan in 2017 was valued at 75.6 billion yen (about US$696 million), a 2.9% decrease from the previous year. It is the fourth consecutive year-on-year decrease. The streaming market was valued at 54 billion yen (about US$497 million), a 13% growth from the previous year, reaching almost 70% of the home video market.

The total production minutes for television anime reached 116,409 minutes in 2017, the fifth consecutive time the total minutes of production exceeded 110,000 minutes. With the Japanese government promoting "Reform of Working Practices," the report concluded that increasing digitalization of production methods must be implemented to maintain the current quality level.

At the same time, 2017 saw a 4.5% decrease from the previous year in the total number of television anime broadcast. The industry produced a total of 340 television anime, after 356 in 2016 and 341 in 2015. The document also noted that production costs for animation studios are on the rise. Additionally, the report noted that there were only 9,790 minutes of production spent on kids and family anime, compared to 14,388 minutes in 2016 and 36,337 minutes in 2010.

The AJA has been publishing annual reports since 2009, when the anime industry was in decline. The full summary is available to download from the AJA website.

Sources: AJA, Animation Business Journal (Tadashi Sudo)