Market Overview

The character business market size (merchandising, licensing) in FY2023 was estimated at 2,696,900 million yen, up 2.2 percent from the preceding fiscal year. The market was driven by the anime "My Favorite Idol " (in Japanese, "Oshi no Ko"), which became popular in tandem with its anime theme song "Idol" by a Japanese pop duo YOASOBI, as well as by proven anime television series "Demon Slayer" ("Kimetsu no Yaiba") and "Attack on Titan" ("Shingeki no Kyojin"). As the media-mix approach* for "Pokémon," "ONE PIECE," and "Super Mario" was also successful, business of merchandising and licensing of these characters expanded. In addition, "Chiikawa", a character originated in a creation work posted on social media, which charmed all generations has also contributed significantly to the market expansion.

*Here, the media-mix approach indicates the use of a fictional character protected by intellectual property rights ("IP content") for several media such as anime, games, manga, and novel, for monetization. 

Noteworthy Topics

Character Business Expand into “Experience”

In addition to the product development and promotional uses, character business is expanding to character cafes, exhibitions, stamp rallies, mystery-solving games, and other experience-based events. This is due to a trend in the character business industry of shifting their focus on goods sales to an emphasis on customer experience, such as creating stores and holding events that reflect the character's worldview. Offering experience that increase brand value of characters and inducing them to product sales from the experience has been effective in driving revenue. It is important to develop a scheme that leads customers from events to product purchases.

Future Outlook

The character business market size (merchandising, licensing) for FY2024 is projected to increase by 1.8% from the previous fiscal year to 2,746,400 million yen. We are forecasting the merchandising and licensing business for manga series targeted to middle-aged and older generations like "City Huner" and "Kinnikuman" to be strong, in addition to "Chiikawa" and "Opanchu Usagi", which captivate not just young generation but a wide range of generations.

Research Outline