Japan antitrust regulator highlights anime industry issues
Plus: Conglomerate invests in French anime co-producer; Light novel publisher TO Books set to IPO; Comici launches English-language manga reading platform; and more
This is your weekly Animenomics briefing, covering the business of anime and manga. Today is Wednesday, January 14, 2026.
In case you missed it: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences shared on YouTube a special behind-the-scenes video of the animation of Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle, ahead of next week’s nominee announcements for the 98th Academy Awards.
Fair Trade Commission publishes anime inquiry findings
Japan’s Fair Trade Commission last month shared the findings of its inquiry into labor practices in the anime industry, highlighting structural issues in the anime production committee model, copyright ownership, and bargaining power across the supply chain.
Why it matters: In releasing the report, the JFTC included a statement indicating that it’s prepared to create formal guidelines to regulate how committees, anime studios, subcontractors, and streamers negotiate and share information.
Rewind: The inquiry was launched after former prime minister Fumio Kishida asked the commission in 2024 to investigate possible contract abuses between production companies and freelance workers in film and anime.
Zoom in: The report centers around four types of business relationships in the anime industry—between the production committee and prime contractor studios, between prime contractors and subcontractors, between studios and freelancers, and between global streaming video companies and prime contractor studios.
The commission won’t force production committees to ensure that anime studios remain profitable, but it wants committees to be more responsive when studios request budget increases to accommodate increasing demand for higher quality work, delays in production, and rising prices.
Anime studios said they are effectively forced to give away intellectual property rights without meaningful compensation or negotiation, which the JFTC flagged as a potential abuse of the committees’ superior bargaining position.
Subcontractors reported that cost-cutting at prime contractor studios cascades through the rest of the anime supply chain, creating a “race to the bottom” situation for wages at small studios and of freelancers.
Half of anime studio producers surveyed by the JFTC said that streaming video companies don’t disclose viewership data, hindering fair negotiations and revenue‑share transparency.
How they reacted: The Nippon Anime & Film Culture Association, an anime labor advocacy group, praised the commission’s thorough work in a statement that also summarizes the report.
“We believe that by widely sharing the contents of this survey with the public, including fans who love and support Japanese anime, the anime industry can engage in constructive discussions and make better choices,” the statement adds.
Publishing group invests in French anime co-producer
French publishing conglomerate Média-Participations has acquired a 25 percent stake in Paris-based animation production studio Miyu Productions, which has been gaining prominence for its anime co-productions with Japanese creators in recent years.
Why it matters: Média-Participations operates the streaming video service provider Animation Digital Network, which the conglomerate bought out from Crunchyroll in 2022.
Partnering with Miyu Productions gives ADN the ability to acquire exclusive local and innovative works of anime in order to compete with Crunchyroll and other global streamers that also serve anime.
Catch up quick: Miyu Productions rose to prominence in Europe’s animation scene after its film Chicken for Linda! won the Annecy International Animation Film Festival’s top prize in 2023 and France’s César Award for Best Animated Film the following year.
In Japan, it collaborates with innovative anime creators and invests in original and experimental works, such as Yoko Kuno’s Ghost Cat Anzu, which received award nominations in film festivals around the world.
Miyu Productions is ramping up its Japanese co-productions, planning at least three anime films for 2026 and beyond, including one by award-winning director Masaaki Yuasa.
Between the lines: “French viewers bring something different to the table,” London-based anime industry consultant Jerome Mazandarani writes in a column. “They’re more open-minded about anime provenance and not fixated on whether something is or isn’t a ‘pure’ Japanese production.”
The intrigue: Miyu Productions and ADN are already developing “new production models for animated series in collaboration with Japan”, Bastien Guetta, ADN’s head of content development for marketing and theatrical, wrote on LinkedIn.
This is the first indication that Miyu Productions is co-producing an anime series, having co-produced only anime short films and feature films until now.
Clippings: Light novel publisher TO Books to go public
Light novel publisher TO Books received approval for a public listing of its shares on the Tokyo Stock Exchange starting in February, seeking to raise at least ¥1.68 billion (US$10.5 million) to recruit editors and IP development staff and increase advertising. (Animation Business Journal)
Why it matters: Titles published by TO Books regularly rank among the top light novel series as compiled by Takarajimasha, and more than a dozen have received anime adaptations.
This is the second public listing by a light novel publisher in four months, a signal of optimism in the market for light novels and related media mix projects.
Publishing giant Kadokawa is seeking potential acquisitions in Germany, the Middle East, and Latin America, as the publisher aims to grow the global market for its light novels and manga through direct sales rather than through local licensees. (The Nikkei)
Japan’s character merchandise lottery market has more than tripled since 2019, an analysis by toy wholesaler Happinet found, largely driven by the growth of online and overseas sales of lottery tickets since the COVID-19 pandemic. (The Nikkei)
Doraemon ended broadcast in Indonesia, a key Southeast Asian market where the anime series that became a cultural phenomenon aired on private broadcaster RCTI for 35 years. (The Indonesian Anime Times)
Japan accounted for nearly half of South Korea’s webtoon export market in 2024, an annual webtoon industry survey by the South Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism and the Korea Creative Content Agency found. (The Chosun Biz)
Comici rethinks data use for English manga platform
“Comici MANGA is designed to avoid using data in the creation process. Manga creation should be nurtured through the intuition of the author and the editor believing, ‘This is interesting,’ and through interactive, live feedback from readers during serialization.”
— Daisaku Manda, manga startup Comici founder and chief executive officer
Context: In a blog post revealing Comici’s English-language web and mobile platform for reading manga—previously reported by Animenomics—Manda argues that an overreliance on data in the webtoon creation process has resulted in webtoon studios converging on the same winning formula, stifling creativity and diversity in new titles.
“Webtoons have been overly optimized for short-term sales, user engagement time, and conversion rates,” he writes.
Manda says Comici MANGA will rely on data primarily in the delivery process: for recommending works, title discovery, and selecting works for translation.
One big thing: Comici MANGA’s digital back catalog includes Masayuki Kusumi and Jiro Taniguchi’s widely acclaimed manga The Solitary Gourmet, which was published in English in November by Spain’s Ponent Mon and London-based Fanfare.
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