Matt Schley
November 22, 2020 
It’s Christmas for anime industry numbers geeks: the Association of Japanese Animations is prepping to release its yearly report on the industry. The full report will come later this month, but the AJA has released some interesting deets already.
The topline takeaway for 2019: growth. The industry hit 2.51 trillion yen, a 15% increase over 2018. That’s despite the declining Japanese birthrate, predicted to be a major thorn in the side of, well, most industries in Japan going forward.
Segments that saw growth: movies (thanks, Weathering With You and Promare?), internet distribution, live events and international sales. Non-Japanese sales made 1.2 trillion yen, a record high.
Segments of the market that continued to decrease: TV, home video and music. Clearly, more people are getting their anime through the internet, and enjoying anime-related events like audience participation screenings.
Throwing a giant wrench into all this for 2020 is, of course, COVID-19. The AJA says their 2020 report will likely show a big decrease, but we won’t know how big the impact was for a while.
In any case, good to know that 2019 was a good year for anime. Hopefully the market can bounce back post-pandemic.
Source: ANN
