Regions cashing in on Japan's anime, manga soft power reach: study
Visits by foreign tourists to locations related to manga and anime works in Japan have proven a boon to local economies, a research institute said, providing impetus for more areas to cash in on the nation's soft power reach.
In 2024, around 3 million foreign tourists, or 8.1 percent of 36.87 million inbound visitors, likely visited places linked to movies or anime. That is up from 4.8 percent, or an estimated 1.15 million, of the 24.04 million who did so in 2016, the Meiji Yasuda Research Institute said based on a government survey.
Purchases of anime and manga-related goods are estimated to have totaled 54.3 billion yen ($372 million) last year, up 53 percent from 2016, the report said.
Japan's anime industry continues to expand, with more than 3 trillion yen spent by consumers globally in 2023, while animated films led domestic box office revenues in recent years.
The phenomenon known as "seichi junrei," literally meaning "holy pilgrimage," has become a rite of passage for fans. They visit places that inspired or were the real-life settings for popular works.
The trend became prominent after the success of 2016 Japanese anime film "your name."
One popular destination among foreign fans is the Homangu Kamado Shrine in Fukuoka Prefecture linked to the "Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba" anime and manga series. The southwestern prefecture ranked fifth in the nation in foreign tourist numbers, said Takafumi Fujita, an economist at Meiji Yasuda Research.
In addition to its positive impact on local economies, the growing popularity abroad of Japanese content, including games and movies, also has the potential to reduce the country's massive digital trade deficit.
While Japan incurred a record 6.8 trillion yen digital trade deficit in 2024 due to domestic firms' heavy reliance on technologies provided by U.S. IT giants, exports of Japan's entertainment content, which stood at 4.7 trillion yen in 2022, could offset much of the deficit if the industry continues to grow, the report said.
However, the benefits are tempered by some downsides. Fujita said local governments need to address overtourism issues affecting the lives of those who live near the popular locations.
"To accommodate a large number of tourists, including those from abroad, local authorities need to develop systems to offer multilingual support and train local tourism volunteers," Fujita said.
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