The Japanese government has decided to accelerate to consolidate its cultural dominance worldwide. During a recent political seminar held on March 27, Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry outlined its master plan to elevate the national entertainment industry to unprecedented levels. The country’s main goal is to expand the foreign market for its creative industries to an astonishing 20 trillion yen (about $125 billion) by 2033.

The plan for anime: Better salaries and blockbuster productions

For the anime industry specifically, the aim is to nearly triple its foreign market size in less than a decade. The government expects to increase revenue from 2.17 trillion yen in 2024 to around 6 trillion yen by 2033. But how do they plan to achieve this massive leap? The official strategy rests on two major pillars that the otaku community has long demanded: creating more high-quality blockbuster productions that can become global hits, and, most importantly, increasing performance-based pay rates for animators and staff working on these productions.

To make this happen, the government will allocate budget to three key areas: supporting the creation of large-scale projects, expanding distribution platforms to reach more countries, and building better development platforms to facilitate new animated projects.

Conquest in video games and the fight against piracy

Anime isn’t the only sector getting a massive boost. In the video game sector, the goal is huge: grow the international market from the current 3.4 trillion yen to 12 trillion yen. This will be achieved by helping Japanese companies gain more ground in the competitive mobile and PC gaming market, as well as offering tax incentives for research and development.

The manga industry aims to increase its foreign numbers from 300 billion yen to 1 trillion yen. To reach this goal, the Japanese government has a two-step practical plan: launch more aggressive anti-piracy measures to eliminate illegal copies online, and improve localization efforts (official translation) so works can be legally read in more languages.

These ambitious plans didn’t come out of nowhere. Recent figures show that the anime world is more profitable than ever. In 2024, the global anime market hit a historic record of 3.84 trillion yen, marking the third time in history that foreign earnings surpassed those generated within Japan. With this new roadmap, it’s clear that the Japanese government will treat its animators, illustrators, and developers as the main engine of its economy for the next decade.