Anime Exports Enjoy Strong Popularity in Asia

Anime was the most popular kind of Japanese content in a survey of 1,000 people in seven Asian countries and regions. In Taiwan and Hong Kong, however, around 60% to 80% were familiar with a wide range of entertainment genres that included not only anime but also manga, movies, TV dramas, music, and variety shows, reflecting the deep roots of Japanese pop culture in these areas.

Some of the most popular cultural exports among those surveyed were franchises across different media like One Piece, Naruto, and Case Closed, which started off as manga series for young readers and then developed into televised anime series and movies. Studio Ghibli movies were also popular in many of the countries and regions.

The survey was conducted by Fun Japan Communications, a Tokyo-based company that operates websites sharing information about Japan to users in other Asian countries.

The top-five best loved and most famous Japanese works, franchises, or genres in each of the countries and regions surveyed are as listed below.

Taiwan

Japanese movies and TV dramas are broadcast on pay-per-view channels with almost no time lag compared to Japan. Shows that are trending among Japanese also ranked high in Taiwan, such as the TV drama Unnatural (January–March 2018), which ranked fifth in the “favorite” category, and I Will Not Work Overtime, Period! (April–June 2019), which rose quickly up the ranking to the ninth spot in the same category.

Hong Kong

Japanese dramas and anime are broadcast on the main TV channels. New anime films from Studio Ghibli or in popular series like Detective Conan or Pokémon are released almost every year. Many illegal websites and downloads have also emerged, including online communities that add subtitles to Japanese dramas and anime and then broadcast them on social-networking sites.

Thailand

A wide variety of Japanese TV programs are broadcast, including not only anime and dramas but also documentaries and variety shows. Some classic variety shows that bring back memories for Japanese people, like TV Champion (1992–2008) and Cocorico Miracle Type (2001–2007), are popular among Thai viewers.

Malaysia

Ranking high are mainstay anime programs broadcast every weekend. There are paid channels that broadcast the latest anime, but relatively few have access to those channels because of the high cost. Many people view such content illegally on YouTube and other sites.

Indonesia

There is a wide fan base for Japanese anime, which was first broadcast in the 1980s on NHK Indonesia, and then began to be broadcast on private TV channels from the 1990s. In recent years, however, there have been almost no TV broadcasts of Japanese anime because of stricter censorship for scenes considered to be too grotesque or objectionable in some other way. Many Indonesians seem to view anime through illegal downloads.

One YouTuber popular in Indonesia is Jerome Polin, an Indonesian student studying at Waseda University who runs the Nihongo Mantappu channel. He broadcasts video content related to the Japanese language and his life as a foreign student in Japan.  

Vietnam

In the 1990s, a Vietnamese version of Doraemon was released, and it has remained a well-known, popular work since then. There are almost no legal broadcasts or screenings of Japanese anime and films, so most Vietnamese people view such content on YouTube.

India

Works based on youth manga series are very popular, including not only those in the top five but also Dragon Ball Z (6) and Attack on Titan (8).

(Translated from Japanese. Banner photo © Jiji.)