38th Tokyo International Film Festival and the TIFFCOM industry market unfolded under clearer skies than last year's typhoon-ridden edition, with the mood matching the weather. From October 27 to November 5, the festival packed venues throughout the Hibiya-Yurakucho district, and TIFFCOM brought the deal-making energy to Hamamatsucho, where 322 exhibiting companies converged on the Tokyo Metropolitan Industrial Trade Center—a record that reflects the evolution of Tokyo's identity from a regional showcase to a pan-Asian co-production hub.
This year's edition showed that the industry is at an inflection point. Japanese producers are flush with intellectual property gold—anime alone has earned $25.3 billion worldwide—but they have to overcome structural barriers that make international collaboration insanely difficult. Meanwhile, a new generation of female producers has taken center stage to recount how they navigated an industry that until recently kept them in supporting roles. And perhaps most tellingly, the entire event was tinged with the expectation that in 2026 Japan would become the Cannes film market's country of honor, a coronation that would come just as Korean and Chinese competitors nipped at the heels of Japanese content.
Here are seven themes that emerged from the festival and market.
TIFFCOM moves from sales market to co-production hub
TIFFCOM 2025 featured 322 exhibiting companies, up from 283 in 2024, with booths nearly sold out by early July as CEO Shiina Yasushi highlighted the market's transformation from a purely sales-focused event to a hub for co-production and financing. The market is increasingly recognized as an all-encompassing platform bringing together film, television, animation and IP under one roof, with the diversity of Japanese content and Tokyo's cultural energy cited as key strengths. Tokyo's deficit financing market selected 23 projects, including several Japanese co-productions covering Korea (manga adaptation), Taiwan and Spain, marking increased international cooperation.
Japan's IP Adaptation Madness Reaches Global Studios, But Faces Regional Competition
Sony Pictures International Productions' Shebnam Askin revealed at TIFFCOM that the studio is actively seeking remakes of Japanese anime, having “so many great meetings” with anime story companies as one of its key missions in the market. TIFFCOM has renamed its Tokyo Story Market to Tokyo IP Market: Adaptation & Remake, expanding the scope of adaptation rights specialists to the production companies that own remake rights, with six main participants including Kadokawa, Kodansha, Square Enix and Toei. Examples include the Chinese remake of “Yolo,” which grossed approximately $480 million, and the Netflix live-action series “One Piece,” which has seen explosive global demand.
Appetite is determined by exact numbers. According to data released by the Association of Japanese Animation during TIFFCOM, the Japanese anime industry reached a record $25.3 billion in 2024, with overseas sales accounting for nearly 80% of the total market and growing at double-digit rates annually. The sector has doubled in size over the past decade, making Japanese content a high-stakes battleground for global studios.
But participants in “The Future of Japanese Intellectual Property in Global Adaptation,” producer Fujimura Tetsu's keynote at TIFFCOM, were left with a different, more positive impression: For all the problems the Japanese entertainment industry has, starting with a silo mentality that has prevented it from being slow to respond to international opportunities, it is still generating intellectual property with enormous growth potential.
Founder and CEO of consulting firm Filosofia, Fujimura illustrated this point not only with a wealth of data and examples, but also with his own history of joining forces with top Hollywood producers to bring Japanese IP to the world, from the 2017 sci-fi action film Ghost in the Shell to the hit Netflix series One Piece.
As Fujimura noted, Japanese anime has moved beyond niche interest internationally and into the global mainstream, fueled by record revenues for the Demon Slayer franchise. He also introduced a long list of Japanese intellectual properties, from comics and novels to games and toys, that are currently in content development in Hollywood. His conclusion: Japanese intellectual property has become a key national industry, rivaling the country's legendary automakers in revenue. Toyota may be battling Tesla in the global electric car competition, but Hello Kitty is taking over the world.
Yet despite this dominance, the emergence of world-leading intellectual property from South Korea and China, including games, animation, films and streaming shows, appears to have threatened Japan's long-standing dominance as a regional pop culture powerhouse.
Japan's cultural confidence returns with “That's itLeading local rental of Renaissance
Lee Sang-il's three-hour Kabuki period drama “Kokuho” has grossed $109 million since its release in June, the third-highest total ever for a Japanese live-action film. The film premiered during Directors' Fortnight in Cannes and became a major cultural phenomenon, with government officials highlighting how it had reignited public interest in traditional Kabuki theater.
The success reflects a renewed appetite for prestige studio filmmaking reminiscent of the filmmakers of Japan's Golden Age, a theme that resonated throughout the festival. At the standing-room-only TIFF Lounge event, 91-year-old director legend Yamada Yoji spoke with Lee about the craft and the future of Japanese cinema. Other TIFF Lounge sessions featured Hirokazu's Kore-eda with Oscar winner Chloe Zhao, Fujimoto Akio with Thailand's Pen-ek Ratanaruang and Miyake Sho with Cambodia's Rithy Pan, cementing Tokyo's positioning as a hub for inter-Asian filmmaker dialogue.
An American author spoke at the opening of the festival Paul Schroederwhose 1985 film Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters finally premiered in Japan this week after four decades of being blocked due to controversial content. The screening, marking the 100th anniversary of Mishima's birth, demonstrated the festival's growing confidence in connecting cinematic history with contemporary cultural diplomacy.
Unlike last year's TIFF, which saw stars Paul Mescal, Fred Hechinger, Connie Nielsen and Denzel Washington gather in Tokyo for a central screening of Gladiator 2, there was little Hollywood glamor at this year's edition, although director Chloe Zhao took the stage to introduce her drama Hamnet as the closing film, and Elvis producer Schuyler Weiss presented two masterclasses. The festival made up for this with the presence of major international stars on the red carpet, including Chinese superstars. Fan Bingbing (competition entry “Mother Bhoomi”), French actor Juliette Binoche (presenting her directorial debut “In-I In Motion”), Hong Kong filmmaker Peter Chan and festival ambassador Takiuchi Kumi, as well as Japanese talent including Yoshinaga Sayuri (recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award), Saito Takumi and Morita Misato.
Japanese female producers are breaking through to the industry's top levels
Japanese women, long relegated to supporting roles, are now actively working as producers at the top of the industry, both locally and internationally. Proof was speaking on stage at the talk show “From Tokyo to the World: Japan's Women Producers Go Global,” which was part of TIFF's Women's Empowerment Section.
Eriko Miyagawa, Emmy winner for the popular streaming series Shogun, Eiko Mizuno Gray, producer of the Cannes competition film Renoir, and Murata Chieko, whose many credits include the box office sensation Kokuho, took different paths to the top, but they have all carved out careers that would have been virtually impossible just a generation ago.
Miyagawa achieved success by finding opportunities in Hollywood, Mizuno Gray by founding an indie production company, and Murata by climbing the corporate ladder in Japanese subsidiaries of Hollywood studios. In doing so, they paved the way for the next generation of female producers, showing how endless the possibilities are for those with enormous talent and ambition.
Rising production costs drive Asian co-production
Manufacturers in Asia are aware of rising costs in their home markets. Seminars held at TIFFCOM spent perhaps as much time discussing wage constraints and production in high-cost markets as they did on financing. The boom in production costs has been blamed on high talent prices caused by the exorbitant spending of major streamers in recent years. There is a sense that local producers are leaning towards co-productions with producers from other countries, not only to ease the financial burden, but also to wean themselves off over-reliance on streamer commissions and acquisitions.
Japan's production committee model becomes a barrier to co-production
Additionally, Japanese producers are very excited and willing to co-produce with international partners, but language and culture still remain major barriers. For example, the production committee style of filmmaking common in Japan has been criticized and compared poorly with the less bureaucratic and more reckless filmmaking style in Korea, which is typically run by just one company. Similarly, producers have complained that they have to spend more money hiring bilingual crew and actors when co-producing in Japan. Likewise, Japanese media startups and companies may express a desire to expand overseas, but their content remains focused on the local market, with less attention and effort put into translating distinctively Japanese content so it can be easily consumed by international audiences. For example, in one platform's presentation, none of the material shown was localized into English, and the video clips shown were free of the extensive Japanese text overlays that are a hallmark of Japanese television, despite the platform being aimed at international producers.
Cannes 2026 'Land of Honor' signals belated global ambitions
As a result of Japan's selection as the 2026 Cannes Film Market Honorary Country, the country will co-host the market's opening gala for more than 1,200 delegates and will be featured in flagship programs highlighting animation, genre film and co-production opportunities. Officials plan to use the platform to demystify Japan's model of production committee funding for foreign producers, with the goal of allowing for more meaningful international co-productions as Japan produces about 1,200 films annually with box office receipts of $1.31 billion.
Despite the language barrier, Japan as a whole still occupies an important place in the imagination of Asian filmmakers. The unique nature of Japanese culture, customs and lifestyle continues to serve as a source of inspiration for filmmakers from the region. The number of international directors, actors and producers presenting films related to Japan is a testament to the ongoing fascination with Japan.
