Tokyo’s content market is no longer a side stage. TIFFCOM opens October 28 to 30 at the Tokyo Metropolitan Industrial Trade Center after logging about 4,600 visitors and 300 exhibitors in 2025, up strongly from previous editions, with organisers expecting this year’s edition to match or beat those figures.
Managing director Kaori Ikeda says the market is riding a wider Japan wave: anime is a global staple, manga and gameshow formats are being shopped for adaptation, and Shōgun proved Japanese source material can anchor a Western hit. Nearly 43 million people visited Japan last year, and Ikeda sees that tourism surge as fuel for the IP business. “Tokyo is probably one of the most fascinating cities in the world, and Japan is enjoying a boom,” she told The Hollywood Reporter.
The remake pipeline is the product
TIFFCOM’s sharpest bet is adaptation. Last year’s Tokyo Story Market relaunched as Tokyo IP Market: Adaptation & Remake, widening beyond book publishers to include remake-rights holders such as Toei, Shochiku and toy company Takara Tomy.
The market also took the format to Cannes, where Japan was Country of Honour at the Marché du Film. Ikeda calls the venture a success she expects to repeat, and wants to bring in smaller Japanese publishers with limited experience selling internationally.
Why buyers should pay attention
- 4,600 visitors, 300 exhibitors in 2025 — up strongly from earlier editions and expected to be matched or exceeded this year.
- Remake rights have formal shelf space — Toei, Shochiku and Takara Tomy are now part of the adaptation market, not just publishers.
- AI moves to centre stage — AGBO executives Chris Brearton and Dominic Hughes will deliver a keynote on technology and storytelling.
- Gap financing is producing results — The Violinist, which found an Italian partner at the 2023 market, won the top Annecy prize this year.
Global validation, local leverage
The market’s pitch to international producers and platforms is increasingly concrete. A session called “Unlocking the Global Potential of Japanese IP” will bring together producer Shinzo Matsuhashi, Steven Maeda of Netflix’s One Piece, and Amazon MGM Studios Japan head Buddy Marini.
Ikeda frames the market’s job as transactional rather than touristic: “We’re looking at how to be a better place for the industry to have business meetings and also to network.” That matters as streamers trim budgets and short-form dramas shift viewing habits; buyers need low-cost, high-recognition IP, and Japan has a deep bench of it.
The number behind the screen
For media planners and content buyers, TIFFCOM’s 2025 numbers are a leading indicator of where adaptable IP is consolidating. The Association of Japanese Animations will release annual industry data at the market, and TV stations will present overseas format-sale case studies. That is the kind of data that turns a tourism boom into a licensing pipeline.
Short dramas are growing, budgets are tightening, and remake rights are becoming a cheaper global bet than original development. Japanese IP is the supply-side story to watch.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
