The Japanese entertainment sector remains one of the largest in the world. Japan harbours the third largest film box office, and Japanese viewers are familiar with their own celebrities, domestic-made content and are famous for being notoriously hard to crack when it comes to Hollywood fare. Why does Spiderman do well in Japan, but Superman never has? These are questions that Tokyoesque works on regularly, and they all come down to viewer expectations and tastes.

Aside from the film industry in Japan, there is a good deal of value in Japan’s music industry, which only recently began to shift towards more streaming-based listening habits. In fact, the Japanese music industry is the second largest in the world.

Tokyoesque will always come back to the importance of understanding local trends, media icons and pop culture buzz in order to best tailor content to the Japanese market. This does not mean a passing familiarity with famous anime characters. Rather, it is about knowing aspects such as: which celebrities are showing up on which local talk shows, what Gen Z vs. the Baby Boomers are watching (and why), and more. Crucially, how can your content be slotted into this complex, and worthwhile, industry? On top of this, there is a need to monitor social media usage and trends, with platforms such as the rise of TikTok completely changing the way certain segments in Japan consume content.

Founder & CEO Natalie Meyer launched Tokyoesque in 2014 with Japanese media and entertainment research at the crux of our offering, enabling film studios to understand local tastes in Japan. We have been working since then to show clients how to market media in a way that can frame content effectively towards Japanese audiences.