The Association of Japanese Animations (AJA) published its "Anime Industry Report 2017," which examines industry trends from 2016, on Tuesday.

The report confirms the previous reports that the total market value of the anime industry in 2016 was a record 2.0009 trillion yen (about US$17.5 billion), up about 9% from 2015's 1.83 trillion yen. This continues the industry's upward trend; the total market value in 2014 was up 10% from 2013, and in 2015 was up 12% from 2014.

Since 2014, the AJA has attributed the growth in the market to success in the sales of streaming rights to China, a trend that has not changed in 2016. The AJA attributes a 34.9 billion yen (about US$306 million) export value to overseas sales in 2015, up from 2014's 19.5 billion yen, and China constitutes more than half of the increase. The figure now exceeds the former peak of overseas sales in 2005's 31.3 billion yen value. AJA cautions that it is possible that this is a bubble; it mentions geopolitical tensions in the East Asian region and the potential online enforcement of a 2006 Chinese law (that prohibits foreign animation from airing during primetime) as possible reasons for future decline.

The report also attributes live events as another source of the growth. Live events have seen a year-on-year increase in market value since the AJA began surveying it in 2013, reaching recorded revenues of 52.3 billion yen (about US$459 million) in 2015. The category counts revenues from concerts, anime events, stage plays and musicals, live viewings, museums and exhibitions, and anime cafes, but does not count revenue from merchandise sold on site.

The report also cites the success of Makoto Shinkai's your name. film as a factor for the growth, but also indicates that the industry had already been seeing record revenues even before the film. The report notes that the film has earned 16.4 billion yen (about US$144 million) in the Japanese box office.

The AJA has been publishing annual reports since 2009, when the anime industry was in decline.

Source: NHK