https://coveredge.cover-corp.com/en/list/480>“VTuber culture will become Japan’s new export industry”: The potential for economic growth found in the VTuber culture that is spreading worldwideーWhat do you think are COVER’s competitive advantages in the global market? Also, is there any particular reason or episode that made you decide to take on the challenges of the EC business in the VTuber domain and other parts of the entertainment industry?
I think that the fact that the VTuber culture originating in Japan is being accepted around the world could make it a new export industry for Japan. In particular, the collaboration between the Los Angeles Dodgers and hololive production that was held at the beginning of July 2024 was an impressive event.
There was a line of people waiting to buy merchandise that went around the stadium, and some fans waited in line for nearly five hours.
Seeing how content from Asia is accepted by people of all ages in the United States and has become a part of their daily lives, I am convinced that VTubers are a new form of entertainment that can be enjoyed around the world. I think the reason for this is that the anime-like appearance of these characters makes people less aware of race, and the diffusion of the Internet has led to a greater sense of real-time entertainment and the democratization of language.
The Grand Design and Action Plan for a New Form of Capitalism *2, approved by the Cabinet in June 2024, also announced a new content industry revitalization strategy. According to the document, the overseas sales of content originating from Japan are comparable in size to the exports of Japan’s steel and semiconductor industries. In addition, half of the top world rankings for characters are from Japan. For a long time, Japan may have had a strong image as a manufacturing nation, but with this kind of trend in the country, the globalization of content has become a hot topic recently. Furthermore, in the context of the Cool Japan Strategy, Japan has started to focus on exporting its culture, including anime, manga, and dramas, and this year could be called the Year One of Global Content. With that background in mind, I think that the VTuber business has great potential to create global companies originating in Japan.
We should be considering about this from a broader perspective, rather than just trying to win out over our rivals. Japan currently has a surplus of imported digital services, with many services provided by overseas IT companies such as GAFA being used. Against this backdrop, I feel that we can contribute to correcting Japan’s digital deficit by enhancing the presence of Japanese digital content through VTuber culture and increasing its influence in Asia and the world.
