Post Show Report
Japan’s LARGEST licensing trade show ended with a great success! From June 29 to July 1, 2016, Japan’s LARGEST trade show for the character and brand business, the 6th LICENSING JAPAN http://www.licensing-japan.jp/en/ was held at Tokyo Big Sight, Japan, attracting a record number of 229 exhibitors from 11 countries and regions, 40,660* visitors from around the world. With the rapid increase of exhibitors, the scale of the show this year was 50% larger, and the number of visitors was up 33% compared with the previous edition. With Japan being the world’s second-largest market for the licensing business, LICENSING JAPAN is widely recognised as a key platform for the licensing business not only in Japan but also in Asia. (*Total number of six exhibitions of CONTENT TOKYO 2016)
The perfect venue for licensing business in Japan The key feature of this year was the huge range of properties. In addition to major Japanese characters such as GODZILLA, DETECTIVE CONAN, Rilakkuma, HANAKAPPA, Kanahei’s Small Animals, MONCHHICHI, and Peko, the show also exhibited popular characters with global appeal such as ANGRY BIRDS, Barbie, the Smurfs, Where’s Wally?, The Snowman, GHOSTBUSTERS, and RODY. It is worth noting that major publishing companies such as SHUEISHA, SHOGAKUKAN and KADOKAWA which own properties of world-famous Japanese animations, were at the exhibition seeking new licensing partnerships. Among the numerous brands that were also present were NISSAN, Japan Airlines, ROVER, HERSHEY’s, Laura Ashley, AUTOMOBILI LAMBORGHINI, and JEEP.
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