State of Home Video in Japan

Japan’s Video Association held a press conference earlier this week to report on Japanese home video sales for the year 2002. Sales totaled 324,835,000,000 yen, the first year Japan’s video sales have ever topped 300 billion yen. Sales of anime titles increased over 2001 sales by a staggering 185.1%, largely attributable to record breaking sales of the Spirited Away DVD. DVDs now account for 60% of home video sales in Japan, with laserdiscs falling to 0.9% of the market. 38.5% of all DVDs sold in Japan last year were Western movies from mainly America and Europe. The second highest selling home video genre was “general Japanese animation,” not including children’s anime. The average price of anime DVDs in Japan seems to have decreased in 2002 to 4,354 yen ($36 American).

Source: AV Watch, translated by Natsume Goushin Ryu Dojo