The UK’s creative industries are continuing to grow in the
Japanese market, statistics reveal.
From Beauty and the Beast and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find
Them topping the Japanese box office, to music releases from UK
exports Adele and Ed Sheeran flying high, the love affair that
the Japanese have for the UK’s creative industries shows no sign
of letting up.
As the UK welcomes Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe this week,
the government has praised the work that our thriving creative
industries sectors produce, making it such a positive global
export.
Across film, music and video games the UK and Japan share a huge
common interest. In 2016 Japan accounted for £325 million of the
UK creative industry service exports, up from £226 million in
2015. These are any services that are exported including
advertising and marketing.
Creative Industry export goods, which includes things like
handbags, printed books, paintings and sculptures, to Japan in
2016 were also worth £155 million, which was up from £146 million
the year before.
Minister for Digital and the Creative Industries said:
The UK’s creative and cultural output is one of our biggest
exports and the Japanese market continues to love what we have
to offer.
From seeing our latest blockbusters on screen, to listening to
rip roaring live music acts and playing our latest video games
- it’s clear that creative industries love affair between Japan
and the UK continues.
And that affection is shown in the UK too, with over £100
million of creative industry goods imported into our shores
every year. I look forward to seeing this partnership continue
to grow for many years to come.
In 2017 the box office take for UK films shown in Japan was
$424.3 million. Two British films Beauty and the Beast and
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them topped the charts with
9.5 million and 5.6 million admissions respectively.
Japan’s love of UK music continues to be a success with UK labels
earning an estimated £18.5 million from Japan in 2017. It was 5th
largest marker in terms of UK revenues behind the USA, Germany,
France and Australia. The biggest selling album by a British act
was Divide by Ed Sheeran.
The UK’s video games industry also has strong links with Japan
with UK benefitting from major investment by leading companies
including SEGA and Sony Interactive Entertainment.
The UK game Overcooked 2 developed by Ghost Town Games and
published by Team17 in Wakefield is also proving popular in Japan
as it was voted the most recommended game by Nintendo Switch
players last August.
