Japan’s film and content market is putting adaptation rights, international co-production and overseas distribution high on its 2026 agenda as demand for Japanese entertainment continues to grow.
TOKYO — TIFFCOM opened its 2026 edition on Wednesday with Japanese intellectual property, international co-production and new technology prominent on the agenda, as companies look for more ways to develop Japanese content for audiences beyond the domestic market.
The three-day market, affiliated with the Tokyo International Film Festival, runs from October 28 to 30 at the Tokyo Metropolitan Industrial Trade Center Hamamatsucho-kan. It brings together companies working across film, television, animation and other content businesses with international buyers, producers and distributors.
This year’s market arrives amid sustained international demand for Japanese entertainment, particularly across anime, manga and games. The business discussion in Tokyo, however, extends beyond exporting finished content.
Adaptation and remake rights, international co-production, project financing and overseas distribution all feature prominently in this year’s programme.
The market itself has also attracted strong industry demand. Exhibition space sold out ahead of the event, according to TIFFCOM managing director Kaori Ikeda, while Screen Daily reported before the opening that visitor registrations were running about 10 percent ahead of the same stage last year.
TIFFCOM recorded more than 4,600 participants from 46 countries and regions in 2025, generating more than 7,700 business meetings.
Japanese IP moves further into the international market
One of the clearest examples of TIFFCOM’s wider focus is the Tokyo IP Market: Adaptation & Remake.
Launched in 2025 in response to growing international demand for Japanese IP, the initiative connects Japanese rights holders with overseas producers, buyers and sales agents looking for screen adaptation and remake rights.
Rather than concentrating on completed films or television programmes, the market covers underlying properties including manga, novels and established screen titles with potential for further adaptation.
Participating rights holders this year come from several parts of Japan’s content business, including publishing, film, animation, digital comics and toys. Among them are KADOKAWA, Shochiku, Toei, Nippon Animation, Amuse Creative Studio and Takara Tomy.
That mix illustrates one of the characteristics of Japan’s IP business. Properties capable of moving into film or television frequently originate outside the traditional studio system, particularly in publishing, manga, games, animation and character businesses.
TIFFCOM is using one-on-one meetings and pitching sessions to bring those rights holders into contact with international producers.
Eight companies are taking part in an English-language Tokyo IP Market pitch session on October 28, presenting properties including comics, animation, film franchises and toys for potential screen adaptation.
The initiative has already travelled outside Japan.
In May, Tokyo IP Market expanded to the Marché du Film at the Cannes Film Festival under the Japan IP Market banner, as Japan served as the Marché’s 2026 Country of Honour.
Its return to Tokyo gives Japanese rights holders another opportunity to present properties directly to international producers and continue conversations around adaptation and co-production.
A special TIFFCOM session on October 28, “Unlocking the Global Potential of Japanese IP,” puts the same issue at the centre of the conference programme.
The underlying question is increasingly practical. International recognition of Japanese entertainment is already well established. For rights holders and producers, the next questions concern how properties are developed for other markets, how projects are financed, who controls the rights and how the finished content reaches audiences.
Distribution enters the discussion
International distribution is also receiving greater attention.
TIFFCOM CEO Yasushi Shiina told Variety that Japanese entertainment companies need to consider retaining greater control of their intellectual property while developing stronger overseas distribution capabilities.
Shiina pointed to the Hollywood studio model, where content ownership and international distribution have traditionally operated together, as one reference point for Japanese companies seeking to expand globally.
His comments highlight a distinction between international popularity and international distribution infrastructure.
Japanese films, anime, games and other properties have repeatedly demonstrated their ability to find audiences outside Japan. Building businesses capable of developing and distributing those properties across multiple markets requires a different set of partnerships and capabilities.
TIFFCOM is increasingly presenting itself as a venue for those relationships.
Its official description notes that the market has expanded in recent years beyond the buying and selling of completed content. Exhibitors are increasingly involved in IP and remake rights, book adaptations, co-production, localization, financing and investment.
Managing director Ikeda has also pointed to growing interest in Japanese underlying IP as overseas producers look beyond finished content toward manga, games and other properties that can be developed for different markets.
Co-production starts before the film is finished
TIFFCOM’s expansion into project development is also visible in the Tokyo Gap-Financing Market.
The seventh edition of TGFM has selected 24 feature projects representing 24 countries and regions. Eight are Japanese projects and five are animation projects.
The programme is aimed at films that are already well into development but still need financing. Participating projects are required to have secured at least 60 percent of their budgets and to include an Asian element.
Producers and directors meet with sales agents, distributors, production companies, financiers, broadcasters and investors during the market.
The structure means TIFFCOM is working with projects before they become completed films, placing financing and international partnerships earlier in the production process.
This year’s TGFM also includes a new collaboration with Frontières, the international genre film co-production market organised by Canada’s Fantasia International Film Festival.
Five Frontières projects are being presented in Tokyo as part of the collaboration. An open pitching event on October 28 brings Frontières and TGFM projects before industry participants.
The partnership adds another international network to TIFFCOM’s co-production activity while giving genre projects a dedicated route into the Tokyo market.
For Japanese producers, international co-production can open access to financing, creative partners and distribution networks overseas. For international producers, TIFFCOM provides direct contact with Japanese companies and other Asian industry participants.
AI becomes a market subject
Artificial intelligence is another significant part of this year’s industry programme.
TIFFCOM has added AI to a conference schedule that also covers IP development, animation, international co-production and global distribution.
Among the sessions is “Technology and Storytelling,” featuring executives from AGBO, the independent studio founded by Anthony and Joe Russo. The discussion examines emerging technologies and their relationship with film production and storytelling.
AI has become one of the most contested subjects across the international entertainment industry, particularly around copyright, training data, employment and the protection of creative work.
At TIFFCOM, it is also being discussed as a production and business issue.
That places the technology alongside the more established concerns of a content market: how projects are made, financed, sold and distributed.
Animation also occupies a substantial part of the programme, reflecting both its importance to Japan’s international content business and the growing discussion around overseas production and distribution.
From Cannes back to Tokyo
The international context around TIFFCOM is particularly visible this year.
Japan’s selection as Country of Honour at the 2026 Marché du Film gave Japanese producers and rights holders a prominent platform in Cannes in May. The expansion of Tokyo IP Market to Cannes was one part of that programme.
TIFFCOM now brings many of those international-business questions back to Tokyo.
The two markets differ considerably in scale and position within the international film industry. TIFFCOM’s particular role is its direct access to Japanese rights holders and companies working across film, television, publishing, animation, games and other forms of entertainment.
That becomes increasingly relevant as overseas interest extends from buying completed Japanese content to securing rights, developing adaptations and forming production partnerships.
None of those processes guarantees international success. Adaptations require creative and commercial decisions that work in different markets. Co-productions can take years to finance and structure. Distribution requires infrastructure as well as popular content.
But TIFFCOM’s 2026 programme makes clear that these questions are becoming a larger part of the business conducted around Japanese entertainment.
Finished-content sales remain part of the market. Alongside them are adaptation rights, project financing, co-production, technology and international distribution.
For an industry already benefiting from strong overseas interest in Japanese stories and characters, TIFFCOM is increasingly focused on what happens before and after the sale.
TIFFCOM 2026 runs through October 30 in Tokyo.
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