IP PRODUCTION UNIT

We remain committed to creating excellent products without compromise.

Operating the visual works, music, and live event businesses, the IP Production Unit makes ongoing efforts to strengthen its development and production capabilities in order to create excellent visual works and music. In FY2025.3, the final year of the Mid-term Plan, the visual works business finds itself in a period of dramatic transformation. In such a period, we are steadily managing our visual work portfolio in an effort to maximize profits.
The market for the animation production and sales business is undergoing significant changes. Although the number of works being produced is rising, there is a shortage of animators, and this has led to difficulties in adjusting production schedules and increases in production costs. To adapt to these conditions, we will not only enhance our production capabilities within the Company but also bolster our creation and production capabilities with external partners. To that extent, we will fully leverage the strengths of our in-house production studios, accumulate know-how, and refine our technological capabilities over the long term. We will also focus on cultivating creators within the Unit. At the same time, we are steadily bolstering our production capabilities through business alliances with numerous animation production companies, including welcoming Eight Bit Co., Ltd., into the Group in April 2024. Moving forward, we will actively pursue greater collaboration and partnerships with external studios.
As part of our exit strategy, we will explore all possible avenues in the visual business, including TV, film, and streaming content, program sales, packaged sales, and use in live events. We aim to expand value in various forms based on the direction of each work. Furthermore, in the licensing business, where we possess major strengths, we will integrate the offices of each Unit company possessing licensing functions in a bid to bolster collaboration. By doing so, we will further enhance our function as a licensor.
For the music and live event businesses, we are currently building a concert hall with a 2,000-person capacity in Shibuya, Tokyo, slated to be completed in 2026, so that we can capture the growing demand in these businesses. Through a wide variety of music and live events, we will leverage this concert hall as a place for cultivating IPs and artists.
By continuing to create IPs in the IP Production Unit, we will not only realize growth for the Group but also contribute to the advancement of the visual works and music industries as a whole. Moving forward, we aim to become the leading IP production group by continuing to create excellent products without compromise and delivering them to fans across the world.