What’s Behind India’s Love for Anime?
14 Nov 2025 7:00 AM IST
If you grew up watching Shin-chan, Doraemon, or Dragon Ball-Z you are part of Japan’s soft-power story.
Today, anime is a billion-dollar industry in India, and it’s a part of Japan’s bigger plan to win hearts, not wars.
From Uniqlo stores to matcha cafés and ramen bowls, Japan’s quiet influence is everywhere.
But what’s really behind this cultural wave? And why does it matter to India right now?
Find out in the latest episode of The Signal Brief.
The Core produces The Signal Brief. Follow us wherever you get your favourite podcasts. To check out the rest of our work, go to www.thecore.in
NOTE: A machine transcribed this episode. A human has looked at this text but there might still be errors. Please refer to the audio above, if you need to clarify something. If you want to give us feedback, please write to us at [email protected].
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TRANSCRIPT
Kudrat (Host): Earlier this year, on September 13th and 14th, the Indian and Japanese governments co-hosted an event called Mela! Mela! Anime Japan!! at a mall in New Delhi.
Visitors browsed stalls run by Japan’s biggest anime studios Toei Animation, Bandai Namco, Aniplex, alongside Japanese bike brand Hayabusa and snack company Calbee.
There were performances too: Taiko drummers, Japanese idol dances, and even a Naruto-style cosplay battle.
Here’s youtuber Mohammed Adil describing his experience at the event.
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🎧 SFX: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ORyjMUzMfmI
Kudrat (Host): Events like this aren’t just fun weekends for anime fans.
They’re also part of a larger strategy, one where Japan uses culture as a tool of diplomacy.
But how does that really work?
Kudrat (Host): My name is Kudrat Wadhwa and you’re listening to The Signal Brief. We don’t do hot takes. Instead, we bring you deep dives into the how and why of consumer trends.
In this episode, we’ll unpack how Japan is turning its culture into commerce. And how does India fit into that picture?
Deven Gupta: When I was kid, I used to watch like a lot of cartoons. So that time I did not know, like, it was like anime…Cartoons and anime are like somewhat different.
Kudrat (Host): Deven Gupta is 25. He runs an advertising agency in Delhi and a WhatsApp anime club with over 1,500 members.
Like many Indians in their 20s and 30s, he grew up watching Shinchan, Doraemon, and Dragon Ball Z on TV, shows he says felt more emotional than their American counterparts.
Deven: They had better emotions in terms of character development. They had depth to them, because Dragon Ball was one of the favourites. At that time I used to come home and actually wait to watch Dragon Ball.
Kudrat (Host): Today, India’s anime market is booming. IMARC estimates it at around US$1 billion in 2024, set to double by 2033.
Mishaal Wanvari of Animation Xpress, a publication that covers animation, gaming and VFX, told The Signal Brief that India now has over 100 million anime fans, across small and big cities as well as social strata.
Mishaal: Back in the early 2000s, when Ronnie Screwvala’s company UTV Motion Pictures got Shinchan, Kiteretsu and a host of preschool anime content, that’s where I would say the craze started. There was content like Pokémon too, but that was when the true popularity started, with people understanding, okay, this is good storytelling, this has a good emotional connect, and this is how the Japanese create animation content.
Then, when people started growing up, they started consuming a show called Dragon Ball Z on Cartoon Network, which escalated a proper anime boom amongst young boys and young adults.
Kudrat (Host): But, the real craze, Mishaal says, came after the 2020 COVID pandemic, when Japanese anime companies officially entered India.
Mishaal: 2010 to 2020 was the era of illegal streaming, with pirate websites blowing up because people were watching Dragon Ball Z and thinking, okay, this is good, what should I watch next? There was One Piece, which has more episodes than Dragon Ball Z and is the number one anime in the world right now. There was Naruto, there was Bleach, there was a host of anime.
So when companies entered India finally in 2021, all the Japanese anime companies had a ready market of more than a hundred million anime fans. That’s where the market has grown like anything.
There was a movie called Demon Slayer, which released a month and a half ago, and it did 78 crore at the box office, more than many Hindi and Tamil films. Just a movie doing 78 crore, right? Immediately Demon Slayer as an IP is worth a few hundred crore in India.
Kudrat (Host): India’s obsession with anime isn’t totally organic. It’s a result of Japan’s strategy to project its soft power abroad.
Kudrat (Host): In 2011, Japan launched its ‘Cool Japan’ strategy, a government program designed to promote the country’s creative industries abroad: anime, fashion, food, tourism. The country invested 600 million USD when it launched this project. “What does it mean for Japan to win the sympathy of other countries?” asked one ‘Cool Japan’ policy document. “What more can Japan do now to create such a state?”
The idea behind ‘Cool Japan’ was simple but powerful: if you can make people fall in love with Japanese culture, they’ll buy Japanese products, visit Japan, and associate the country with quality and creativity.
That’s why Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry co-host events like Mela! Mela! Anime Japan!!
Kudrat (Host): Japan’s soft-power strategy actually began decades before it officially launched ‘Cool Japan’. After World War II, its US-imposed pacifist constitution barred it from rebuilding a military. So it turned to culture instead, projecting craftsmanship, and emotion through storytelling.
Over the following decades, Japan exported its aesthetics, through everything, from its cars, electronics to anime and cuisine, to rebuild trust globally.
Analysts often compare this approach with China’s Belt and Road Initiative. While China builds ports and highways, Japan invests in what some call a Belt and Road of the Mind: shaping how people feel about Japan.
Kudrat (Host): India is central to that effort. Unlike Japan’s ageing population, India’s median age is just 28. In August 2025, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Japanese PM Shigeru Ishiba to deepen both economic and cultural ties.
Japan pledged to boost its investment in India to 68 billion USD over the next decade, that’s roughly 10 trillion yen.
The agreement also includes a people-to-people exchange programme to bring 50 lakh Indian students and workers to Japan over five years. The idea is to offset Japan’s labour shortage while tapping India’s youth skills in STEM fields.
Kudrat (Host): Soft power, from anime to food, compliments that agenda. Japan isn’t just selling culture; it’s building long-term familiarity with the next generation of Indian talent.
And this strategy seems to be working.
Kudrat (Host): Young fans also say their love for anime has evolved into an admiration for Japan itself: its streets, its food, even its philosophy of calm precision.
Twenty-four-year-old Darshan, a master’s student at Manipal University in Hyderabad, says he dreams of visiting Japan.
Darshan: I would definitely consider going to Japan, at least to visit once. I have always loved Japan, the peaceful streets, the cherry blossom trees and all those lovely things. I will definitely consider it. And one more thing to consider is the food, especially ramen.
It is from Japan, and we have a lot of Japanese stores in Hyderabad as well. One of the spots I love is called Raku Ramen. It is in Hyderabad and they make very good ramen. So ramen is something I want to experience, because what we experience here is not the authentic one.
So I want to experience authentic Japanese ramen in Japan itself.
Kudrat (Host): For Japan, soft power began as a necessity, as a way to rebuild reputation after the war.
In India, it’s now becoming an opportunity: a bridge between two very different futures, one ageing, one young.
Kudrat (Host): That's all for today. You just heard The Signal Brief. We don't do hot takes. Instead, we bring you deep dives into the how and why of consumer trends. The Core produces The Signal Brief. Follow us wherever you get your favourite podcasts.
To check out the rest of our work, go to www.thecore.in.
If you have feedback, we'd love to hear from you. Write to us at [email protected] or you can write to me personally at [email protected].
Thank you for listening.
