VTuber Market Projected at 126B Yen in FY2025 / Sanrio's 4 Anniversaries [Weekly Oshikatsu News: May 2, 2025]

Here is our roundup of standout news in corporate oshikatsu (fannish devotion to a favorite character, idol, or creator) marketing and fan business from the week of April 25 to May 1, 2025.

This Week’s Highlights

This week, long-established brands used landmark anniversaries as a springboard to mobilize characters and fans at the same time.

Sanrio was celebrating a “Miracle Year” where four major milestones overlapped: the 50th anniversary of My Melody, the 20th anniversary of Kuromi, the 50th anniversary of Little Twin Stars, and the 50th anniversary of the founding of its official monthly publication, Ichigo Shimbun (Strawberry News). Marimocraft launched a large-scale shopping event touring department stores nationwide from April 29 at Ginza Mitsukoshi through January 2026. During the same week, an exhibition commemorating the 40th anniversary of the launch of Sylvanian Families (known in North America as Calico Critters) was underway at Sunshine City. Meanwhile, the Matsuya Ginza department store celebrated the 100th anniversary of its opening on May 1.

There was also momentum in overseas expansion. Marking the 10th anniversary of the Universal Studios Japan (USJ) event series “Universal Cool Japan,” experiential attractions based on ONE PIECE and Jujutsu Kaisen made their US debut in Hollywood. On the market data front, Yano Research Institute projected that the VTuber market would reach 126 billion yen in FY2025, a 20% increase over the previous fiscal year. According to the institute’s data, merchandise sales, including digital products, accounted for 55.6% of surveyed Japanese VTuber management companies’ FY2023 revenue, including overseas operations.

DIAGRAMLandmark Anniversaries Driving Fan Mobilization This Week

Anniversary-Driven Fan Business

Sanrio "Miracle Year"4 overlapping 50th and 20th milestones turned into a nationwide department store tour
Sylvanian Families 40thExhibition at Sunshine City paired with TV drama, restaurant, and fashion art tie-ins
Matsuya Ginza 100thRetro corporate emblems, vintage logo goods, and participatory web voting
Universal Cool Japan 10thProven USJ attractions for ONE PIECE and Jujutsu Kaisen exported to Hollywood

Source: The Oshi Lab's summary of the article

Major Cosmetics and Apparel Brands Demonstrated Mobilization Power Through IP Collaborations

Shiseido x Pokémon — A 22-Meter Transit Ad in Shibuya

On April 21, Shiseido’s suncare brand ANESSA released a collaborative edition of its “ANESSA Perfect UV Sunscreen Skincare Milk NA” featuring Pokémon. The collaboration spotlighted three Pokémon: Pikachu, Piplup, and Sprigatito. For one week starting April 28, the brand displayed a 22-meter-long transit advertisement on the Dogenzaka Happy Board inside Shibuya Station. Shiseido Creative planned the entire campaign end-to-end, from selecting the specific Pokémon to designing the packaging and in-store point-of-purchase (POP) displays. This marked the second collaboration overall between ANESSA and Pokémon, and the first in four years since 2021 (AdverTimes. (in Japanese)).

The collaborative products were sold in limited quantities across drugstores, general merchandise stores (GMS), cosmetics specialty shops, and the Shiseido Online Store.

Lab Note: What catches the eye here is the decision to bring back the exact same IP after four years. Rather than searching for a brand-new collaboration partner, “re-staging” a combination that has already proven successful taps into fans’ existing memories while refreshing awareness of the brand at the same time. For long-term collaborations, designing partnerships that return periodically is far more effective than ending them after a single run.

UNIQLO x Disney — “Disney in Blue” Supervised by Traditional Indigo Dye Artisans

UNIQLO’s graphic T-shirt brand “UT” launched the “Disney in Blue” collection, supervised by the traditional indigo growers and dyers collective BUAISOU. The release was part of “MAGIC FOR ALL,” an ongoing project blending Disney, Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars with UNIQLO’s “LifeWear.” Original artworks created using traditional katazome (stencil dyeing) and shiborizome (tie-dyeing) techniques were reproduced on the garments through printing and embroidery. In addition to four T-shirt designs each for MEN, WOMEN, and KIDS (priced from 990 yen to 1,990 yen), the lineup also included unisex shirts and shorts (Anime! Anime! (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: A distinctive feature of this release is the care put into framing the theme not simply around Mickey Mouse himself, but around “Mickey as an indigo dye artisan.” Rather than just putting the character center stage, the project weaves artisan techniques directly into the worldview of the IP. This collection shows that even in mass-produced apparel collaborations, it is possible to convey the story and craftsmanship behind how things are made.

A Publisher and a Department Store Drew New Customers Through Inbound Tourists and Milestones

Kodansha — “MANGA MANNERS” Expands to Five Shinkansen Stations

From April 24 to June 30, publishing house Kodansha rolled out its “MANGA MANNERS” advertising campaign across five JR Central Tokaido Shinkansen bullet train stations: Tokyo, Shinagawa, Nagoya, Kyoto, and Shin-Osaka. The advertisements featured characters from 17 globally popular manga titles—including Sailor Moon, AKIRA, Attack on Titan, and Tokyo Revengers—introducing Japanese etiquette and public manners. This was an expanded version of an initiative that originally launched at Narita Airport Terminal 2 in October 2024. By adding six new etiquette tips tailored specifically for the Tokaido Shinkansen, the campaign communicated a total of 17 manners (AdverTimes. (in Japanese)).

上ケ市亜矢 of Kodansha’s Comic Sales Department cited practical usefulness for foreign tourists as the primary goal. She noted that the campaign was driven by record-breaking inbound tourist numbers and the further surge in international visitors expected for Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai.

Lab Note: Designing this not merely as a corporate ad, but as “genuinely useful information,” is what makes it effective. It is usually difficult to balance an ad meant to showcase a brand with an ad that actually helps travelers on the ground. Having manga characters teach local etiquette satisfies both goals at once. The core idea here is using IP not just as the “face” of an advertisement, but as its practical “function.”

Matsuya Ginza — Celebrating Its 100th Anniversary with Limited Goods and a Voting Campaign

Matsuya Ginza marked the 100th anniversary of its store opening on May 1, holding an “Anniversary Week” from April 29 to May 13. At its main entrance, the department store set up a pop-up shop called the “MATSUYA GINZA Souvenir Store,” selling merchandise featuring reproductions of its corporate emblem—the Shokaku (pine and crane) mark—and vintage logos from when the store first opened. It also ran a “100 Thank-You Gifts” giveaway for followers of its official LINE account, alongside “Everyone’s Matsuya Ginza Grand Prize” (Minna no! Matsuya Ginza Taisho), a web voting campaign where customers selected their favorite items. Having recently posted record-high financial results driven by surging inbound tourist demand, the store stated its goal of cultivating the next generation of customers as it looks toward its next 100 years (AdverTimes. (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: What stands out is that Matsuya Ginza turned its 100th anniversary not into a standard “thank-you clearance sale,” but into participatory hooks like vintage emblem and retro logo goods alongside a public voting campaign. Instead of lecturing customers one-way about how long its history is, the store let shoppers choose and collect items, turning the anniversary itself into engaging content. The older and more established a brand is, the more value there is in translating its history into participatory initiatives.

Theme Parks and Toy Makers Generated Excitement Through Anniversaries and Overseas Expansion

USJ x ONE PIECE & Jujutsu Kaisen — “Cool Japan” Lands in Hollywood

Marking the 10th anniversary of the Universal Studios Japan (USJ) event series “Universal Cool Japan,” experiential attractions for ONE PIECE and Jujutsu Kaisen landed in the United States for the first time. On April 25 (local time), the limited-time event “UNIVERSAL FAN FEST NIGHTS” opened at Universal Studios Hollywood in Los Angeles, running on select nights through May 18. The event featured character greetings where Luffy and the rest of the Straw Hat Crew appeared. In addition, the Jujutsu Kaisen theater show attraction—which originally debuted as a collaboration at USJ in 2022—was unveiled in the US for the first time (Anime! Anime! (in Japanese)).

Meanwhile, back in Japan, USJ announced that it would hold “ONE PIECE Premier Summer 2025” from July 1 to October 6.

Lab Note: This is a move that directly exports experiences cultivated at USJ to overseas theme parks. Rather than developing a brand-new IP from scratch abroad, Universal is taking a proven “formula” whose results have already been verified in Japan and bringing it overseas. Because it expands a program that has been refined over ten years, projecting a return on investment is much easier than with a one-off collaboration.

Expo Gundam Pavilion — Stationery and Sundries Sold Exclusively at Four Stores

Sun-Star Stationery released a line of Gundam series stationery and lifestyle goods exclusively across four official stores inside the Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai venue. The lineup spanned 10 items in total, ranging from a five-piece clear file folder set (2,750 yen) to acrylic stands (1,980 yen each) and uchiwa handheld fans (770 yen). At the “GUNDAM NEXT FUTURE PAVILION” exhibited by Bandai Namco Holdings, a life-sized Gundam statue standing approximately 17 meters tall was installed outdoors (Anime! Anime! (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: The strict constraint of being venue-exclusive and limited to four stores acts directly as a motivation to visit in person. By narrowing distribution channels to match the once-in-a-lifetime occasion of the World Expo, the company created the scarcity value of “you can only buy it right here.” Even for companies that do not host their own large-scale events, piggybacking on major public expositions for a limited time is an easy-to-replicate tactic.

Long-Established Character Companies Expanded Merchandise Through Anniversary Events

Sanrio’s “Miracle Year” — A Touring Event Where Four Anniversaries Overlap

Marimocraft announced that it would hold a large-scale shopping event titled “Sanrio characters Special Anniversary Market.” The project commemorated a special year in which four major milestones overlapped: My Melody’s 50th anniversary, Kuromi’s 20th anniversary, Little Twin Stars’ 50th anniversary, and the 50th anniversary of the founding of Sanrio’s monthly publication Ichigo Shimbun. Kicking off at Ginza Mitsukoshi on April 29, the market was scheduled to tour department stores nationwide—including Sendai, Sapporo, Kyoto, Osaka, and Fukuoka—through January 2026. Event-exclusive merchandise included plush mascots (2,860 yen each) and Tsubame-Sanjo stainless steel tumblers (11,000 yen) (Cho! Animedia (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: Bundling four separate anniversaries under a single umbrella name—“Miracle Year”—rather than celebrating each one in isolation is a clever piece of framing. A single character’s anniversary on its own often ends as a fleeting, one-off topic. By layering multiple milestones together, they turned the occasion into a major year-long touring department store project. The mindset here is not to consume anniversaries individually, but to bundle them together and turn them into a lasting asset.

Sylvanian Families 40th Exhibition — Tie-Ins with a TV Drama and Restaurants

Sylvanian Families marked the 40th anniversary of its original 1985 release. A commemorative exhibition, “Sylvanian Families 40th Exhibition,” opened at Sunshine City on April 25 (with the Tokyo venue running until May 18). Inside the venue was a special corner recreating a room from the set of the 2024 TBS television drama Saionji-san wa Kaji wo Shinai (Ms. Saionji Doesn’t Do Housework). In addition, four establishments at the Sunshine 60 Sky Restaurants offered collaborative menu items, and the exhibition showcased collaborative artworks created with fashion designers and brands such as tanakadaisuke and JennyFax (ReseMom (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: Rather than stopping at a standalone toy display, the exhibition broadens its touchpoints across three completely different fields: television drama, dining, and fashion art. The layout is designed so that people outside the core fanbase—such as drama viewers or restaurant diners—also encounter the brand’s 40 years of accumulated assets. It serves as a great reference for how to keep an anniversary exhibition from ending up purely as “a place only for existing fans.”

Sumikko Gurashi — New “Shippos” Theme Explicitly Marketed as Oshikatsu Goods

San-X rolled out a new theme for Sumikko Gurashi titled “Yumemiru Shippos” (Dreaming Tails). In the storyline, Ebiten no Shippo (Tempura Shrimp Tail) invites Ebifurai no Shippo (Fried Shrimp Tail) and Ajifurai no Shippo (Fried Horse Mackerel Tail) to form an idol unit together. The merchandise lineup featured items such as a “Frill Tote Bag” sized to hold cheering uchiwa fans (3,740 yen) and “Tail Headband Keychains” (1,210 yen each). In its official announcement, San-X explicitly introduced the release by stating that “oshikatsu goods will join the lineup” (Anime! Anime! (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: It is symbolic that the manufacturer itself uses the phrase “oshikatsu goods” right in its official product description. Once you place characters into an “idol unit” setting, you can take the real-world customs of live idol concert venues—such as carrying cheering uchiwa fans or wearing themed headbands—and turn them directly into character merchandise. Tailoring products to fit existing patterns of fan behavior is an approach that can easily be adapted to other character businesses.

Beverage Makers Approached Fans Through Games and VTubers

Coca-Cola x Genshin Impact — Limited Merch and Primogems with Qualifying Purchases

On April 28, Coca-Cola launched a collaborative campaign with HoYoverse’s open-world RPG Genshin Impact titled “Gokugoku Charge with Genshin!” (Gulp-and-Charge with Genshin!). Customers who purchased four qualifying bottled beverages at supermarkets or drugstores nationwide received a limited-edition drawstring pouch featuring newly drawn character illustrations. Additionally, through the official Coke ON smartphone app, users could purchase a 600-yen multi-drink ticket set to obtain Primogems (in-game currency), while a lottery also offered 200 winners a special stainless steel bottle (Game*Spark (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: What defines this campaign is how directly it links physical retail purchasing behavior with in-game items. It offers both a physical drawstring pouch and in-game currency (Primogems) within the exact same promotion. This structure appeals simultaneously to everyday supermarket and drugstore shoppers and to dedicated players who spend money inside the game. For daily consumer goods like beverages, this kind of dual-reward design is especially effective.

CyberAgent x hololive GAMERS — Original Energy Drink Launch

On April 29, CyberAgent released “Holo Charge! Vol. 1,” an original energy drink featuring the VTuber unit “hololive GAMERS” (Shirakami Fubuki, Ookami Mio, Nekomata Okayu, and Inugami Korone). Priced at 281 yen per can, the drink came in four packaging designs featuring newly drawn illustrations. The release also included a buyer campaign where fans could collect stickers attached to the cans to enter a lottery for prizes such as acrylic stands (Inside (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: Keeping the entry point at the standard canned beverage price of 281 yen while giving fans a reason to pick up VTuber merchandise is highly practical. Even for fans who cannot afford expensive concert tickets or scale figures, a single purchase at a convenience store becomes a meaningful fan activity. Lowering the unit price to increase the frequency of everyday touchpoints is a classic, time-tested method for broadening the base of people who participate in oshikatsu.

Gaming Companies Built Ecosystems Around Fans with Hardware and Rules

Fumoffu no Omise x NIJISANJI — Gaming Gear Supervised by 12 Livers

Gaming hardware specialty retailer “Fumoffu no Omise” announced a collaboration between its in-house brand “Fumo Collection” (FumoColle) and the VTuber group “NIJISANJI.” The company announced that a total of 12 NIJISANJI Livers (streamers) would supervise the products: six Livers including Kuzuha and Kanae in Wave 1 (pre-orders opening in June), followed by six Livers including Lauren Iroas in Wave 2 (pre-orders opening in December). The lineup was announced to include keyboards fully supervised by the Livers, mousepads featuring newly commissioned illustrations, and replaceable custom keycaps (Inside (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: Incorporating a fan’s oshi (favorite talent) directly into functional tools they actually use every day is the standout point here. Unlike an acrylic stand meant purely for display on a shelf, a keyboard or mousepad that you touch every single day has a vastly higher frequency of use. When practical everyday gear is adorned with an IP, fans continue to feel a tangible “reason to own it” throughout their daily lives.

Cygames — Explicit Ban on Commercial Use Added to Umamusume Fan Work Guidelines

On April 28, Cygames updated the derivative works (fan creation) guidelines for Umamusume: Pretty Derby. The revised guidelines newly and explicitly prohibit “anything intended for commercial use or financial profit (anything that goes beyond the scope of so-called doujin [self-published hobbyist] activities).” Just one day earlier, on April 27, Cygames had announced that the Steam version and English localization of the game would launch on June 26. This guideline update appears to be a tightening of the rules timed to match the game’s platform expansion and rollout into the English-speaking market (Inside (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: The sequence of updating the guidelines before launching the English version is critical. If a company fails to solidify its rules before expanding into a new market, it will be forced to redraw the boundaries later on, which inevitably provokes backlash from fans. Cygames preserved the supportive culture that welcomes fan creations while clarifying the exact boundary line right at the moment of business expansion. The longer a company intends to nurture an IP, the more this kind of careful sequence management matters.

Xross Stars — Crazy Raccoon and VSPO! Take On a New Form of Oshikatsu

Ojiji (高野大知), representative of the esports team Crazy Raccoon (CR), and development producer Atsutoshi Kubo (of Game & Co.) spoke about their upcoming trading card game (TCG), Xross Stars. The game turns a total of 24 talents from groups including Crazy Raccoon, VSPO!, and Neo-Porte into playable cards, featuring more than 150 newly drawn illustrations. Players build decks by selecting four Leader cards, and the game is designed so that fans can “relive” famous moments from past events such as the CR Cup tournament. The development team positioned the title as “a new form of oshikatsu” (Inside (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: Using actual moments that happened during live streams as the subject matter for trading cards is a unique angle. Whereas conventional trading cards sell “a picture of a character,” this game sells “that memorable event that happened on stream.” Turning the fleeting, one-time experience of a live broadcast into something tangible that fans can hold in their hands and look back on later is an idea that can be applied across any company with a strong streaming culture.

Market Data and Physical Stores Showed the Expansion of the VTuber Economy

Yano Research Institute — VTuber Market Projected to Reach 126 Billion Yen in FY2025

Yano Research Institute released a forecast projecting that the VTuber market in FY2025 will grow by 20% year-over-year to reach 126 billion yen. Looking at the breakdown of surveyed Japanese VTuber management companies’ 80 billion yen in FY2023 revenue, including overseas operations, merchandise, including digital products, accounted for 44.5 billion yen (55.6%), livestreaming for 16.0 billion yen (20.0%), B2B (business-to-business tie-ups) for 13.1 billion yen (16.4%), and events for 6.4 billion yen (8.0%). This breakdown reveals a revenue structure centered squarely on merchandise sales. The overall market was estimated to reach 105 billion yen in FY2024 and projected to hit 126 billion yen in FY2025 (Mogura VR (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: Merchandise, including digital products, accounts for more than half of surveyed Japanese VTuber management companies’ FY2023 revenue, including overseas operations. This structure shows that rather than being purely a livestreaming business, the VTuber industry is in practice a character merchandise business. When you view livestreams as the “entry point” and merchandise, including digital products, as the “revenue engine,” the strong compatibility with traditional character businesses becomes clear. For partner companies, the market conditions required to launch collaborative products are already well established.

DIAGRAMVTuber Market Size Projections & Surveyed Japanese VTuber Management Companies' FY2023 Revenue Breakdown (Including Overseas Operations)

¥126B: Projected FY2025 VTuber market size (+20% YoY, up from ¥105B in FY2024)
55.6%: Share of FY2023 revenue (¥80B total) generated by merchandise, including digital products (¥44.5B)
20.0%: Share of FY2023 revenue from livestreaming (¥16.0B), followed by B2B at 16.4% (¥13.1B)
8.0%: Share of FY2023 revenue generated by events (¥6.4B)

Source: Yano Research Institute data reported via Mogura VR

NIJISANJI’s “NIJISANJI Nui Store” — A Permanent Plushie Specialty Shop in Yokohama

On April 25, a portal site bringing together NIJISANJI plushie merchandise, “NIJI×BUDDY,” held its pre-opening. Alongside the website, a permanent brick-and-mortar retail store called the “NIJISANJI Nui Store” opened inside the Yokohama Vivre shopping complex. Among VTuber fans, the culture of nui-dori—carrying plushies (nuigurumi) of one’s favorite talent on outings and taking photos of them in different settings—had already spread widely. The new store focused its sales on the fan-favorite “Niji Puppet” (finger puppets) and “Niji Nui” plush doll series (Mogura VR (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: This is a case where the official company stepped in afterward to prepare a dedicated store and portal site matching an activity (nui-dori) that fans were already doing spontaneously on their own. The company did not invent a new way to play. Instead, it built a specialized retail hub tailored to a habit that had grown organically within the fandom. Observing how a fandom moves first before making an investment decision is a remarkably sound and steady way to expand a business.

This Week’s Takeaways

This week, companies used milestone anniversaries to elevate their character businesses to the next level.

Sanrio’s four overlapping anniversaries, Sylvanian Families’ 40th anniversary, Matsuya Ginza’s 100th anniversary, and Universal Cool Japan’s 10th anniversary all stood out. Unlike one-off collaborations, an anniversary carries the backing of “a history built up over time.” Matsuya Ginza created merchandise featuring vintage reproduction logos, while Sylvanian Families teamed up with a television drama and restaurants. In both cases, the work consisted of translating that historical backing into a form that resonates with a brand-new customer base.

Meanwhile, looking at the data from Yano Research Institute, the VTuber market is projected to reach a scale of 126 billion yen in FY2025, and FY2023 data show that merchandise, including digital products, accounted for more than half of surveyed Japanese VTuber management companies’ revenue, including overseas operations. It is clear that the character business market around VTubers has already grown substantial. NIJISANJI opened a permanent physical retail shop with its “NIJISANJI Nui Store,” and Cygames updated its derivative works guidelines ahead of the English release of Umamusume. Both moves represent the kind of structural groundwork that becomes necessary once a market has matured. Long-established brands with deep history and companies in the rapidly growing VTuber market alike spent the exact same week confronting the very same question: “How do we pass on what we have built to the next generation of customers?”

Take a look at this week’s developments alongside our in-depth reports on the Oshikatsu Market Size and How Companies Approach Derivative Fan Works.

Weekly Oshikatsu News brings you a weekly roundup of the intersection between oshikatsu and business. You can browse past issues in our Oshikatsu x News category.