Since the international expansion of Asian short dramas began in August 2022, the global short drama industry has experienced exponential growth. The Japanese market, characterised by its unique cultural attributes, mature payment ecosystem, and significant untapped growth potential, has emerged as a major new growth arena within the global short drama sector. By 2025, Japan’s short drama market had entered a phase of rapid expansion, ranking as the second largest international market by in-app-purchase revenue, behind only the United States.
In terms of market structure, leading short drama platforms in Asia have established a dominant position in Japan, capturing 90% of the market share. This success is attributed to their mature industrialised production systems and a strategy of localising proven hit scripts. In contrast, traditional Japanese media and local platforms are slowly catching up by integrating intellectual property resources, but have yet to achieve scalable competitiveness. From a user perspective, Japanese audiences demonstrate a significantly higher willingness to pay compared to those in Southeast Asia, with revenue per download (RPD) standing at USD 4.13. The audience is predominantly female, with a marked preference for “emotional fast food” content—particularly narratives featuring workplace pressure and female empowerment—using short dramas as a release from real-life stress. On the content creation side, cross-border teams collaborate to adapt validated male and female-oriented drama templates from China, combining them with Japanese socio-cultural themes and adding nuanced emotional portrayals and detailed scenes. This approach reduces production costs and trial-and-error risks.
Looking ahead, with the continued deep integration of international and Japanese teams in areas such as script co-creation, technological application, and industry ecosystem development, Japan’s short drama sector is poised to emerge as a benchmark for global innovation and growth, with its potential market space estimated at $2.9 billion.
Short dramas began gaining traction in Japan in 2023. Leading Asian platforms such as TopShort, ShortMax, DramaBox, and ReelShort entered the Japanese market, initially filling a gap with translated content—primarily Japanese versions of hit Asian short dramas. Japanese consumers have shown a clear appetite for “emotional fast food” content, with themes such as workplace reversals, family drama, and romance starting to gain prominence.
By 2024, the Japanese short drama sector had shifted from translated productions to localised content. Cross-border collaboration became the mainstream approach, with scripts adapted to reflect Japanese cultural elements such as the seniority-based employment system and workplace hierarchies. Notable hits include The Young Lady Tackles Workplace Bullying and The Cleaner Is Actually a Female CEO. The Japanese short drama market is now in a clear phase of rapid expansion.
Data from short drama applications indicate that Japan’s short drama market has experienced rapid growth since the second half of 2023. In 2024, app revenues exceeded $45 million, more than 20 times the 2023 figure. In January–February 2025, revenues reached $14 million.
At the same time, Japan’s share of global short drama revenue continued to rise, increasing from 0.3% in the second half of 2023 to 7.6% at present. Japan is now the second-largest international market for short drama applications after the United States (US share over 50%, South Korea around 4%).
Revenue from Japanese short drama apps
Source: Diandian Data, iResearch
Download figures also reflect this strong growth trend. In 2024, total downloads exceeded 11 million, approximately eight times the 2023 figure. During January–February 2025, Japan’s share of global downloads rose to 3.2%.
Downloads of Japanese short drama apps
Source: Diandian Data, iResearch
Leading international short drama platforms such as DramaBox, ShortMax, and Reelshort performed particularly well, posting standout results in both downloads and revenue.
Top 5 short drama apps in Japan (2024) and revenue/downloads trends
According to Diandian data, between August 2023 and June 2024, Japan’s revenue per download (RPD) reached approximately $4.13—close to the RPD of the largest international market, North America ($4.7), and significantly above the industry average ($2.0).
Comparison of short drama market RPD across different countries and regions
Source: Diandian Data