News On Japan

Netflix Says Half of Its Subscribers Use Service to Watch Anime

Netflix's anime slate for 2022 looks bright, with returning fan favorites like Jojo's Bizarre Adventure and new series, like Kotaro Lives Alone.

Apr 01, 2022 (cbr.com) - More than half of Netflix's global users used the streaming service to watch anime in 2021, and the future of Japanese animation premiering on Netflix appears promising.

"Anime is one of the cornerstones of our investment in Japan, watched by nearly 90% of our members here last year," Kohei Obara, Netflix's Anime Creative Director, told Variety. "At the same time, interest in anime has grown worldwide, and more than half of our members globally tuned into it last year. From diversifying our slate to bringing back fan favorites, we want to continue growing our members' discovery and love for anime, both in Japan and around the world with this next chapter of anime on Netflix."

Netflix plans to continue investing in anime and will debut 40 series on the service in 2022. Returning series include episodes 13-24 of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean, the latest season of the long-running fan-favorite show featuring Jolyne Cujoh, her father Jotaru Kujo and their powerful Stands. Ghost in the Shell SAC_2045 Season 2, continuing the adventures of Major Motoko Kusanagi following Season 1's debut in 2020, will also arrive on Netflix in May. Season 1 of Spriggan -- the long-awaited anime reboot of Hiroshi Takashige's manga series, which was first adapted into an animated film in 1998 -- is another major series to debut on the streaming service in June.

New shows on Netflix include Thermae Romae Novae, a series about a Roman architect who time travels to a modern Japanese public bath, Kotaro Lives Alone, the tale of a 4-year-old boy who moves into an apartment next to a manga artist, and The Seven Deadly Sins: Grudge of Edinburgh, a two-part film spinning off of The Seven Deadly Sins, a shonen series focusing on a group of knights in a fantasy version of Britannia. ...continue reading

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Japan’s World Cup campaign ended in the cruelest possible fashion on June 29, as Gabriel Martinelli scored in the fifth minute of stoppage time to give Brazil a 2-1 victory over the Samurai Blue in their knockout match in Houston. Japan had led in the first half and were still level at 1-1 in the final moments, but Martinelli’s late strike sent Brazil into the Round of 16 and eliminated Japan from the tournament.

Strong earthquakes have continued to shake parts of Japan in recent weeks, with 11 temblors measuring lower 5 or above on the Japanese seismic intensity scale recorded across the country since April 2026.

A Kintetsu Railway train derailed inside Kyoto Station on the morning of June 29, forcing partial suspensions on the Kintetsu Kyoto Line for the rest of the day and causing long delays that hit commuters, students and tourists.

A section of stone wall at Hikone Castle, one of Japan’s few surviving original Edo-period castles and a National Treasure whose main keep remains intact more than 400 years after its construction, collapsed after heavy rain caused by Typhoons No. 7 and No. 8, Hikone city officials said.

Japan advanced to the knockout stage of the World Cup after a 1-1 draw with Sweden on June 25, finishing second in Group F and setting up a Round of 32 clash with Brazil in Houston.

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Prosecutors sought life imprisonment for Yukio Tanaka, a senior member of a gang affiliated with the Kudo-kai crime syndicate, as his trial over the 2013 fatal shooting of Osho Food Service president Takayuki Ohigashi concluded at the Kyoto District Court, with a verdict scheduled to be handed down on October 16.

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