The battle between online video streaming heavy hitters is well underway in Japan. While Hulu got a head start in the market in 2011, Amazon Prime Video and Netflix have quickly caught up since their launches in 2015 by expanding their libraries with original Japanese content.
The number of subscribers has been steadily growing, and a recent Jiji Press survey showed that the number of people in Japan using such online streaming services now stands at more than 20 percent of the population.
This year's winner, though, has to be Netflix. Its aggressive push for content creation has paid off in a big way, with Japan-centric films and TV series capturing a range of audiences here and abroad. While the streaming service does not release audience numbers, making it difficult to make out the exact viewership of its offerings, the wealth of critical acclaim and media attention given to its original content over the year was hard to ignore.