Application Details

Yes

Name: The Anime Industry Community. Description: Companies and organizations that create, produce, finance, distribute, broadcast, license, merchandise, or protect Japanese-origin anime, and the industry associations that represent and support them.

The Anime Industry Community is an activity-based community centered on Japanese-origin anime, a body of work with an important cultural dimension. It is an economic sector defined by common commercial and industrial activity rather than by avocation or affinity. Its defining activities are those identified in Question 132: creating, producing, financing, distributing, broadcasting, licensing, merchandising, and protecting Japanese-origin anime. These activities encompass planning, exhibition, streaming, marketing, and rights management within those functions. Membership follows from what an entity does. A company or organization belongs to the community because it participates legitimately and continuously in one or more of these activities, or because it is an industry association or related organization that represents or supports entities carrying them out. Because membership is a matter of documented business activity, the community has objectively determinable boundaries. Participation may be evidenced through corporate and business records, production credits, broadcast and distribution records, licensing agreements, rights-holder authorizations, documented participation in industry activities, and association membership records, rather than through a self-declared affinity or personal interest. The people who make anime—employed, commissioned, or represented by the community's member companies and organizations—and the audiences who watch it benefit from the community's activity, but the community itself is composed of the entities whose participation can be verified against the records above. Anime is also a culturally significant form of Japanese-origin creative expression, and the works the community produces carry recognized cultural significance in Japan and internationally, documented in the response to Question 146. This cultural dimension informs the community’s shared interests in creative development, preservation, legitimate distribution, rights protection, and international promotion. It does not expand community membership to everyone who creates, watches, purchases, or identifies with anime. The identified community is therefore narrower than, and distinct from, the global audience for anime. Viewers, consumers, and fans are users and beneficiaries of the community's activities, but are not community members solely because they enjoy anime. The Anime Industry Community is also distinct from the general global animation sector. It is organized around anime as a defined body of Japanese-origin work, with its own production practices, including the production-committee system through which its member companies jointly finance and produce works, as well as its own industry associations, awards, and recurring trade events, described in the community application. The term “anime” is itself widely recognized as referring to animation originating in Japan. The community identified in this application is organized around that body of work and the companies, representative organizations, production practices, rights relationships, industry research, awards, and recurring trade events associated with it.

Toei Animation Co., Ltd. (the "Applicant") is a long-established anime company and one of the longest continuously operating participants in the Anime Industry Community. Established in January 1948, the Applicant joined the Toei Group in 1956 (operating as Toei Doga Co.), adopted its current name in 1998, and has remained continuously engaged in anime production and related activities. It completed its first full-length theatrical anime feature in 1958. The Applicant participates in the community's defining activities. It plans, creates, and produces anime, with a library of 247 television series and 278 theatrical features comprising 14,245 episodes as of March 31, 2026; it participates in financing productions through production committees alongside broadcasters, publishers, rights holders, and merchandising companies; it licenses works to broadcasters, distributors, and platforms in Japan and internationally, with overseas program sales since 1975 and representative works broadcast in the United States since 1995; it merchandises its works and acts to protect them against infringement in Japan and abroad. The Applicant's connection to the community extends beyond its own works to the institutions that organize and support the community. Its relationship with each of the community's organizing bodies is long-standing and, in two cases, dates from the founding of the body itself. Japan Merchandising Rights Association (JAMRA): The Applicant has been a member since JAMRA was established in 1977, joining as a founding member under its then name, Toei Doga Co. Katsuhiro Takagi, Representative Director and President of Toei Animation, has served as Chairman of JAMRA for over ten years. Under his chairmanship, JAMRA has operated its continuing rights-protection, anti-counterfeiting, and member-education activities and, with the backing of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, organized the Japan Commercialization Award. Works produced by the Applicant have been among the award recipients. Association of Japanese Animations (AJA): The Applicant has been a member since AJA was established in 2002. At AJA's founding, its first President was Tsutomu Tomari, who was then Chairman of the Applicant. In 2009, Hidenori Oyama, Senior Director of the Applicant at the time, was appointed Vice President of AJA, and in July 2026, Kiichiro Yamada, Senior Director of the Applicant, was appointed Vice President of AJA. The Applicant has held leadership roles at the President or Vice President level through multiple representatives throughout AJA’s history. The Applicant was also among the nineteen companies that formed the founding executive committee of AnimeJapan, a major recurring industry event, in 2013, and has continued to participate and exhibit at the event since, including its March 2025 and March 2026 editions. Content Overseas Distribution Association (CODA): The Applicant has been a CODA member since at least 2009 and participates in the content-protection and legitimate-distribution work coordinated by CODA, including anti-piracy enforcement under CODA's Cross-Border Enforcement Project (CBEP). In May 2024, the Applicant was one of thirteen rights holders on whose behalf CODA filed a criminal complaint concerning a large-scale anime piracy service, ZzzFun; the operator was arrested in February 2025 and convicted in November 2025. The Applicant therefore has a documented institutional relationship with the community spanning forty-nine years at JAMRA and twenty-four years at AJA, beginning at the establishment of each organization, together with at least seventeen years of membership in CODA. Its continuing leadership roles, association participation, commercial relationships, and rights-protection activities demonstrate a substantial and enduring connection to the community. See the attachment for evidence supporting these relationships and the Applicant’s participation in the community.

The Anime Industry Community is organized through multiple formal industry associations and related institutions. No single body administers every segment. The Association of Japanese Animations (AJA) is the principal anime-specific organizing body for the community’s production core and general industry interests, while other organizations represent or support particular functions including merchandising rights, content protection, international distribution, and international promotion. AJA was established in May 2002 and became a general incorporated association in May 2009. To the Applicant's knowledge, no other anime-specific industry association has comparable scope. AJA's stated purpose is to integrate the views of Japan's animation-production industry and promote its sustainable development. As of August 2026, AJA's published rosters list 44 full member companies and 60 associate member companies, admitted under the published admission criteria described in Question 137; the Applicant is a full member. AJA's activities include industry research, human-resource development, legal and labor matters, international exchange, copyright protection and anti-piracy work, and publication of the Anime Industry Report — the industry's annual statistical account of itself, published since 2009. AJA coordinates with public authorities, including presenting the production-committee system to the Agency for Cultural Affairs copyright subcommittee in October 2024. It participates in the AnimeJapan Executive Committee and co-hosts the Tokyo Anime Award Festival with the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. Its current leadership includes President Kazuko Ishikawa of Nippon Animation and Vice President Kiichiro Yamada, a senior director of the Applicant. Additional bodies serve important functions. The Japan Merchandising Rights Association (JAMRA), established in April 1977, represents companies involved in merchandising and related rights. It maintains a published corporate membership and conducts rights-protection, anti-counterfeiting, education, and networking activities. Katsuhiro Takagi, President of the Applicant, has served as JAMRA Chairman for over ten years. The Content Overseas Distribution Association (CODA), established in August 2002 at the request of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Agency for Cultural Affairs, coordinates content holders and copyright-related organizations in protecting Japanese content overseas and promoting its legitimate distribution. Its activities include the Cross-Border Enforcement Project and other international anti-piracy measures. The Applicant has been a CODA member since at least 2009. This multi-body structure reflects the community's structure as described in Question 132. AJA is the leading anime-specific association and principal organizing body for the production core and general industry interests; JAMRA represents merchandising-rights functions; and CODA coordinates content protection and legitimate international distribution. These are the organizations most directly relevant to the member categories and activities identified in this application, but they are not an exhaustive list of every organization active in or supporting anime or the broader content sector. The Visual Industry Promotion Organization (VIPO), for example, is an additional cross-sector institution supporting Japan's visual-content industries, including anime; it is not relied upon in this application as an organizing body of the identified community.

The Anime Industry Community has defined, objectively determinable membership boundaries but no single formal admission process or universal membership roll. Membership is not based on self-identification, personal interest, or affinity. Membership is based on documented business and organizational activity. An entity belongs to the community because it engages in one or more of the defining activities identified in Question 132: creating, producing, financing, distributing, broadcasting, licensing, merchandising, or protecting Japanese-origin anime, or because it represents or supports entities that carry out those activities. These activities leave third-party-verifiable evidence. Depending on the entity and activity, evidence may include corporate and commercial register records; official business descriptions; production credits; production committee records; broadcast, distribution, or platform agreements; licensing and merchandising agreements; rights-holder authorizations; association membership records; official event or project records; and rights protection or enforcement records. Self-identification alone is insufficient. Formal membership structures maintained by the community's organizing bodies corroborate these boundaries without defining the community as a whole. The Association of Japanese Animations (AJA), the community's principal organizing body, publishes its membership criteria. A full member must be a company or organization that supports the association's purpose, engages in the production, planning, or sale of animation in Japan, and in principle holds the copyright in such works. An associate member must be a company or organization that supports the association's purpose and is involved in the animation industry in Japan. Admission is by application against these criteria. These criteria are relevant because membership is limited to companies and organizations, and full membership recognizes substantive industry participation and rights ownership. AJA membership is not required for membership in the broader Anime Industry Community. Entities outside Japan and those participating in other industry segments may demonstrate community membership through comparable documented activities and relationships. Other organizing bodies also maintain defined organizational memberships. The Japan Merchandising Rights Association (JAMRA) represents entities involved in merchandising and related rights, while the Content Overseas Distribution Association (CODA) includes companies and organizations involved in content protection and legitimate distribution. Because community membership is held by companies and organizations, associations, and other legal entities, membership is determined through documented activity and institutional relationships. The people who work in anime, individual creators and other professionals, participate in the community through the entities that employ, commission, represent, or contract with them, but are not members of the community as defined in this application solely on the basis of their individual activities. This objective membership structure is carried directly into the proposed Community Registration Policies. Before registration, the registry will verify on the basis of documentary or other objectively verifiable evidence that the prospective registrant satisfies the Registration Eligibility Policy. Once eligibility is established, each requested label is reviewed separately under the Name Selection Policy to confirm that the prospective registrant has a documented basis for registering it. Community membership and registration eligibility are closely aligned, with the Registration Eligibility Policy translating the community’s objective boundaries into verifiable registration criteria.

Japan is the primary location, with the production base and principal organizing bodies concentrated in Tokyo. Community members and licensed distributors also operate across North America, East Asia, Europe, and the wider Asia-Pacific region.

An estimated 900 companies and organizations worldwide: 811 involved in anime production in Japan (Per AJA survey, 2020), plus additional broadcasters, distributors, platforms, licensees, merchandisers, rights bodies, and associations.

AJA: 104 direct members, incl. leading producers and the production core; JAMRA: 67 members (merchandising rights); CODA: 39 corporate members incl. major anime rights holders. Memberships overlap; anime-specific shares are not separately published.

Yes. The community's organizing bodies demonstrate active and consistent efforts to engage and connect with the identified community through recurring programs and targeted initiatives. The following activities documented in published records address each practice identified in the question. Offering support: JAMRA operates the public counterfeit character goods reporting channel “Fake Character Goods 110,” for reporting suspected counterfeit merchandise. As a member of the Anti-Counterfeiting Association, JAMRA also participated in public anti-counterfeiting campaigns in Saitama and Miyazaki in 2024, Yokohama and Tokushima in 2025, and Nagasaki in April 2026. The Miyazaki, Yokohama, Tokushima, and Nagasaki events reached approximately 1,300, 2,000, 1,200, and 1,300 visitors, respectively. CODA maintains direct enforcement programs for member rights holders. Since 2011, it has issued more than 5.4 million takedown requests. Following concerns raised in July 2024, CODA investigated and coordinated criminal complaints against BATO.TO and approximately 60 related piracy sites. The sites recorded 350 million visits in May 2025, and their closure was confirmed in January 2026. Sharing information: AJA has published the Anime Industry Report, the community's annual statistical record, every year since 2009; the seventeenth annual edition was published in December 2025, with an English summary in March 2026, providing current industry data to companies, policymakers, researchers, and other industry participants. JAMRA conducts seminars addressing the practical needs of rights and merchandising personnel: its December 2024 seminar with CODA's Representative Director addressed overseas anti-piracy measures for Japanese content; a June 2025 meeting at Kodansha addressed copyright fundamentals for rights businesses; and its July 2026 seminar with Amazon Japan presented brand-protection tools to members. Responding to specific community needs: At the request of its members, CODA submitted a formal request to OpenAI on 27 October 2025 concerning Sora 2's use of Japanese content and potentially infringing outputs, and thereafter continued sharing infringement information and discussing rights protection with OpenAI. On 27 March 2026, OpenAI informed CODA that it would discontinue Sora 2 as a product. OpenAI discontinued the Sora web and app experiences on 26 April 2026. CODA also signed an October 2025 memorandum with Alibaba's Taobao & Tmall Group addressing counterfeit character goods, intellectual-property protection, and legitimate distribution. In April 2026, AJA co-hosted a symposium addressing two identified industry needs: human resource development and overseas market expansion. Fostering and strengthening relationships: JAMRA combines its information programs with structured opportunities for industry participants to meet and share experiences. Its membership spans original authors' organizations, publishers, broadcasters, film production companies, advertising agencies, and licensees, and its Step-Up exchange meetings bring their rights personnel together. A June 2025 meeting at Kodansha (copyright fundamentals for rights businesses) and a June 2026 meeting at Square Enix (CODA's piracy-damage survey) each paired a seminar with a business-card exchange session. AnimeJapan, organized by an executive committee in which AJA participates, provides recurring programs through which production companies, publishers, platforms, licensees, and buyers exhibit, conduct business, and exchange information. It was held in March 2025 and March 2026 with dedicated business days. The Tokyo Anime Award Festival, co-hosted by AJA and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, held its twelfth and thirteenth editions in March 2025 and March 2026. JAMRA exhibited at the Tokyo International Gift Show in each of 2024, 2025, and 2026, presenting authentic-versus-counterfeit comparisons to the trade. See the Q141 attachment for sources.

The Applicant's role in the engagement efforts described in Question 141 is both structural and participatory. Its officers serve in governing roles within the community's organizing bodies, and the Applicant participates directly in collective enforcement and recurring industry activities. JAMRA: Katsuhiro Takagi, Representative Director and President of the Applicant, has served as Chairman of JAMRA for more than ten years and heads its current published list of officers. Throughout the period covered by Question 141, JAMRA's anti-counterfeiting campaigns, member seminars, and exchange programs were conducted under the governance of an organization he chaired. The Applicant therefore has continuing representation at the highest level of the body carrying out those engagement activities. CODA: The Applicant participates directly in the continuing enforcement support for member rights holders described in Question 141. In May 2024, the Applicant was one of thirteen Japanese rights holders on whose behalf CODA filed a criminal complaint concerning ZzzFun, a website and application that distributed approximately 1,800 anime episodes without authorization in China; the operator was arrested in February 2025 and convicted in November 2025. In Operation Anime 2, announced in April 2024, criminal complaints coordinated by CODA with Brazil's Ministry of Justice and Public Security on behalf of member companies including the Applicant, Toho, and Bandai Namco Filmworks led to the closure of sixteen anime piracy sites with approximately 21 million monthly visits, eleven of whose domains were recovered through negotiation. These examples document the Applicant's participation in global enforcement actions coordinated by an organizing body on behalf of its members. AnimeJapan: The Applicant was among the nineteen companies that formed the original AnimeJapan Executive Committee in 2013. It has continued to participate in the event, including as an exhibitor at the March 2025 and March 2026 editions described in Question 141. Its role therefore spans from helping establish a major recurring industry event to ongoing participation in the public and business programs where industry participants meet, exhibit, and exchange information. AJA: The Applicant's relationship with the community's principal anime-specific organizing body extends from AJA's establishment to the present. When AJA was established in May 2002, its founding President was Tsutomu Tomari, then Chairman of the Applicant. Kiichiro Yamada, Senior Director of the Applicant, serves on AJA's board and was appointed Vice President in July 2026. The Applicant thus has board-level representation within the body responsible for the annual industry report, policy engagement, industry-development programs, and other activities described in Question 141. The Applicant's role is therefore sustained and multi-dimensional. It is represented in leadership within JAMRA and AJA, participates directly in collective rights-protection activity through CODA, and helped establish and continues to participate in AnimeJapan. These roles demonstrate that the Applicant does not merely observe the community's engagement efforts; it contributes to their governance, implementation, and continuation.

Yes. Community members are aware of the identified community and its different segments. Within the two years preceding submission, that awareness is demonstrated by industry surveys and by documented activities involving companies and organizations across the community's segments. Surveys conducted: AJA has published the Anime Industry Report every year since 2009. The 2025 edition provides a current statistical account of the industry, with figures based on AJA's own questionnaires — covering the broad market and, separately, anime production companies — supplemented by public statistics. The report also addresses each principal segment: television, film, video, streaming, merchandising, music, overseas activity, live entertainment, and production revenues. The recurring survey process itself requires engagement with companies across the industry and reflects awareness of its constituent segments. An independent survey further documents awareness across segments: in 2025, the Japan Fair Trade Commission distributed a questionnaire to 417 anime production companies, received 130 responses, and interviewed 34 production companies, 14 production-committee participants, and four industry associations. By documenting the roles, relationships, and transaction structures among these groups, the survey records community members' awareness of the segments with which they work. Records of activities involving a diversity of community groups, segments, or members: The community's characteristic production structure is itself a documented record of cross-segment collaboration: Anime is typically financed and produced through production committees, in which broadcasters, film and anime companies, publishers, advertising agencies, record labels, and toy and game companies jointly invest, divide roles, and share rights and returns. Two authoritative descriptions were recently published: AJA presented the committee system to the Agency for Cultural Affairs copyright subcommittee in October 2024, and the JFTC's December 2025 survey characterized committees as partnerships under the Civil Code, with rights and distributions following investment shares. Production committees therefore provide direct records of companies from different segments, including broadcasting and publishing, identifying one another, contracting, and allocating rights and returns. Community associations also maintain direct cross-segment activities: At JAMRA’s December 2024 seminar, the sixteenth in a series held regularly since 2018, approximately twenty member companies attended a CODA presentation on overseas piracy countermeasures, a topic chosen from participant feedback. The networking session that followed brought together member companies spanning original authors' organizations, publishers, broadcasters, film producers, advertising agencies, program-production studios, and licensees. JAMRA subsequently held rights-business seminars and exchange sessions at Kodansha in June 2025 and Square Enix in June 2026. Recurring events provide additional records: AnimeJapan 2025 brought a record 116 exhibiting companies along with dedicated business days for commercial meetings and seminars, and AnimeJapan 2026 again drew exhibitors from across the community's segments. Published membership relationships confirm awareness at the institutional level: As of 2026, AJA and the Anti-Counterfeiting Association were organizational members of CODA, JAMRA was a supporting member, and the Applicant was a full member of AJA and a member of JAMRA and CODA. These published relationships show the community’s principal and functional bodies formally recognizing and cooperating with one another. Together, the surveys, production structures, seminars, events, and memberships show community members recognizing the Anime Industry Community and its segments, and dealing with one another across them as a matter of ordinary business.

Yes. Members of the Anime Industry Community are aware of both Toei Animation Co., Ltd. as the applying entity and its intention to apply for .anime as a Community gTLD. Awareness of the applying entity: The Applicant is a longstanding and highly visible participant in the identified community rather than an external entity seeking to represent it, and its officers have held senior office in the community's principal organizing bodies. Katsuhiro Takagi, Representative Director and President of the Applicant, has served as Chairman of JAMRA for more than ten years. The engagement documented in the response to Question 141, including the anti-counterfeiting campaigns, member seminars, and the trade-show program, has been conducted under his chairmanship. During his tenure, JAMRA also organized the Japan Commercialization Award with the backing of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, recognizing excellence in character merchandising across the industry; works produced by the Applicant were among the recipients. The Applicant's role in the community's principal organizing body spans that body's entire history. When AJA was established in 2002, its first President was Tsutomu Tomari, then Chairman of the Applicant. Officers of the Applicant were subsequently appointed as AJA Vice Presidents in 2009 and again in 2026. The Applicant was also among the companies that formed the founding executive committee of AnimeJapan in 2013, has exhibited at the event since, and participates in collective rights-enforcement action through CODA. Further evidence of these roles is provided in the response to Question 142. These sustained and publicly documented roles make the Applicant identifiable to community members across anime production, distribution, licensing, merchandising, promotion, and rights protection. Its position in the community is not a claim made for this application; it is a matter of published record maintained by the community's own institutions. Awareness of the intended application: The Applicant informed the community's organizing bodies of its intention to apply in mid-May 2026, approximately three months before submission, identifying itself as the applying entity and explaining the proposed community-based purpose of the TLD, the identified Anime Industry Community, and the intended restrictions on registrant eligibility and domain-name selection. The Applicant's own management committee gave its final approval on 19 June 2026, after those consultations were already underway; the organizing bodies were consulted while the application was still being formed, not presented with a completed one. Member companies were made aware through AJA's own governance and is also directly documented. AJA's published board comprises officers drawn from twenty companies, of which the Applicant is one. The application was considered at a meeting of that board, which approved to support it, and representatives of the nineteen other board companies participated in that decision. The signed letters submitted in response to Question 156 provide direct documentary evidence of that awareness. The organizing-body endorsements and individual company letters identify Toei Animation as the applicant, identify .anime as the applied-for string, and state that the application is being made as a Community gTLD for the benefit of the identified Anime Industry Community. The organizing-body endorsements were issued after they received information concerning the proposed application. JAMRA on 15 July 2026, AJA on 16 July 2026, and CODA on 21 July 2026. Community members are therefore familiar with the Applicant through its structural participation in the community over decades, while the community's organizing bodies and individual member companies were informed of its intention to apply and documented that awareness in writing before this application was submitted.

Yes

Yes. Individuals and organizations outside the identified community recognize the Anime Industry Community as a distinct, organized sector. Within the two years preceding submission, that awareness is documented through public policy, external forums, outside collaborations, collaborations with non-community bodies, and records of long-standing organization. Media and public information: Japanese public authorities treat anime as a distinct and identifiable economic sector. The New Cool Japan Strategy, adopted by the Intellectual Property Strategy Headquarters in June 2024, positions the content industry as a foundational industry, records overseas content sales of JPY 4.7 trillion, and describes them as rivaling steel and approaching semiconductor exports. In June 2025, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry issued its five-year Entertainment and Creative Industry Strategy, containing a dedicated anime chapter with thirteen anime-specific actions. The Japan Fair Trade Commission surveyed the anime-production sector in December 2025 and, with the Cabinet Office Intellectual Property Strategy Secretariat, issued guidelines on transaction practices in anime production in June 2026. These acts of policy, measurement, investigation, and guidance recognize the industry sector corresponding to the community identified in this application. Over the same period, the industry's economics were reported by Variety, Nikkei, Bloomberg, Forbes, CNN, and The Japan Times, among others. Discussion in external forums: On 9 September 2024, the first Content Industry Public-Private Council met at the Prime Minister's Office, chaired by the Prime Minister, with anime-sector participants among those attending. Japan's principal business federations have also addressed the sector directly: Keidanren issued an emergency message on content-industry support in October 2025 with anime-specific measures, and Keizai Doyukai published an April 2025 proposal on reform and competitiveness in anime production. In April 2026, AJA co-hosted a policy symposium on the industry's growth strategy at the First Members' Office Building of the House of Representatives, and reports ongoing study meetings for members of the Diet. Partnerships and collaborations with outside groups: CODA signed an October 2025 memorandum with Alibaba's Taobao & Tmall Group on counterfeit character goods, intellectual-property protection, and legitimate distribution. In April 2026, CODA signed memoranda with France's audiovisual and digital regulator ARCOM and with the Alliance for Manga and Webtoon, and renewed its anti-piracy memorandum with the Motion Picture Association of the United States. These relationships demonstrate outside recognition of CODA's role in rights protection and legitimate distribution. Prior organization: The community's organizing bodies long predate the application window: JAMRA was established in 1977, and AJA and CODA in 2002. Their published histories make the community's organization independently identifiable to outsiders. Contributions to larger society: The New Cool Japan Strategy describes anime and manga as an entry point through which people worldwide develop an interest in Japan. Global audience data demonstrates the scale of that cultural contribution and public engagement. Netflix has reported that more than half of its members regularly watch anime, that it offers anime in more than 190 countries and up to 34 languages, and that anime titles were viewed more than 1.5 billion times in 2025. Sony reported that Crunchyroll served more than 21 million paid subscribers worldwide as of the end of March 2026. These figures measure the recognition and reach of anime among audiences outside the identified community. Together, these records establish awareness of the community, its institutions, and its contributions well beyond its membership.

The pursuits of the Anime Industry Community are enduring and sustainable. Evidence from the two years preceding submission includes recurring and scheduled activities, records of long-standing practice, explicit discussion of the industry's sustainable future, sustained market growth, and forward-looking plans extending through 2033. AJA has published the Anime Industry Report annually since 2009. The seventeenth annual edition for 2025 was issued on 18 December 2025, and its English summary was published on 26 March 2026. AnimeJapan has operated as a recurring annual event since 2014. The 2020 edition was canceled during the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2021 edition was held online, and in-person editions resumed in 2022. The 2026 edition drew approximately 156,000 visitors at Tokyo Big Sight, in Tokyo. AnimeJapan 2027, the event’s first Osaka edition, was announced prior to submission of this application, and is scheduled for March 2027 at Intex Osaka. The Tokyo Anime Award Festival held its thirteenth independent edition in March 2026, continuing the Tokyo Anime Award tradition established in 2002. The event was co-hosted by AJA with the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. Other community bodies demonstrate comparable continuity. JAMRA's anti-counterfeiting outreach campaigns, rights-protection activities, and industry seminars have run continuously through 2024, 2025, and 2026. CODA has conducted coordinated online anti-piracy enforcement since 2011, with more than 5.4 million takedown requests issued through February 2026. The community also maintains an explicit forward-looking dialogue. On 3 April 2026, AJA co-hosted a symposium entitled “Symposium toward the Sustainable Development of Japan’s Anime Industry—A Growth Strategy Driven by the Twin Pillars of Human-Resource Development and Overseas-Market Expansion” with free online participation open beyond AJA's membership. The symposium examined the industry’s future growth, workforce development, international expansion, and related policy requirements. The industry's long-term continuity is also expressly documented. AJA marked the centennial of Japanese animation through its Anime NEXT_100 initiative, framed explicitly as the foundation for the industry's next hundred years. The Applicant, established in 1948, has produced anime continuously for more than seventy-five years. The community's economic base is growing, not merely persisting. The Anime Industry Report records a 2024 broad anime market with estimated end-user spending on anime and related goods and services of JPY 3,840.7 billion. This is a recorded all-time high and represents an increase of 14.8 percent over the prior year. The international market reached JPY 2,170.2 billion, exceeding the domestic market for the second consecutive year. This growth and geographic diversification support the Anime Industry Community’s continuing economic viability. Public policy likewise plans for the community's continued development. The Government of Japan's New Cool Japan Strategy, adopted in June 2024, positions the content industry as a foundational industry of the Japanese economy. METI's Entertainment and Creative Industry Strategy of June 2025 establishes an action plan toward JPY 20 trillion in overseas sales of Japanese-origin content by 2033, with specific measures for anime. The Intellectual Property Strategic Program 2026 sets an anime-specific target of JPY 6 trillion in overseas sales by 2033. The documentary record therefore demonstrates recurring recent activity, long-standing traditions and institutions, explicit planning for sustainable growth, expanding economic activity, and scheduled future programs. The community is not a temporary congregation; its pursuits have endured across decades and are supported by concrete plans and long-term commitments through 2033. See the Q147 attachment for sources.

Toei Animation Co., Ltd. (the "Applicant") applies for .anime to serve the Anime Industry Community: the companies and organizations that create, produce, finance, distribute, broadcast, license, merchandise, or protect Japanese-origin anime, and the industry associations that represent and support them. The identified community is the community of companies and organizations comprising the anime industry. "Anime industry" is the established name by which that sector is commonly known, and "anime" is its defining element and a well-known designation for the sector itself. The community is named for the body of work it creates. "Anime" denotes Japanese-origin animated works and appears in the established expression "anime industry" for the industry sector that plans, finances, produces, distributes, broadcasts, licenses, merchandises, and protects those works. In this application, "Anime Industry Community" identifies the organized community within that sector, and the applied-for string preserves its defining name element. This usage is demonstrated by the community's own institutions and recurring activities. The Association of Japanese Animations (AJA), the community's principal organizing body, publishes the annual Anime Industry Report as the industry's statistical record. Major community institutions and events include AnimeJapan and the Tokyo Anime Award Festival. These names predate this application and reflect established industry use of "anime" in its market, activities, and public identity. The term is an established designation for the community's field and activities, in longstanding institutional use. Public authorities use the same terminology. Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry identifies anime as a distinct sector in its Entertainment and Creative Industry Strategy (June 2025), and the Government of Japan's Intellectual Property Strategic Program 2026 establishes a target of JPY 6 trillion in overseas anime sales by 2033. This usage confirms that "anime" identifies a recognized industry sector rather than a label coined by the Applicant. International usage provides additional corroboration. Major events such as Anime Expo in Los Angeles and Anime NYC use "anime" as the operative term identifying the field they present to the public. These events allow publishers, production companies, distributors, platforms, licensees, and other industry participants to exhibit and promote their works, products, and services to international audiences. Their established use of "anime" demonstrates that the term is understood outside Japan as identifying both Japanese-origin animated works and the surrounding industry ecosystem. The match is therefore direct rather than merely suggestive. The Applicant does not rely on an invented expression or a remote thematic association. "Anime" is the established name of the works at the center of the community, the distinctive term in the widely used name "anime industry," and the word used in trade press, commercial agreements, event names, and the community's own public communications. A registrant under .anime is identified by the distinctive term used to identify the community's industry and field of activity. The string also evokes anime works, culture, creators, and audiences. These broader associations arise from the same body of work around which the identified community is organized and do not identify a separate geographic, commercial, professional, or sectoral community. The string therefore does not name a separate sector wider than the community described in this application; it names the community's work and, through that work, the community. Accordingly, .anime matches the defining element of the established name "anime industry" and directly identifies the community's industry and field of activity. Other significant meanings and public understanding are addressed in Question 149.

Yes. The general public associates the word "anime" with Japanese-origin animated works and, by extension, with the industry that creates, produces, finances, distributes, licenses, merchandises, and protects them. That industry is the Anime Industry Community identified in this application. The term directly identifies the community's core output and field of activity. The public's immediate mental image may be an anime work, character, or visual expression rather than the names of studios, production companies, distributors, or industry associations. That does not disconnect the string from the identified community. Industries are commonly recognized through their products and services. The Anime Industry Community is the organized sector responsible for creating, circulating, and protecting the body of work denoted by the string. In international Latin-script usage, "anime" has a well-established primary meaning: animation originating in Japan. The term is used in this sense across dictionaries, trade and consumer media, retail and streaming categories, and academic writing. It is not a place name, a professional designation, or a term identifying an unrelated commercial sector or organized community. The Applicant acknowledges that "anime" also functions as a common noun for the works and their broader cultural field, rather than referring solely to the industry behind them. This broader meaning does not weaken the nexus: it identifies the community's output and principal public-facing activity. The Applicant is also aware that "anime" has incidental meanings in other languages. In Italian, it is the plural of "anima," meaning "souls"; in French, it appears as a conjugated form of "animer." In both languages, however, it is also an established borrowed term for Japanese-origin animation. These incidental meanings do not denote a competing geographic location, commercial sector, profession, or organized community. In Japanese, アニメ ("anime") is an abbreviation of アニメーション ("animation") and may refer to animation generally, including works originating outside Japan. In international Latin-script usage, however, "anime" refers more specifically to Japanese-origin animation. This distinction supports the application: the applied-for string is the term by which the community and its works are recognized internationally. The string also evokes the global audience for anime and the creators and performers associated with the works. Viewers and fans are the public the namespace will serve, not its registrant base. Creators, directors, animators, performers, and writers are central to anime's production and cultural significance; they are not members of the community as defined in this application in their individual capacities, but participate in and benefit from it through the companies, associations, and organizations that employ, commission, and represent them. The namespace is intended to make the legitimate presence of those organizations recognizable, to the benefit of everyone whose work reaches the public through them. A domain name under .anime can therefore be understood as a verified presence within the industry responsible for the works the public identifies as anime. The string's broader cultural associations reinforce rather than displace the nexus: they lead directly to the works and activities of the identified community. Accordingly, the general public will associate .anime with Japanese-origin anime and with the Anime Industry Community that creates, distributes, licenses, and protects it.

Yes

Registration Eligibility Policy Registry Operator shall develop, implement, and enforce a Registration Eligibility Policy under which eligibility to register domain names in the TLD is restricted to legal entities that satisfy at least one of the following criteria: (a) create, produce, plan, or finance Japanese-origin anime works, including through participation in a production committee; (b) conduct audiovisual, music, publishing, toy, game, or character-merchandising business activities directly related to Japanese-origin anime works; (c) broadcast, distribute, exhibit, or operate a digital distribution platform through which Japanese-origin anime works are distributed; (d) engage in the rights management, licensing, distribution, marketing, commercial exploitation, or protection of Japanese-origin anime works or of rights relating to such works; (e) are industry associations, federations, or other organizations that represent or support participants in the Japanese anime industry; or (f) conduct other substantive and ongoing commercial or institutional activities that directly support the creation, production, distribution, commercialization, or protection of Japanese-origin anime works by entities described in paragraphs (a) to (d). For purposes of these Community Registration Policies, "Japanese-origin anime works" means anime works originating in Japan, including international co-productions in which one or more Japanese entities have a documented role in production, planning, financing, or rights ownership. Natural persons shall not be eligible to register domain names in the TLD in their individual capacity. Registry Operator shall publish and maintain the Registration Eligibility Policy on its website no later than the date on which the TLD is delegated in the DNS.

Verification Before Registration Registry Operator shall verify, before permitting any domain name to be registered in the TLD, that the prospective registrant satisfies the Registration Eligibility Policy on the basis of documentary or other objectively verifiable evidence. Registry Operator shall not permit the registration of a domain name in the TLD where the evidence does not establish that the prospective registrant satisfies the Registration Eligibility Policy. Self-certification by the prospective registrant shall not alone constitute sufficient evidence for the purposes of this verification.

Verification Records Registry Operator shall retain, for the duration of each domain name registration in the TLD, a record of the basis and outcome of each verification conducted under the Registration Eligibility Policy and the Name Selection Policy, including the evidence on which it was based, and shall provide such record to ICANN in connection with an audit conducted pursuant to Section 2.11 of the Agreement, subject to applicable law.

Continuing Eligibility Representation Registry Operator will include a provision in its Registry-Registrar Agreement that requires Registrars to include in their Registration Agreements a provision under which each renewal of a domain name registration in the TLD constitutes the registrant's representation that, as of the renewal date, the registrant continues to satisfy the Registration Eligibility Policy.

Annual Review of the Policies Registry Operator shall review the Registration Eligibility Policy and the Name Selection Policy at least once during each twelve-month period following the Effective Date, shall retain a record of each such review, and shall publish any resulting updates to either policy on its website within thirty (30) days of their adoption.

Name Selection Policy Registry Operator shall develop, implement, and enforce a Name Selection Policy under which a domain name label may be registered in the TLD only if the label satisfies at least one of the following criteria: (a) corresponds to the registrant's legal name, a trade name of the registrant, or a trademark or service mark in which the registrant holds rights, or is an abbreviation or acronym of any of the foregoing that the registrant uses in the ordinary course of business; (b) corresponds to the title, franchise, character, or other identifier of a Japanese-origin anime work that the registrant owns, controls, licenses, manages, or distributes, or for which the registrant has documented authorization to use the label; (c) corresponds to the name of an anime-related event, publication, product, service, platform, or initiative that the registrant owns, operates, organizes, produces, publishes, or distributes, or for which the registrant has documented authorization to use the label; or (d) is a generic or descriptive term having a direct and substantive relationship to the registrant's documented activities within the Japanese anime industry. Registry Operator shall publish and maintain the Name Selection Policy on its website no later than the date on which the TLD is delegated in the DNS.

Label Verification Before Registration Registry Operator shall verify, before permitting any domain name to be registered in the TLD, that the requested domain name label satisfies the Name Selection Policy on the basis of documentary or other objectively verifiable evidence. Registry Operator shall not permit the registration of a domain name in the TLD where the requested label does not satisfy the Name Selection Policy. Self-certification by the prospective registrant shall not alone constitute sufficient evidence for the purposes of this verification.

Annual Compliance Review Registry Operator shall review, at least once during each twelve-month period following the Effective Date, a random sample of not less than five percent (5%) of the domain names registered in the TLD as of the date of selection, for compliance with the Registration Eligibility Policy and the Name Selection Policy, and shall retain a record of the scope and outcome of each such review.

Complaint Determination Registry Operator shall, within thirty (30) days of receiving from any party a written complaint alleging that a registration in the TLD does not comply with the Registration Eligibility Policy or the Name Selection Policy, communicate its determination on the complaint to the complainant and to the registrant.

Notice and Opportunity to Cure Registry Operator shall notify the registrant of any determination that a domain name registration in the TLD does not comply with the Registration Eligibility Policy or the Name Selection Policy (a "Non-Compliance Notice"), and shall permit the registrant to cure the non-compliance within fifteen (15) days following the Non-Compliance Notice.

Suspension of Uncured Non-Compliance Registry Operator shall suspend the domain name registration identified in a Non-Compliance Notice if, upon expiration of the fifteen (15) day cure period, Registry Operator determines that the non-compliance identified in that notice has not been cured.

Not Applicable.

1. Not duplicative of applicable requirements (criterion 4). The applying entity has identified no requirement under the Base Registry Agreement, applicable ICANN Consensus Policies and Temporary Policies, or applicable law that prescribes the TLD-specific eligibility classes, name-selection criteria, documentary verification requirements, record-retention period, renewal-based continuing-eligibility representation, annual policy review, annual sample review, complaint-determination period, cure period, or suspension requirement proposed in Questions 151-153. Section 2.20 and Specification 12 of the Base Registry Agreement generally require a Community gTLD registry operator to establish and enforce community registration policies and procedures for resolving compliance disputes, but they do not supply these substantive criteria or measurable implementation standards. The proposed policies therefore implement and supplement those general obligations rather than duplicate them. The proposed policies are consistent with Specification 11 section 3(c), because they establish clear and published registration policies to be applied uniformly in accordance with their terms. They are also consistent with Specification 11 section 3(d): eligibility is available to any legal entity that satisfies the published community-based criteria and is not limited exclusively to a single person or entity and/or that person's or entity's Affiliates. Any domain name registered by the applying entity in the TLD will be subject to the same requirements that apply to every other registrant. The policies do not require Registry Operator or any registrar to act contrary to the Registry Agreement, the Registrar Accreditation Agreement, applicable ICANN policies, or applicable law. 2. Consistency with applicable law (criterion 4). The proposed Community Registration Policies can be implemented consistently with applicable law. Verification is based on documentary or other objectively verifiable evidence, and any retention or disclosure of verification records is subject to applicable law. The proposed policies do not require public disclosure of verification evidence or otherwise require Registry Operator, registrars, or registrants to act contrary to applicable law. 3. Compatibility with the ICANN Bylaws (criterion 5). The proposed policies are operational and procedural registration-management requirements. They regulate who may register a domain name, which labels may be registered, and how compliance with those requirements is verified and enforced. No proposed policy requires evaluation of the content of a website or other service using a domain name, and no policy conditions registration, renewal, or continued registration on the content carried or provided through a domain name. The policies therefore do not impose content-based restrictions. The Criterion 5 guidance identifies registration eligibility requirements and operational and procedural aspects of domain name registration and management as examples of non-content-restrictive commitments. 4. No additional Registry Service (criterion 4). The proposed policies do not require any Additional Service as defined in Section 2.1 of the Agreement. Eligibility and label verification, record retention, compliance sampling, complaint handling, cure, and suspension are administrative controls applied to the standard registration lifecycle. They do not require modification of DNS resolution, EPP, RDDS, data escrow, or any other registry function.

Yes. The Applicant has written support from every body identified in Question 136 as an organizing body of the community, together with corroborating support from relevant institutions outside it. Organizing-Body Endorsements: Question 136 identifies the community's organizing bodies as The Association of Japanese Animations (AJA), the principal anime-specific organizing body; the Japan Merchandising Rights Association (JAMRA); and the Content Overseas Distribution Association (CODA). Each has endorsed this application in writing: JAMRA on 15 July 2026, AJA on 16 July 2026, and CODA on 21 July 2026. Accordingly, every organizing body identified in Question 136 has endorsed the application. The Applicant's membership and leadership roles in these bodies are described in Question 135. These three bodies organize the community's defining activities described in Question 132. AJA is the body through which anime production companies act collectively and which publishes the industry's annual statistical record. JAMRA represents merchandising and related rights. CODA coordinates content protection and legitimate international distribution. The Governing Process and Member Support: AJA's support was approved by its board of directors. AJA's published board includes officers drawn from twenty member companies, among them Nippon Animation, Toei Animation, TMS Entertainment, Production I.G, Studio Pierrot, MAPPA, BONES, Tatsunoko Production, Tezuka Productions, and Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions. The Applicant is one of those twenty. AJA's institutional support was therefore approved through its governing body. Separately, individual letters of support from eighteen of those companies accompany this response. Why This Demonstrates Majority Support: The Guidebook provides that majority may be determined by factors not restricted to headcount. The Applicant does not rely on a simple count of companies. All three identified organizing bodies support the application, and their memberships include the leading producers and the production core, together with the major companies responsible for anime commercialization and rights management, as described in Question 140. The individual company letters demonstrate that support extends beyond the association level. Together, the endorsements show institutional breadth and member-level depth across the community as it is organized. Corroboration From Outside the Community: The Guidebook permits consideration of outside support where the applied-for string carries more than one meaning, as disclosed in Question 149. Four institutions of the Government of Japan have provided letters: the Copyright Division of the Agency for Cultural Affairs; the Secretariat of the Intellectual Property Strategy Headquarters of the Cabinet Office; the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications; and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications represents Japan on ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee. These institutions are not members of the identified community and are not presented as such. The Substance of the Letters: AJA states that the application is consistent with the interests of the anime community. CODA describes the documented harm caused by pirated, misleading, and impersonating sites. The Copyright Division of the Agency for Cultural Affairs states that support from AJA, JAMRA, CODA, and companies across the anime industry demonstrates that the proposed TLD "is intended to serve the interests of the anime community as a whole." The company letters identify the Applicant and the applied-for string, state the community-based purpose, and acknowledge the eligibility and name-selection requirements. The Applicant is aware of no opposition to this application, as stated in Question 157. All letters of support are attached to Q156.

As of the date of this application, Toei Animation Co., Ltd. (the "Applicant") is aware of no opposition to the Applicant, this application, the Applicant's proposed operation of .anime, or the applied-for string, whether from within the identified community or from relevant organizations outside it. The Applicant has received no letter of opposition, adverse public statement, or other communication expressing such opposition. The Applicant consulted the community's organizing bodies and other community members during preparation of this application. The responses received were supportive of the Applicant operating .anime for the benefit of the Anime Industry Community. The resulting endorsements and their supporting rationales are documented in the response to Question 156. The Applicant will not operate .anime as a proprietary or exclusive-use namespace; registration is open to any company or organization that satisfies the published Community Registration Policies, including the Applicant's competitors, with eligibility determined under those criteria rather than at the Applicant's discretion. The Applicant recognizes that comments or objections may be submitted following publication of the application. If relevant opposition is submitted, the Applicant will consider the concerns raised and respond through the applicable ICANN process.