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2.8 Million Otaku in Japan Date: 8/26/2004 |
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A recent report from a private think tank defined "otaku" as ``people who spend much of their time and money on a focused area of interest,'' listing four primary areas of interest: comics, cartoons, video games and idol singers. According to the report, otaku of those four areas of interest number 2.8 million and spend a combined 260 billion yen annually on related merchandise, or 11% of those markets combine 2.3 trillion yen sales. To put the immense buying power of Otaku in perspective, they spend more on their hobbies than all of Japan spends on digital cameras, 250 billion yen in 2003 to be exact. Comic book / manga otaku are the most numerous, spending 100 billion yen on manga in 2003, or 16% of that industry's 625 billion yen in sales (US$5.7 Billion). Along with anime and video game otaku, they spend an average of 100,000 yen (US$912) per year on their hobby, while the average idol otaku only spend an average of 75,000 yen per year on the hobby. |
| Source: Anime News Network |
