Toei Animation - Company History

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Financial history 2006–2026 — revenue, cost structure, balance sheet, cash flow and key ratios, year by year →

Founded 1948
Founder Okawa Hiroshi 大川博
Founding location 東京都練馬区
Core business at founding Contract production of feature-length theatrical animation
Listed 2000
President Takagi Katsuhiro President since 2012 (age 69, as of 2026)
Current priority In-house production · Overseas expansion Bringing drawing work back in-house and widening the overseas structure
Founding
In January 1948 Nihon Doga Co. was established at Haramachi, Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo. In August 1952 it was renamed Nichido Eiga Co., and it delivered work as an outside contractor making short films for Toei, until in July 1956 Toei bought Nichido Eiga and it became Toei Doga Co. Its head office was placed at Kyobashi, Chuo Ward, Tokyo and its production works at Haramachi, Shinjuku Ward. Okawa Hiroshi 大川博, president of Toei, positioned it as a dedicated studio for feature-length animated films built to stand against Disney, moved the production works to Higashi-Oizumi, Nerima Ward in January 1957, and in October 1958 completed Hakujaden, Japan’s first full-scale colour feature. It was the parent, however, that held distribution, and the company’s position — taking on production and being paid a fee for it — did not change. In October 1998 it was renamed Toei Animation.
The Decision
The company has moved from the side that delivers work for a fee to the side that owns the rights and lends them out. In June 1973 it began outsourcing drawing work to the Philippines and Korea, and in February 1975 it started selling its television series overseas. In August 1979 it released Galaxy Express 999, the first theatrical feature it produced on its own account, and the film took first place in Japanese-film distribution revenue for the 1979 season. It was a move that used box-office numbers to confirm that a feature could stand up without being carried on the parent’s distribution. In December 2000 it listed its shares on the over-the-counter market, gaining a route to raise capital of its own while remaining a subsidiary of Toei. In January 2018 it moved into the new Oizumi Studio and turned every process digital, and in April 2023 it opened a drawing academy, beginning to bring back in-house the drawing work it had once sent outside.
Today
Seven-tenths of the profit is generated not by the business that makes the work but by the business that lends it out. Of consolidated revenue of $591.8M (¥94bn) in the year to March 2026, the licensing business — which grants the merchandising and game rights in its characters to manufacturers — accounted for $306M (¥48bn), on segment profit of $168.8M (¥27bn), a margin of 55 per cent. Film production and sales brought $196.6M (¥31bn) of revenue against $55M (¥9bn) of profit, and merchandising stopped at $49.3M (¥8bn) of revenue and $4.4M (¥700m) of profit. The main counterparty in licensing is the Bandai Namco group, and three works that began in the 1980s and 1990s — Dragon Ball, Sailor Moon and One Piece — sit at the centre of the income. Revenue fell from $673.6M (¥101bn) the year before, while the consolidated operating margin held at 33.1 per cent.
Competition
Within animation itself the field has divided between companies that earn by lending their work out and companies that buy it and spread it. Toho came at it from taking rights through senior investment in production committees, and in 2024 it made the studio Science SARU and the North American distributor GKIDS subsidiaries, bringing production and North American distribution inside the company. Toei Animation holds everything from planning to production in-house and stands in the position of lending those rights to toy, game and streaming companies. The weakness of the lending side is that income is tied to the lifespan of the work, and even now the centre of profit is three titles that began more than a quarter of a century ago. In October 2025 the company drew up its VISION2030 mid-term plan, putting a cumulative $1.3B (¥200bn) over five years into production capacity and its overseas structure, and setting targets of $1.3B (¥200bn) in revenue and $316.1M (¥50bn) in operating profit for the year to March 2031. Whether it can replace income concentrated in three works with new ones will decide whether it stays on the lending side.

Timeline

1948–1979From Nihon Doga to Toei’s feature-animation studio

  1. 1948Founded as Nihon Doga and begins producing animation
  2. 1952Renamed Nichido Eiga
  3. 1956Toei buys Nichido Eiga and renames it Toei Doga
  4. 1957First short film, Koneko no Rakugaki, completed
  5. 1958Hakujaden, Japan’s first colour animated feature, completed
  6. 1960Head office moved to Nishi-Ginza, Tokyo
  7. 1963First television series, Okami Shonen Ken, begins broadcasting
  8. 1966The feature Gulliver’s Travels Beyond the Moon is released in the United States too
  9. 1967Television series go out in colour from episode 18 of Mahotsukai Sally
  10. 1973Tavac established; production outsourcing overseas begins
  11. 1975Overseas sales of television animation series begin
  12. 1979Galaxy Express 999, its first self-produced feature, released

1980–2013Dragon Ball, Sailor Moon, One Piece — three franchises and a listing

  1. 1980Full-scale research begins into making animation by computer
  2. 1985Computer-controlled camera system introduced
  3. 1986Dragon Ball begins broadcasting; first OVA and own game software
  4. 1991CATAS, its in-house digital production software, completed
  5. 1992Sailor Moon begins broadcasting; EEI-TOEI joint venture in the Philippines
  6. 1995Dragon Ball and Sailor Moon begin broadcasting in the United States
  7. 1997Television series digitised with RETAS; Hong Kong sales subsidiary set up
  8. 1998Renamed Toei Animation
  9. 1999One Piece begins broadcasting; head office moves to Oizumi
  10. 2000Listed on the over-the-counter market
  11. 2004Futari wa Pretty Cure begins; sales subsidiaries in Los Angeles and Paris; JASDAQ listing
  12. 2007TV Asahi buys more shares and becomes an other affiliated company
  13. 2013Shinjuku and other offices consolidated into the Nakano office

2014–2025Going fully digital, and the surge that followed the pandemic

  1. 2014Head office established at Nakano, Tokyo; production moves to an interim studio
  2. 2018Production moves into the new all-digital Oizumi Studio
  3. 2018Three-for-one split of the ordinary shares
  4. 2020TOEI ANIMATION ENTERPRISES sets up a Shanghai joint venture
  5. 2022Moves to the TSE Standard Market; operating margin reaches a record 32.7%
  6. 2023The Toei Animation Drawing Academy opens
  7. 2024Five-for-one split of the ordinary shares
  8. 2025Revenue passes ¥100bn; the VISION2030 mid-term plan is drawn up

Founding Story

1948–1979From Nihon Doga to Toei’s feature-animation studio

Toei Animation began in January 1948 as Nihon Doga, a small post-war studio that Toei bought in 1956 and rebuilt as its own feature-animation arm — the house that made Japan’s first full-colour animated feature and then, from 1963, carried the form into television. For most of three decades it made what its parent distributed, and only in 1979, with a feature it produced itself, did it begin to keep what its work earned.

Japan’s first full-scale post-war animation studio

In January 1948 Nihon Doga Co. was established at Haramachi, Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo[1]. Nihon Doga was founded as a dedicated post-war animation studio, carrying on the pre-war Japanese tradition of making animated films — manga eiga. In August 1952 it was renamed Nichido Eiga Co.[2], and in July 1956 Toei Co., one of the majors of Japanese cinema, bought Nichido Eiga and renamed it Toei Doga Co.[3] With its head office at Kyobashi, Chuo Ward, Tokyo and its production works at Haramachi, Shinjuku Ward[4], the company started again as Toei’s division for producing feature-length theatrical animation. Okawa Hiroshi (大川博), president of Toei and the man behind the purchase, positioned Toei Doga as Japan’s first full-scale animation production company, one built to stand against Disney, and announced a management policy of running it as a dedicated studio for feature-length theatrical animation.

In January 1957 the production works moved to a studio at Higashi-Oizumi, Nerima Ward, Tokyo — the Oizumi Studio[5]. In May 1957 the company completed its first short animated film, Koneko no Rakugaki (こねこのらくがき)[6]. In October 1958 Hakujaden (白蛇伝), Japan’s first full-scale colour animated feature, was completed and released[7]. Hakujaden is counted among the most important works in the history of the Japanese animation industry, and from it Toei Doga took the position of the head temple of the Japanese animation business. In September 1960 the head office moved to Nishi-Ginza — now Ginza — in Chuo Ward, Tokyo[8]. In November 1963 the company’s first television animation series, Okami Shonen Ken (狼少年ケン), began broadcasting[9], marking its entry into television animation production. From episode 18 of Mahotsukai Sally (魔法使いサリー) in April 1967 its television series went out in colour[10], the company having moved early to install colour broadcasting equipment during the changeover from black and white.

Overseas expansion, and self-production beginning with Galaxy Express 999

In February 1973 the company established Tavac Co. (タバック) as a subsidiary, splitting off part of its recording and editing operations[11]. In June 1973 it began outsourcing production overseas[12], building a division of labour that drew on inexpensive drawing staff in the Philippines, Korea and other Asian countries. In February 1975 it began selling its television animation series abroad in earnest[13], pushing licence sales to broadcasters and distributors in the United States and Europe and setting out to open up overseas markets. Over the same period Toei Doga went through labour disputes that changed its production structure, and the studio moved steadily to running on freelance contracts. In August 1979 it released Galaxy Express 999 (銀河鉄道999), the first theatrical animated feature it produced on its own account[14], standing up a production and distribution arrangement that did not rest on Toei’s distribution.

Galaxy Express 999, the theatrical version of a popular television series drawn from Matsumoto Leiji’s (松本零士) original, was a large hit and demonstrated that the self-production model made economic sense. From then on Toei Doga, while continuing the contract production that was subordinate to the distribution of Toei itself, built up a library of self-produced works in which it held its own IP — intellectual property — laying the foundations of a produce-in-house, sell-overseas business model across both television and theatrical animation. In March 1980 it began full-scale research into making animated images by computer[15], starting the technical preparation for digital production.

Read the full history in Japanese →

Notes

  1. Toei Animation, annual securities report, corporate-history section↩
  2. Toei Animation, annual securities report, corporate-history section↩
  3. Toei Animation, annual securities report, corporate-history section↩
  4. Toei Animation, annual securities report, corporate-history section↩
  5. Toei Animation, annual securities report, corporate-history section↩
  6. Toei Animation, annual securities report, corporate-history section↩
  7. Toei Animation, annual securities report, corporate-history section↩
  8. Toei Animation, annual securities report, corporate-history section↩
  9. Toei Animation, annual securities report, corporate-history section↩
  10. Toei Animation, annual securities report, corporate-history section↩
  11. Toei Animation, annual securities report, corporate-history section↩
  12. Toei Animation, annual securities report, corporate-history section↩
  13. Toei Animation, annual securities report, corporate-history section↩
  14. Toei Animation, annual securities report, corporate-history section↩
  15. Toei Animation, annual securities report, corporate-history section↩

References & sources

  1. Toei Animation Co., Ltd. (annual securities reports), including the corporate-history section, the large-shareholder tables and the consolidated results from the year to March 2006 onward.
  2. Toei Animation Co., Ltd. — the corporate history and works chronology published by the company.

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Data API

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