Interest

Sponsors Remain for Fuji TV's Autumn Anime Season

ANN's Japan-based staff confirmed the return of sponsors to Fuji TV with the full-fledged start of the autumn season for anime, as of Tuesday. Fuji TV is airing eight regular animated series: Let's Play, the second season of Assassination Classroom (rerun), Shabake, DIGIMON BEATBREAK, SI-VIS: The Sound of Heroes, Chibi Maruko-chan, Sazae-san, One Piece, and the Chinese animation Hasan Fugō The Richest Man in Game. Half of the series are airing with partial third-party sponsorship, and Hasan Fugō The Richest Man in Game is the only series to begin the season without third-party sponsors.

Sazae-san saw an increase in sponsors from the summer 2025 season. The supermarket group OIC Group, secondhand electronics store Geo, realtor Daiwa House, and pharmaceutical company Ryukakusan sponsored the show in early July, and Daiwa House, Ryukakasan, Nissan, life insurance company Meiji Yasuda, Nintendo, and clothing store Nishimatsuya sponsored the show on October 5.

Chibi Maruko-chan retained its sponsors: energy company Mitsuuroko, silicon wafer semiconductor manufacturer Sumco, Ryukakusan, toy manufacturer Takara Tomy, and pet food manufacture Inaba.

By contrast, Let's Play, Assassination Classroom, Shabake, and SI-VIS: The Sound of Heroes, are airing with partial sponsorship by third parties. The programs air with commercials for tie-in Blu-ray Disc and DVD releases, opening and ending theme songs' CD releases, and, in the case of One Piece, video games and merchandise. Many of the remaining commercials airing during these series are for Fuji TV-produced feature films, theatrical productions, and dramas series, as well as some general corporate sponsors (similar to what happened during this past spring's sponsor drought). However, as these remaining commercials are not directly sponsoring any anime aired on Fuji TV, they are likely part of the broadcaster's general sponsorship pool.

Fuji TV's general sponsorship pool has vastly increased since the summer 2025 anime season. Beginning on the week of July 7, Fuji TV saw sponsors from hair care producer Straine, alcoholic beverage maker Choya, and pharmaceutical company Kowa. Among the three companies, Kowa held the major share of the Fuji TV general sponsorship pool among the anime programs.

As the summer 2025 season progressed, Fuji TV saw a rise in corporate sponsors, including, but not limited to, Universal Studios Japan, pharmaceutical company Taisho Seiyaku, Google, Hoyoverse, limited-run magazine publisher Hachette, beverage maker SUNTORY, and several part-time job finding apps.

The beginning of the autumn season saw even more sponsors return to Fuji TV's general sponsorship pool. As of press time, companies such as the technology company SoftBank, cellphone provider Y!mobile, the electronic commerce company DMM, cleaning supplies and cosmetics maker Kao, and Amazon have aired commercials as part of Fuji TV's general sponsorship pool during anime programming.

This is a stark contrast from mid-February when the Japanese broadcaster instead aired public service messages from the Ad Council Japan, the Japan Commercial Broadcasters Association, and the Japan Advertising Review Organization. Fuji TV slowly saw sponsors return to its general sponsorship pool, but was mainly limited to beauty clinics, part-time job finding apps, and cloud services at first.

Fuji TV saw a drop in corporate sponsors following a Weekly Bunshun magazine report that former SMAP member Masahiro Nakai engaged in nonconsensual sexual activities with a woman in June 2023. This resulted in a 90 million yen (about US$580,000) out-of-court settlement. Weekly Bunshun also reported Fuji TV staff was involved with the incident, although the magazine later said the woman was not initially invited to the gathering by a Fuji TV official as it had reported in December. In the Aftermath, Fuji TV president Koichi Minato and Fuji Media Holdings Inc. chairman Shuji Kano resigned their positions.