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Prime Video is doubling its investment in Japanese original content over the next two years, according to three of the streamer’s top executives, who detailed a slate
led by a documentary on boy band Arashi’s reunion tour and subsequent conclusion from Kore-eda Hirokazu, in an interview with Variety.
“We are basically doubling our investment over the next two years,” says Gandhi, VP, Asia Pacific, Prime Video, describing the diversity of the new slate as a reflection of Prime Video’s growing customer base in Japan. As fandom varies by genre, Gandhi says the slate has to reflect customer preferences across all of them: “That’s why, if you see when we have the best of anime, unscripted, scripted, movies, sport now coming through across the board, that’s quite reflected in this.”
Oishi, Japan country manager, Prime Video, says Japanese subscribers now expect the service to function as a full entertainment destination rather than a home for a single genre or title. “Five years ago, the customer came to our service for the single genre or specific title, but they are looking for more comprehensive entertainment destination for us,” Oishi says, adding that Prime Video holds the number one position in Japan’s streaming market by both user ratio and subscription base. He points to the service’s channel-partner model, including add-on subscriptions and rentals bundled into a single app, as part of meeting that broader appetite.
The documentary, titled “5 – Our Time as Arashi -,” goes behind the scenes of the band’s five-dome farewell tour, which took place roughly six years after the group’s hiatus began. Kore-eda directs, with Imanaka Kohei and Sunada Mami of his Bun-Buku production collective serving as directors under him. The film streams worldwide from Dec. 15, followed by the concert film “Arashi Live Tour 2026 ‘We Are Arashi -Prime Video Edition-‘,” capturing the tour’s Tokyo Dome finale from May 31, on Dec. 21. Nine archival Arashi concert titles begin streaming sequentially from Sept. 15.
Gandhi frames Arashi’s inclusion as part of a broader push into music and cultural figures tied to Prime Video’s young-adult strategy, while Oishi notes that Arashi’s popularity extends well beyond young viewers to a broader audience curious about what happens behind the scenes. Gandhi adds that the young-adult push spans the service’s slate worldwide, citing “The Summer I Turned Pretty,” “Off Campus,” “Maxton Hall” out of Germany, the “Culpa” series from Spain and “Call Me Bae” from India as examples of a strategy built around young viewers he describes as cultural ambassadors. “This is a part of the cultural zeitgeist. This is a part about creating culture and being really part of that,” he says.
On established IP, Gandhi describes two distinct approaches: leaning on existing fandom, and using adaptations to expand a title’s footprint well beyond its original readership. He points to “Nippon Sangoku” as an example of the latter. “We saw the fandom on the IP expand quite dramatically once we put it on the service. More books got sold, more fans came into this,” he says. A second season of the anime, which ranked No. 2 on Amazon’s global Top 10 Non-English Prime Original Series chart for four consecutive weeks, is also on the slate, though its launch date has not been set.
Buddy Marini, head of Amazon MGM Studios, Japan, says the strategy also depends on Japan’s depth of source material beyond its best-known franchises. “Japan just has a treasure trove of IP, a long history of creating everything from books to manga to anime and live action,” he says. “There’s a lot of smaller IP that if there’s a good reason to make it bigger, that’s something that we would look at as well.”
Several of those adaptations make up the bulk of the current scripted slate. “Bless,” based on Sonoyama Yukino’s manga serialized in Monthly Shonen Sirius, stars Onishi Ryusei as a young man pursuing a career as a makeup artist, with Shiseido’s Shindo Ikuko supervising the series’ makeup work; it launches in spring 2027. “Rock, Paper, Landmine,” adapted from Aosaki Yugo’s novel “Landmine Glico,” which swept Japan’s four major mystery rankings and collected nine literary prizes including a rare triple crown, stars Mori Nana and Makita Aju and premieres Nov. 13. “Please Save My Earth,” director Miki Takahiro’s take on Hiwatari Saki’s reincarnation-themed sci-fi manga, which has sold more than 16 million copies since 1986, stars Hirose Alice and arrives in autumn 2027. And “The Apothecary Diaries,” a co-production with Toho based on Hyuganatsu’s light novel series, which has sold more than 57 million copies in 16 languages, stars Ashida Mana and is set for 2028.
Asked about Prime Video Japan’s growth strategy, both Gandhi and Oishi single out original live-action series as the priority. “The most important part is the original. We see the big opportunity here. We decided to doubling down of the investment of the original contents in the next two years, which is the most important part of our strategy,” Oishi says, naming “Bless,” “Jirai Glico” – the Japanese title behind “Rock, Paper, Landmine” – and “Please Be My First Love” as the young-adult-focused new IP driving that push. Gandhi describes the growth plan as resting on two additional pillars beyond originals: an “entertainment hub” built around the Prime membership program, channel partnerships, transactional video-on-demand and pay-per-view, and what he calls a “super-serving strategy” of going deep on individual genres through third-party partners, citing dAnime and Anime Times in Japan and Crunchyroll internationally as examples. “We think about this as entertaining fandom of any particular genre super deeply,” he says.
Marini says the Toho partnership reflects Amazon’s roots as a books company and the relationships that history affords with publishers and source-material rights holders. “We’re uniquely placed to have great relationships with a lot of different types of players, from film studios to publishers to creators,” he says. He traces that flexibility back to Amazon MGM Studios’ earlier work with Toho on “The Silent Service,” whose first two seasons paired a theatrical release with a streaming run; the third season, subtitled “Awaken, New York” and made with cooperation from the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, streams as a series only, without a theatrical release, beginning summer 2027. Gandhi adds that beyond creative partnership and global reach, Amazon’s wider retail ecosystem gives creators a third advantage unavailable elsewhere, pointing to cases where a title’s success on Prime Video has translated into higher book and merchandise sales.
Marini also cites “Super Mob Ninja,” an original action comedy marking the large-scale directorial debut of Sakamoto Yugo and starring Yamada Yuki and Yamada Anna, as an example of the studio backing new directing talent. “We really feel that Sakamoto-san has a really great sense and a story here that not only it will find an audience in Japan, but has the potential also to travel globally,” Marini says.
On the unscripted side, Marini traces “Please Be My First Love,” a dating format built around young Japanese people who have never had a romantic relationship, back through Prime Video Japan’s earlier unscripted formats. The service built a base with “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette,” then licensed the Korean format “Love Transit,” before developing “Please Be My First Love” as a wholly original Amazon format. “Having that base of formats and then creating our own, I think that’s something that we’re looking to expand on as well,” he says. The series launches in July 2027.
On anime, Oishi says Prime Video accounts for 47% of all streaming anime hours in Japan, with titles including “Ghost in the Shell,” “Nippon Sangoku” and “Old Country Bumpkin” driving that share. He points to the anime “Gundam G-Quax” as an example of how that reach translates into commerce: Prime Video secured exclusive streaming rights one to two days ahead of other platforms, and customers browsing the title’s detail page could buy Gundam figures directly. “This type of the experience we can provide. This is of benefit for the customer as well as the partners,” Oishi says. Gandhi says the strategy extends beyond Japan’s borders too: the unscripted format “LOL” originated in the country and has since been remade locally in more than 25 countries. “There’s a ton of opportunity of creating new IP here and then taking that around the world,” he says.
Sports remains the third pillar of the country strategy, according to Oishi, who cites Prime Video’s existing rights to MLB, NBA and live boxing coverage in Japan. Asked how Prime Video differentiates itself as Netflix and Disney+ increase their Japan investment and HBO Max strikes carriage deals of its own in the market, Oishi points back to Prime Video’s market position and its focus on content and customers over competitors. “We really focus on the content and the customer. That’s the only thing we really focus on that,” he says. Gandhi adds that the service’s network of more than 70 third-party channel partners in Japan, which now includes HBO Max, is itself a point of differentiation. “We have 70-plus partners there. So I think we’re uniquely placed in that area,” he says.
