Industry
Plott: IP360 funding aims to take short anime abroad
Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry is supporting Plott in expanding localization and international distribution of several of its own IPs.
Plott has been selected for IP360, the funding program of Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, and intends to use it to roll out its short-anime IPs internationally in a more systematic way. The funding specifically covers the "Overseas Expansion Support (Localization Support)" area, with which the company wants to expand multilingual capabilities and its distribution structure outside Japan.
According to Plott, the funding concerns the project "Overseas Expansion of In-house Short Anime IP." The goal is a model that does not rely on a single title alone but can be applied repeatedly across several of its own productions. To this end, translations and further localization work are to be expanded, and international distribution is to be gradually standardized.
Plott operates, among others, the YouTube anime "Karekore the Half-Blood," "Teikou Penguin" and "Flag-chan!" According to the company, international use of these channels has recently increased significantly: cumulative views outside Japan now exceed 900 million. In June 2026, around 95 million international views were recorded in a single month, compared with around 4.83 million in June of the previous year. Plott thus speaks of growth of roughly twentyfold within one year.
Localization as part of a broader export strategy
IP360 is a funding program of Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry for the international and cross-media exploitation of Japanese content. Plott was selected in the first round of the localization program. For the company, the focus is less on exporting a single series than on a repeatable infrastructure for several of its own IPs.
The development fits a broader internationalization of Japanese anime content. For classic productions, international rights are increasingly considered early, as with Makoto Shinkai's new feature film, whose rights outside Asia rest with Crunchyroll. SEKIRO: NO DEFEAT is likewise slated for international release via Crunchyroll following its Japanese cinema release.
Plott, by contrast, pursues a more platform-driven approach: its own short anime are produced primarily for YouTube and TikTok and are then to be expanded internationally through language versions, distribution, and further media and licensing business. The company has not yet named a specific timetable or individual languages for the localizations now being funded.