Animoca Brands Japan
A strategic subsidiary bridging Japan and global Web3
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About Animoca Brands Japan
Animoca Brands Japan is the Japanese strategic subsidiary of Animoca Brands, established in October 2021. Its core business covers three areas: IP business, advisory business, and validator business.
The IP business supports Japanese manga and anime IP holders in global Web3 expansion. It offers original NFT products like MetaChara (digital acrylic stands of anime characters) and leverages the $MANGA token ecosystem through the Anime Foundation to help animation projects gain early global exposure.
The advisory business uses Animoca Brands' global network of over 450 Web3 companies to help Japanese enterprises and startups with global expansion, marketing, token liquidity improvement, and digital asset treasury management. Since September 2025, it has been offering comprehensive support for listed companies in digital asset treasury management, including strategy formulation, portfolio management, staking, lending, and DeFi yield farming.
The validator business operates blockchain validators and DePIN network nodes to support the sound operation of Web3 projects.
Market pain points addressed: Japanese IP holders face difficulties in reaching global audiences through traditional distribution channels; enterprises lack expertise in digital asset management and risk control; the Japanese regulatory environment has been unclear.
Recent developments (March to September 2026): In April 2026, the company temporarily suspended its Coinavi service due to a strategic review. In June 2026, Naoki Matsuo was appointed as the new CEO, succeeding Kensuke Amo who became a senior advisor. The company has been actively promoting digital asset treasury management services for listed companies, responding to Japan's regulatory shift toward treating crypto assets under the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act. In July 2026, Animoca Brands' co-founder Yat Siu participated in WebX Asia and JBWS2026 in Tokyo, discussing AI agent ownership and the future of the agentic economy.
In October 2021, Animoca Brands established its strategic Japanese subsidiary Animoca Brands KK (Animoca Brands Japan) to help Japanese IP holders build global fan communities using blockchain technology.
In January 2022, it completed a seed round of approximately ¥1.1 billion, with investors including the MCP IPX One Fund and Kodansha, reflecting traditional Japanese capital's entry into Web3.
In August 2022, it raised US$45 million from MUFG Bank and Animoca Brands at a valuation of about US$500 million, supporting the development of a safe NFT ecosystem in Japan.
Subsequently, the company expanded from IP support to advisory services, the NFT launchpad SORAH, and partner programs, integrating AI and Moca Network to serve as a gateway connecting Japan and the global Web3 ecosystem.
In the past six months, Animoca Brands Japan completed a management transition, with Naoki Matsuo assuming the role of Representative Director & CEO in June 2026, while former CEO Kensuke Amaha moved to Senior Advisor. This change aims to navigate Japan's regulatory shift of crypto assets toward the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act, accelerating institutional participation.
On the product front, the company launched the Japanese version of its AI agent platform "Minds by Animoca Brands" on August 6. It enables users to create personalized AI agents without specialized knowledge, supports multi-agent collaboration and long-term memory, with future plans to integrate blockchain for secure agent-to-agent transactions.
Future priorities center on three pillars: first, building an AI agent economy around Minds, exploring autonomous payments and transactions; second, developing a decentralized identity system via Moca Network for cross-platform credential verification; third, advancing Web3 globalization of Japanese IP by investing in production committees and partnerships to bring anime and content assets on-chain. The company emphasizes compliance-first innovation within regulatory frameworks.