Japan Times has an interesting article up that features quotes from Bushiroad’s chief executive officer, Yoshitaka Hashimoto, and Harold George Meij, a Dutch executive who was formerly CEO of toy company Tomy Co that is now the President of New Japan Pro-Wrestling.
In the article, it was made clear that with Bushiroad, which is the parent company of NJPW, going public, the company plans to tap into global demand for Japanese media that includes the Dragon Ball manga and anime franchise to award-winning movies, as well as wrestling.
The company is also looking to expand its service to English-speaking countries. By taking the company public, they want to use some of the money in order to offer more for games and animation production, advertisements and human-resource development.
“Pro-wrestling, card games and animation — they were all seen as subculture 20 years ago, but they’ve since grown into a mainstream culture,” Hashimoto said. “For example, 4 in 10 New Japan Pro-Wrestling fans are now women, compared to its male-dominated fan base of a generation ago.”
“We hardly perform with the microphone,” Meij said. “We do it from beginning to end, with power fighters, technical fighters, or people who can do acrobatic stunts.”
