TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Japanese trading house Itochu plans to expand overseas sales of lesser-known Japanese anime merchandise by linking a Taiwan-based e-commerce platform with intellectual property owners, Nikkei Asia reported Thursday.
The company has taken a minority stake in Tokyo-based PChome Bibian, which operates the Bibian proxy purchasing service that allows Taiwanese consumers to buy goods from Japanese online marketplaces such as Rakuten and Mercari. Anime products account for roughly 40% of Bibian’s sales.
Itochu plans to connect Bibian with official online stores run by Japanese IP management companies to help expand sales abroad. It will use Bibian’s Taiwan purchase data to identify high-demand products and support IP holders in product planning and promotion.
Bibian serves only Taiwan, but the partnership aims to expand the service to 10 countries and regions across North America and Asia by the end of 2029. Itochu will support overseas growth through language services and marketing aimed at attracting international users.
Overseas merchandising of Japanese IP is often constrained by licensing agreements negotiated on a country-by-country basis, a process that can be slow and resource-intensive. As a result, overseas efforts tend to focus on only the most popular titles, leaving smaller or niche works overlooked.
Bibian’s proxy purchasing model allows overseas consumers to buy Japanese goods even when formal licensing arrangements are not in place. Itochu sees this approach as a way to unlock demand for underexposed anime as global interest in Japanese content continues to rise.
