IVS Panel: Japan's Game Industry Struggles to Co-Create With New Markets
The panel highlights a structural gap in Japan's game industry: a lack of firsthand market knowledge and local adaptation that limits its ability to compete in fast-growing regions like the Middle East and Southeast Asia.
Reporting from 1 source: 4Gamer.net.
At IVS 2026 KYOTO, a panel of executives from Square Enix, Outliers Venture Capital, GGWP, and TRADOM discussed why Japan struggles to build global businesses with new growth markets. Square Enix's Hideaki Uehara said Japan's game market growth lags behind LATAM, MENA, and India, and that many Japanese developers lack Steam accounts. The panel emphasized the need for on-the-ground presence, local adaptation, and cognitive diversity in teams.
Square Enix's Hideaki Uehara told the IVS 2026 KYOTO panel that Japan's game market growth is not keeping pace with regions like Latin America, the Middle East, and India. He pointed to a specific gap: many Japanese developers and sales staff do not have Steam accounts, even though over half of overseas PC/console players use gaming PCs and Steam. The panel, which also included venture capital, AI content moderation, and fintech perspectives, argued that Japan needs to send people to see local markets firsthand, adapt games to lower-spec devices and local payment methods, and build teams with cognitive diversity. Mohammed Almeshekah of Outliers Venture Capital compared the current transformation in the Middle East to Japan's Meiji Restoration, driven by ambition, regulatory acceleration, and capital. TRADOM's Shinichi Sakane noted that Japan's legal framework for stablecoin payments is ahead but implementation lags, and that game and digital IP companies are showing strong interest in cross-border stablecoin payments.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.