Move over South Korea, there’s a new player in the international arena. Japan’s famously risk-averse broadcasters and studios have woken up to the world outside Japan and are making a bold move on the U.S. and other international markets.

In part inspired by the global success of Korean content, but also aware that their huge domestic market is shrinking as Japan’s population declines, major players such as Toho, Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) and Fuji Television realize they need to find a source of revenue elsewhere in order to grow. And with deep libraries of anime, manga, movies, formats and games, they’ve also realized that they’re sitting on huge reservoirs of valuable IP.

Toho was among the first Japanese studios to make international moves, under forward-thinking president and CEO Hiro Matsuoka, taking back some rights to its Godzilla franchise and getting involved in merchandising in the U.