Publishing, Film & IP
This business moves rights and content in both directions between Japan and China. When Japanese books, manga, animation and screen IP travel to the Chinese market — and when Chinese titles and IP come to Japan — someone has to do the work on the Japan side: talk to rights holders, negotiate terms, coordinate translation and localization, and keep promotion aligned. That is where we sit.
Our partnership with Xiron Culture Group
ACTTAO Co., Ltd. is a partner of Beijing Xiron Culture Group Co., Ltd. We work with Xiron and handle the Japan side of its rights acquisition and execution.
Xiron is a Chinese culture and creative group with four business lines — Xiron Books, Xiron Entertainment, Xiron Literature and Xiron Animation — built around a single chain of capabilities: acquiring rights, developing them, building products, producing and selling. We are the counterpart for rights holders and day-to-day execution in Japan.
- 2.12%Xiron's overall market share among Chinese trade publishers in 2023 — ranked first
- 3.23%Xiron's new-title market share in 2023 — ranked first
- 21Japanese authors under contract with Xiron
- 4business lines: books, entertainment, literature, animation
Japanese titles brought to China through this partnership
Every title below is a Chinese-language edition published by Xiron. ACTTAO Co., Ltd. acts as the partner and point of contact on the Japan side; we are not the publisher of these works.
Where an established English title exists it is used; otherwise the Japanese original is given.
Studio Ghibli
| Title | Credit | Format |
|---|---|---|
| My Neighbor Totoro | Hayao Miyazaki | Animation picture book |
| Spirited Away | Hayao Miyazaki (original story, screenplay, director) | Animation picture book |
| Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea | Hayao Miyazaki (original story, screenplay, director) | Animation picture book |
| The Tale of the Princess Kaguya | Isao Takahata (concept, screenplay, director); screenplay by Riko Sakaguchi | Animation picture book |
| Howl's Moving Castle | Hayao Miyazaki | Animation picture book |
| Castle in the Sky | Hayao Miyazaki (original story) | Animation picture book |
| THE ART of Spirited Away | Hayao Miyazaki | Art book |
| THE ART of My Neighbor TOTORO | Hayao Miyazaki | Art book |
| THE ART of PONYO | Hayao Miyazaki | Art book |
| My Neighbor Totoro Film Comic | Hayao Miyazaki | Film comic |
My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away and Ponyo are the sole officially licensed simplified-Chinese editions.
Literature (novels and essays)
| Title | Author | Format |
|---|---|---|
| First Person Singular | Haruki Murakami | Short stories |
| Abandoning a Cat: Memories of My Father | Haruki Murakami | Essay |
| Laplace's Witch (Rapurasu no Majo) | Keigo Higashino | Novel |
| The House Where the Mermaid Sleeps (Ningyo no Nemuru Ie) | Keigo Higashino | Novel |
| Tegami (The Letter) | Keigo Higashino | Novel |
| I Want to Eat Your Pancreas | Yoru Sumino | Novel |
| Ikenai | Shusuke Michio | Novel |
| Meitantei no Ikenie | Tomoyuki Shirai | Mystery |
Meitantei no Ikenie won the 23rd Honkaku Mystery Award and took first place in the 2023 Honkaku Mystery Best 10.
Manga
| Title | Author | Format |
|---|---|---|
| Cells at Work! (5 volumes) | Akane Shimizu | Manga |
| Juhan Shuttai! (volumes 1–8) | Naoko Matsuda | Manga |
| Junji Ito's Cat Diary | Junji Ito | Manga (the author's first autobiographical work) |
| OPUS (complete edition) | Satoshi Kon | Manga |
| Mushishi (10 volumes plus a special) | Yuki Urushibara | Manga |
| 《单人房的天使》 (Chinese edition title) | — | Manga |
The last title is shown by its Chinese edition name only; the Japanese original title is not recorded in our source material.
Evangelion and Ultraman
| Title | Format | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone — original drawings collection | Art collection | Published |
| Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance — original drawings collection (2 volumes) | Art collection | Published |
| Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo — original drawings collection | Art collection | Forthcoming |
| Ultraman T.D.G 25th Anniversary Visual Book | Visual book | Published |
| Ultraman Heroes Pop-Up Book (collector's edition) | Pop-up book | Published |
| My Dad Is Ultraman (Papa wa Ultraseven) — Tatsuya Miyanishi | Picture book | Forthcoming |
The Evangelion collections are the sole officially licensed simplified-Chinese editions; the volumes for 2.0 present more than 6,000 original drawings for the first time.
Japanese authors under contract with Xiron (21)
Haruki Murakami · Keigo Higashino · Hayao Miyazaki · Yataro Matsuura · Junji Ito · Mitsuyo Kakuta · Eiko Kadono · Miyuki Miyabe · Junichi Watanabe · Kotaro Isaka · Kazuo Inamori · Ito Ogawa · Aki Hamanaka · Nahoko Uehashi · Kanae Minato · Chizuko Ueno · Masahiro Imamura · Hirokazu Kore-eda · Takeshi Kitano · Ichiro Kishimi · Tatsuya Miyanishi
Xiron maintains long-term relationships with leading Japanese authors across these fields.
One title, one campaign
For Aoi Honoo 1+2, the autobiography of figure skater Yuzuru Hanyu, the campaign was built well ahead of the 2022 Winter Olympics: more than 100 KOLs featured the book, 13 major accounts recommended it to a combined readership of over 300,000, and the campaign period converted more than 65,000 copies sold. The two volumes have sold 680,000 copies in total.
Chinese titles reaching Japan
- 《国子监来了个女弟子》 (Guozijian Lai Le Ge Nü Dizi) — serialized exclusively from 2016 on Momo Romance (墨墨言情网), part of Xiron Literature, and adapted into a web drama of the same name. It aired on a Japanese television station in 2022.
- 《神医嫡女》 (Shenyi Dinü) — published from 2015 on Yiyun Academy (逸云书院). A manga adaptation and audiobook followed; the novel has been translated into several languages and screen rights have been contracted.
Film and IP
Xiron Entertainment is the group's film and television arm, active in development since 2013. The titles below are our partner's work, offered here as evidence of its production track record. Chinese titles are shown where no established English title exists.
| Production | Director and cast | Facts |
|---|---|---|
| Better Days (《少年的你》) | Derek Tsang; Zhou Dongyu, Jackson Yee | Released 2019. Eight wins from 19 nominations at the 39th Hong Kong Film Awards. Nominated for Best International Feature Film at the 93rd Academy Awards in 2021. Box office CNY 1.558 billion |
| I Belonged to You (《从你的全世界路过》) | Cast: Deng Chao, Zhang Tianai, Bai Baihe, Yang Yang, Yue Yunpeng | Released 2016. Golden Crane Award for Best Film, China Film Week, 30th Tokyo International Film Festival. Box office CNY 813 million |
| Wu Kong (《悟空传》) | Derek Kwok; Eddie Peng, Ni Ni | Released 2017. Best Visual Effects, 37th Hong Kong Film Awards |
| 《特战荣耀》 (Glory of Special Forces, series) | Xu Jizhou; Yang Yang, Li Yitong | Premiered 2022. Number one nationwide in real-time ratings across satellite and streaming; more than 2 billion views on Tencent Video |
| 《不会恋爱的我们》 (Japanese release title: Renai Dekinai Watashitachi, series) | Gao Congkai; Jin Chen, Wang Ziyi | Youku exclusive. Ranked first on the platform's drama influence chart |
In animation, Xiron Animation was established in Hangzhou in April 2018, and Xiron's manga and picture books have held the top market share in China for years.
What we provide
- Direct contact with Japanese publishers, literary agents and rights holders, with meetings and follow-up in Tokyo
- Rights negotiation, contract terms, and execution after signature
- Coordination of translation and localization: finding translators, checking proofs, adapting promotional materials
- Licensing and merchandising introductions for books, manga, animation, film and character IP
- Progress reporting and promotional coordination once a title is released in China
- Introducing Chinese titles and their rights holders to the Japanese market
Get in touch
For publishing, film and IP licensing enquiries, please write or call.