Hot properties: Japan Today examines that country's "character business," the growing industry based on the licensing of video game, anime and manga properties:

"Japan's character business market matured in the 1990s. According to Character Databank, Ltd, a consulting firm for the Japanese character business market, domestic retail sales between 1996 and 1999 surged from 1.65 trillion yen to 2.07 trillion yen. To some extent this was essentially a bubble era that slimmed down in 2000. Character Databank's representative director, Kazuo Rikukawa remains optimistic, 'Since the start of 2003 the market has been on the rebound.'"