[2023.07.19] Tokyo Sports - Yuzuru Hanyu's economic impact during his first year as a professional skater was approximately 17.6 billion yen!

[yuzurujenn]

*Machine translation. Inaccuracies exist*

 

 

2023.07.19

 

Source: https://www.tokyo-sports.co.jp/articles/-/270082

Archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20230718222704/https://www.tokyo-sports.co.jp/articles/-/270082

 

Yuzuru Hanyu's economic impact during his first year as a professional skater was approximately 17.6 billion yen! Data analysis reveals his extraordinary presence.

 

What is this "extraordinary" presence? Yuzuru Hanyu (28), who achieved two consecutive Olympic gold medals in men's figure skating, marked one year since turning professional on the 19th. In February, he held "GIFT," the first solo concert by a skater in history at the Tokyo Dome, captivating many fans. To coincide with this milestone, this newspaper asked Associate Professor Shinya Kato of the Faculty of Economics at Yamaguchi University to calculate the economic impact. When we analyzed the data from his first year as a professional in collaboration with students from Professor Kato's seminar, we came across some astonishing figures.

 

Associate Professor Kato and eight of his seminar students spent 10 days analyzing the economic impact of Yuzuru Hanyu's professional debut year on Japan as a whole, from three perspectives: ice shows, commercials and advertisements, and books, magazines, and photo collections.

 

First, regarding ice shows. Ticket revenue, utilities, venue costs, personnel expenses, merchandise costs, sponsorship income, and other factors from the five productions (including solo shows) he participated in over the course of one year were carefully categorized under different conditions. For areas where precise figures were unavailable, estimates were made by comparing similar data. As a result, the total came to approximately 12.622 billion yen.

 

In commercials and advertising, the figures were also substantial, as expected. He was featured in 10 campaigns (including both short-term and long-term contracts) for companies such as major cosmetics brand KOSÉ. Assuming an annual contract fee of 100 million yen per commercial and a short-term (quarter-based) contract fee of 65 million yen per commercial, and adding sponsorship support, the estimate reached approximately 2.138 billion yen.

 

For books, magazines, and photo books, calculations were based on total sales over the two months following release. Adjustments were made to avoid overestimation, such as accounting for differences in the amount of content featured, but the total sales alone amounted to approximately 1.5 billion yen. Including personnel costs and related factors, the economic impact was estimated at approximately 2.863 billion yen.

 

Combining these three categories, the total economic impact that Hanyu brought to Japan in just one year was approximately 17.623 billion yen. Of this, it was estimated that Japan’s GDP was increased by about 9.405 billion yen, and employee income within Japan increased by about 4.449 billion yen.

 

One of the seminar students had predicted before the analysis that the figure would be somewhere around 10 billion yen or just under, but once the calculations were completed, it easily exceeded 10 billion yen. “Since the number of people who participate in figure skating is not very large, we initially had a rather pessimistic view. But once we conducted the analysis, the numbers didn’t come close to staying within 10 billion yen,” they said, expressing surprise.

 

This figure is truly exceptional for an individual. Considering that the economic impact information website "Economic Impact.NET" estimated the economic impact of J2 soccer team Vegalta Sendai, based in Hanyu's hometown of Miyagi, to be approximately 14.882 billion yen last season, Hanyu's figure is on a completely different level.

 

In response to these results, Associate Professor Kato commented, "While collecting the data, I was reminded that he is active in a wide range of fields, not just ice shows. Through this analysis, I realized that Hanyu's influence is still very strong." He then expressed his anticipation for his activities in his second year and beyond, saying, "There are ways to utilize social media and other platforms, but I would like to pay attention to how Hanyu's appeal will be conveyed in the future."

 

Having always shone in uncharted territory, what kind of world will Hanyu show us next?