Quantitative
Katana computes its metrics for every company.
- Net cash / total assets ≥ 0.3 (Nintendo: about 0.58)
- Equity ratio ≥ 60% (Nintendo: 77.6%)
- Operating margin ≥ 12%
AI screening example · run on October 16, 2026
Companies like Nintendo,
Companies like Nintendo,
across all of Japan.
We picked Nintendo as the reference and wrote what to compare in one sentence. Katana used Nintendo's financials to narrow ~3,800 Japanese stocks to 286, then AI read each annual report and found 12.
Background
A Mario movie earned $1 billion worldwide.
On August 6, 2026, Nintendo said The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, released worldwide in April, had passed $1 billion at the global box office, the second-highest total for a film based on a video game after its predecessor. Beyond Japan, North America and Europe, it drew audiences in Latin America and Asia-Oceania, and Nintendo said it gave people in regions where game consoles are not widespread their first contact with its characters.
Helped by the film, Nintendo's "IP related income" (film, smartphone in-app payments, royalties and merchandise) more than doubled year on year to ¥34.8 billion in April–June 2026. Overseas markets make up 77.9% of its sales, and a live-action The Legend of Zelda film is planned for 2027.
Which other Japanese companies earn worldwide from characters and games they own, as Nintendo does? We searched annual reports with Katana.
01 / Input
All we typed was this sentence.
Reference company: Nintendo (7974)
“A cash-rich balance sheet and high profit margins like Nintendo, and a business built on characters or content IP that it owns and monetizes worldwide”
02 / Conditions
Katana turns it into screening conditions.
Qualitative
AI reads each annual report and judges support and counterevidence.
- Does the company own commercially meaningful rights to characters or content that it monetizes, rather than relying solely on IP licensed from others?
- Does the company currently earn revenue from its owned characters or content IP in multiple overseas markets?
~3,800listed companies
286match the numbers
12supported by filings
Katana
read the filings and found 12 companies.
03 / Results
The 12 companies, and the evidence.
Each line summarizes the company's Japanese annual securities report. Only companies the AI judged as supported are listed.
-
Nintendo
The reference company itself: puts its Nintendo IP to work in amiibo, films and smartphone games for players worldwide.Filing ↗
-
Capcom
Invests in creating IP and in growing its global brand recognition.Filing ↗
-
Sanrio
Monetizes Sanrio characters worldwide and is widening its IP portfolio beyond Hello Kitty.Filing ↗
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Bandai Namco Holdings
Sees ample room to grow its IP business worldwide as Japanese IP gains fans globally.Filing ↗
-
Konami Group
Its own Metal Gear series topped 2 million units shipped worldwide; Yu-Gi-Oh! and eFootball also run globally.Filing ↗
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Square Enix Holdings
Is setting up a unit dedicated to global IP business to widen where it licenses its titles.Filing ↗
Show the other 6
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Koei Tecmo Holdings
Aims to get more out of its existing IP and to sell more in global markets.Filing ↗
-
NEXON
Owns its game IP and licenses it to publishers region by region for royalties.Filing ↗
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Toei Animation
Licenses its own anime across Asia, Europe and the Americas through overseas subsidiaries.Filing ↗
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ANYCOLOR
Designs its own VTuber characters (NIJISANJI) and runs the business in English-speaking markets and China as well as Japan.Filing ↗
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Nihon Falcom
Develops its own games and runs a dedicated licensing division.Filing ↗
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EXTREME
Has a segment built on the game and character IP it owns, including licensing.Filing ↗
04 / Takeaway
Among the 12 companies like Nintendo, Nintendo sits on the low-margin side.
We ranked the 12 supported companies by operating margin. P/E is based on the fiscal year-end share price.
| Company | Op. margin | Sales growth (3-yr CAGR) | P/E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nihon Falcom | 51.3% | 1.0% | 17.3x |
| Koei Tecmo | 42.0% | 4.1% | 12.2x |
| Sanrio | 40.1% | 38.8% | 21.6x |
| Capcom | 38.5% | 15.8% | 25.7x |
| ANYCOLOR | 36.2% | 30.0% | 11.9倍 |
| Toei Animation | 33.1% | 2.3% | 21.1x |
| Konami Group | 27.5% | 16.2% | 26.2x |
| NEXON | 26.1% | 10.3% | 33.4x |
| Square Enix | 18.4% | -4.6% | 30.5x |
| Nintendo | 15.6% | 13.0% | 24.1x |
| Bandai Namco | 14.1% | 10.8% | 17.8x |
| EXTREME | 12.2% | 10.2% | 6.6x |
More than 90% of Nintendo's sales come from its dedicated video game platform business, consoles and their software (¥483.0 billion of ¥517.8 billion in April–June 2026). Building and selling hardware pulls its margin below companies that earn from software or characters alone. Even after doubling on the film, IP related income is still only about 7% of sales.
The top of the list is made up of companies that make few physical goods. Nihon Falcom earns about 70% of its sales from its licensing division and has an operating margin of 51%. Sanrio licenses its characters to manufacturers worldwide, with about 1,160 licensees in Japan alone, including Uniqlo. Searching for companies like Nintendo turned up more companies with higher margins than Nintendo itself.
Are the higher-margin companies valued more highly? Not really. Nintendo trades at 24 times earnings. Koei Tecmo and ANYCOLOR, with more than twice Nintendo's margin, both trade at 12.
ANYCOLOR's sales grew 30% a year over three years, and its operating profit rose about fivefold in four years (from ¥4.2 billion to ¥20.2 billion). Its low P/E likely reflects how hard the VTuber business is to predict. In its annual report, the company names its reliance on YouTube and other third-party streaming platforms as a particularly important risk, and also lists popular VTubers pausing, facing backlash or not renewing their contracts.
Nintendo is the opposite. It has a huge fan base in Japan and abroad, and those fans buy the stock too. The better known a company is, the more popular its stock, and the price tends to run ahead of profits. A brand is no guarantee, though. Nintendo's operating margin fell from 36.4% in fiscal 2021 to 15.6% in fiscal 2026, the year it launched Switch 2, and its operating profit is nearly 30% lower than three years earlier (¥504.4 billion to ¥360.1 billion).
In One Up on Wall Street, Peter Lynch advised steering clear of the hottest stocks in the hottest industries. His ideal was a company growing earnings about 20–25% a year with a P/E below that growth rate. Among these 12, the one that looks closest on paper is not Nintendo, which everyone knows, but ANYCOLOR, whose future is seen as hard to read. Its P/E is low for a reason, though. Whether that worry holds up can be checked by following the numbers in its annual reports.
Operating margin, sales growth and P/E are full-year figures from each company's latest annual report. Fiscal years differ by company, and the figures do not indicate future sales or profit.
Your stock-picking, handed straight to AI.
Katana narrows companies with its own metrics, and AI reads annual reports to judge qualitative conditions. For complex theses and company profiles, the selection you used to do one company at a time, AI now runs across the Japanese market.
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