Best Content Studios in Tokyo (2026)

Introduction

Tokyo’s content studios range from magazine publishers with their own creative teams to short-video specialists and bilingual B2B shops, and the 9 firms below cover that range. They were chosen for recent work, 2025 and 2026 recognition, and how directly they make content for brands or audiences.

Dentsu and Hakuhodo have long dominated the Japanese market, and both are represented here through a creative lab and a joint venture rather than their main agencies. Much of the recent recognition has gone to work that sits outside a standard campaign film. Whatever’s Silent Cleaning, a game made with Kao, won two ACC Golds in 2026. ONE MEDIA’s TikTok work for I-ne took the grand prix at the TikTok Ad Awards 2025 Japan, and Pacific Bridge Media & Consulting opened an in-house pitch and executive message video studio in May 2026.

Every firm here shows a Tokyo office or studio on a page we checked. The list is shorter than others in this series because we left out firms whose Tokyo office we could not confirm. It runs in no fixed order of merit, since the right choice depends on your brief, your audience and the format you need.

The best content studios in Tokyo

1. BuzzFeed Japan

Joint venture of BuzzFeed Inc., Asahi Shimbun, Asahi Broadcasting Group Holdings and ValueCommerce · Jingumae · buzzfeed.com/jp

BuzzFeed Japan is a publisher with an in-house editorial and video operation, based at WeWork the Iceberg in Jingumae. It runs four media brands in Japan: BuzzFeed, HuffPost Japan, Tasty and BuzzFeed KAWAii.

The output covers news, entertainment, cooking video and beauty content, which makes it most relevant to food, beauty and lifestyle briefs. It is primarily a publisher, so ask at the outset how advertiser work is scoped and labelled.

2. ONE MEDIA

Ownership not published · Hiroo · onemedia.jp

ONE MEDIA is a short-video specialist founded in June 2014 and led by CEO Gakuto Akashi. It works mainly on TikTok and YouTube, handling planning, casting, production and ad delivery together, and also offers vertical commercials and a podcast studio.

The company says it has made about 2,000 short video ads with 728 TikTok creators for 100 Japanese brands. Clients it names include Toyota, SoftBank, Microsoft Japan, Subaru and Morinaga Milk. Its TikTok work for I-ne’s YOLU brand won the grand prix at the TikTok Ad Awards 2025 Japan, and a Lotte Coolish short was a finalist at the YouTube Works Awards Japan 2025.

3. Custom Media

Ownership not published · Toranomon · custom-media.com

Custom Media is a bilingual B2B marketing and content agency founded in 2008, with between 10 and 49 staff. Its services run from editorial and custom publishing (annual reports, magazines) to video, social media and demand generation, and it publishes a report on content marketing in Japan.

Named case studies include Greenpeace, Nordson and Mori Building, the last a 16-year partnership. The firm suits technology, finance, manufacturing and energy companies that need content moving between Japan and overseas markets. It also reports two Campaign Asia Awards on its site.

4. Pacific Bridge Media & Consulting

Founder-led · Toranomon · pacificbridge.jp

Pacific Bridge was founded in June 2010 by journalist Toshi Maeda, who still leads it, and marked 15 years in December 2025. It applies news-reporting practice to corporate content, with multilingual video, editorial and graphic work alongside media relations and spokesperson training. It also runs JStories, a bilingual news platform on Japanese innovation, redesigned in April 2026.

Recent work includes product advertising for KDDI, interview video for SHIFT and a pitch video for Cancer Free BioTech. The in-house studio it launched in May 2026 focuses on pitch and executive message video, which suits founders and executives speaking to international audiences.

5. Spoon

Related to Spoon Holdings · Jingumae · spoon-inc.co.jp

Spoon is a film production company founded in 1988, with 42 staff at its office near Gaienmae station. It makes television commercials, web content and feature films, and its news page records an ACC Award in 2025 and a January 2026 item on 5 Centimeters per Second at the 49th Japan Academy Film Prize.

Recent work includes Suntory Kin-Mugi and Kewpie commercials, along with television and web content for the Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan. Spoon is film-led, so a brief that also needs articles or social management will need another partner.

6. Whatever

Ownership not published · Tokyo, with offices in New York, Taipei and Berlin · whatever.co

Whatever is a multidisciplinary creative studio whose output moves between games, apps, exhibitions and brand characters. Silent Cleaning, a horror cleaning game made with Kao using real cleaning products, won two ACC Golds at the 2026 ACC Tokyo Creativity Awards. Whatever handled its concept, design and full development.

Other recent projects include everies, an AR app built with Google’s Gemini (June 2026), rooms for the Mrs. GREEN APPLE 10th anniversary exhibition, and a redesign of the story and visuals of Crunchyroll’s mascot Hime. It is a better fit for one-off formats than for a regular publishing schedule.

7. Magazine House (MCS)

Publisher’s creative team · Ginza · magazineworld.jp

Magazine House publishes BRUTUS, Casa BRUTUS, POPEYE, anan, GINZA, Hanako and Tarzan, along with web magazines for each. MCS is its in-house creative team for corporate clients, and draws on that editorial base.

MCS covers magazine brand collaborations, product promotion, web and video production, corporate materials, events and communication planning. A collaboration with one of the titles can give a brand an existing readership as well as an editorial voice. Ask to see case studies for your sector, as the corporate pages we checked do not name clients.

8. Dentsu Lab Tokyo

Dentsu · Ginza · dentsulab.tokyo

Dentsu Lab Tokyo is Dentsu’s creative lab, which uses unexpected ideas and technology to design new relationships between companies, society and people. In 2025 it held its first exhibition, Technology Finds Love, and showed 20 prototypes at OPEN LAB 2025. It also publishes THE TECHNOLOGY REPORT, a research title.

Work listed on its site includes the Mrs. GREEN APPLE Wonder Museum, FANTOUCHIE (a generative AI that turns words into tactile sensations) and Immersed in Resonance, a launch event for a headphone brand. It suits brands looking for a technology-led piece of content and fits less well with high-volume production.

9. TBWA\HAKUHODO

Joint venture of Hakuhodo and TBWA Worldwide · Shibaura · tbwahakuhodo.co.jp

TBWA\HAKUHODO was established in 2006 and marked its 20th anniversary with a new vision called Three Disruptions. It won 15 awards at the 2026 ACC Awards, including three Grand Prix, and CHEER SIGNS and RADIO TIME MACHINE both won Gold at LIA 2026.

Its recent work includes Mission: SPACE COMIC, announced in October 2026, a project to send manga into orbit. The agency launched an in-house content studio called DISCO in 2019, covering planning, production and delivery. Its current site does not mention DISCO, so ask how content work is staffed today.

What to look for in a Tokyo content studio

Start with what the studio makes most often. A publisher’s creative team brings an editorial voice and an audience, a short-video specialist brings creators and platform knowledge, and a film company brings production craft. Tokyo has strong examples of each, and few firms cover all three at the same level.

Be clear about language and audience early. Much of the market works in Japanese for Japanese audiences, while a smaller group, such as Custom Media and Pacific Bridge, builds bilingual work for overseas readers. Ask who writes the English and who checks it, and whether translation or adaptation is included in the fee.

Check the rights before production starts. Casting is common in Japanese branded content, particularly on TikTok and YouTube, and the terms for talent, creators and music may limit where and for how long a piece can run. Reuse overseas or in paid media should be agreed in writing at the start.

Then look at how the studio runs a content schedule. A steady programme means many drafts, cut-downs and language versions moving between writers, editors and clients at once, so the review process matters as much as the first idea. Ask where the latest version lives, how comments are collected, and how approvals are recorded.

How Fabric helps content studio teams

Fabric gives a content team one workspace for footage, drafts, briefs and client feedback, with AI search across all of it. Studios running several client programmes can keep each one in its own space, and there is a page for content creation teams with more detail.

Video and image libraries sit in Fabric’s cloud drive, which streams files on demand so they take no local disk space. Uploaded interviews and YouTube links go through transcription and become searchable, with clickable timestamps. Search works by meaning across documents, images and transcribed recordings, so an editor can find a quote or a past shot from a description of it.

For review, share a file or folder with the client as a commenter. Shared links work without sign-up. Clients can leave timestamped comments on video and audio, draw on a video frame or an image and attach a comment, and highlight text in documents and PDFs, all described under annotations. The team then marks each comment completed, so feedback on a cut or an article works like a checklist. There is more on this in the review and approval workflow.

For planning, a folder can become a Kanban board whose cards are the files themselves, which suits a pipeline running from brief to draft to final. Finished work can be published as a web page, which is view-only, and link analytics shows when each named recipient opened a tracked link and how long they spent with it.

Link analytics is included on Pro and Team plans. See plans for teams.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best content studio in Tokyo?

The right studio depends on the format. On 2025 and 2026 recognition, Whatever won two ACC Golds in 2026 for Silent Cleaning, TBWA\HAKUHODO took three Grand Prix at the 2026 ACC Awards, and ONE MEDIA won the grand prix at the TikTok Ad Awards 2025 Japan for work with I-ne.

How is a content studio different from a video production company?

A content studio usually handles the idea, the format and often the publishing or distribution, across articles, social posts and video. A production company concentrates on making the film. Some firms do both, and Spoon appears here as a film-led example. For production specialists, see the best video production companies in Tokyo.

Do Tokyo publishers make content for brands?

Some do. Magazine House runs MCS, a creative team that handles magazine brand collaborations, product promotion, web and video production, and events for corporate clients.

Which Tokyo content studios work in English?

Custom Media describes itself as connecting Japan with the world and works in both languages for B2B clients. Pacific Bridge Media & Consulting produces multilingual video and editorial content and runs the bilingual news platform JStories. Whatever has offices in New York, Taipei and Berlin as well as Tokyo.

How should a brand review drafts with a content studio?

Keep comments on the file itself, in one place, so that nothing depends on an email thread. On a shared link in Fabric, a client with commenter access can leave timestamped comments on a video cut, draw on a frame and highlight text in a draft, and the team can mark each comment completed. Agree at the start who gives final approval, particularly where several departments or an overseas head office are involved.

Related lists

Content studios in other cities: New York · London · Los Angeles · Chicago · Toronto

More in Tokyo: Creative agencies · Video production · Social media agencies · Marketing agencies · Animation

Run your studio on Fabric: Fabric for creative teams · Content planning · Fabric for content marketing agencies