This analyzes the impact of increasing cast size on ticket prices in Japanese 2.5-dimensional musicals from a cultural economics perspective.
2.5-dimensional musicals are three-dimensional stage content based on Japanese two-dimensional manga, anime, and games. Initially, the main audience was young people in their 20s, but now support has spread to a wide range of age groups.According to Pia Research Institute, the market size in 2023 reached 283 billion yen with annual attendance of 289 million people, showing continuous growth.
This research is based on the important theory of "Baumol's cost disease" in the economics of performing arts.Baumol and Bowen (1966) discovered that labor costs constitute the majority of performing arts costs, and Baumol (1967) theorized that in contrast to manufacturing where technological progress is realized, productivity improvements are difficult to expect in performing arts, leading to rising costs and wages in these industries - a phenomenon he called "Baumol's cost disease."On the other hand, Cowen (1996) argued that innovation exists in performing arts and can overcome the cost disease, continuing the debate about the possibility of productivity improvements in performing arts.
This paper assumes the 2.5-dimensional musical market as a monopolistically competitive market and constructs a model where each performer sets ticket prices based on the "elasticity rule" (where the price-cost margin equals the inverse of the price elasticity of demand).This model also incorporates elements of productivity improvement, empirically examining the relationship between cast size and ticket prices.
The analysis found that in Japanese 2.5-dimensional musicals, increasing cast size tends to lead to higher ticket prices.This suggests that the high proportion of labor costs in performing arts and the increased production costs from larger casts are being passed on to prices.However, at the same time, the continuous growth of the 2.5-dimensional musical market suggests the possibility of some form of innovation, such as the use of digital technology or introduction of new staging methods.
The article concludes that in the uniquely Japanese cultural industry of 2.5-dimensional musicals, the cost structure problems faced by traditional performing arts coexist with the possibility of innovation supporting market growth, as demonstrated empirically.