From webtoons and K-Pop to cross-regional licensing and generational trend data, this year’s International Kids Licensing & Media Days in Bologna places Asia at the centre of the licensing and content debate.
The 6th edition of the International Kids Licensing & Media Days (IKLMD), taking place 13–15 April 2026 at the Bologna Licensing Trade Fair/Kids, devotes substantial programming to Asia’s creative industries, in terms of generating formats, aesthetics, and consumer behaviours that are actively reshaping what Western children want, and what the industry needs to provide.
Understanding this shift is not a matter of cultural curiosity. It is, increasingly, a matter of commercial survival.
A Dialogue Whose Terms Have Changed
The IKLMD’s Tuesday programme, on April 14, themed around new licensing trends, opens with a panel titled Asian Influences on Western Markets. Senior professionals as Noletta Chiu and Alicia Liu will share how cultural and commercial influence from Asia is evolving across European and international markets, as a current reality in need of professional navigation.
This is then extended by a panel explicitly framed as a two-way commercial corridor: Dialogue and Business Opportunities from Europe to Asia and Back. Featuring licensing executives from Studio 100 International, DeAPlaneta Entertainment, BeQ Entertainment and Jimmy Liao Spa, the session addresses both directions of travel — what European brands can unlock in Asian markets, and what scouting strategies can identify the best partnerships moving in the other direction.
Webtoons: A Format That Could Rewrite the Global Comics Industry
Of all the Asia-originating formats discussed at the IKLMD, webtoons deserve the closest attention from Western content and licensing professionals. The session, moderated by Kanji Kazahaya of Culture Connect Co., brings together a Japanese studio founder, Jun Mitani, President and CEO at Hiraku Studio, and a French webtoon expert, Sébastien Celimon, to explore a format that is simultaneously familiar and alien to European sensibilities.
Originating in South Korea, where the webtoon industry has developed as a studio-driven entertainment sector structurally similar to animation production, webtoons have expanded into Japan with a different dynamic — one shaped by that country’s deep cultural respect for individual manga creators. The result is a production model that the session in Bologna shares meaningful parallels with European comics traditions, which, like Japanese manga, differ substantially from the large-team American approach. This is not a peripheral observation. It is a potential foundation for collaboration.
The session goes further. It argues that with the rapid progress of generative AI, creators may be better positioned than ever to protect their copyrights while expanding webtoons into vertical short-form animation — a format whose explosive growth on mobile platforms needs no introduction to any Western digital content professional. For European publishers, comics houses, and licensing executives, the webtoon panel at IKLMD 2026 is an invitation to co-author what comes next.
The Data Underneath the Culture: What Children’s Habits Actually Show
Intuitions about cultural influence are useful. The panel presented by The Insights Family — a leading research organisation tracking children’s media habits globally — provides a backbone for the influences of Asian trends globally. VP of Research Solutions Adam Woodgate will present a forecast of trends, covering changing habits, media consumption patterns, and cultural influences shaping the next generation.
The panel will discuss a generation of children whose tastes and behaviours are shaped by global exchange rather than regional borders — and, within that exchange, the growing influence of J-Pop and K-Pop is explicitly identified as a key force. They are now comprehensive cultural ecosystems, producing character IP, fashion, gaming content, fan communities, and consumer products at a scale and pace that few Western entertainment properties can match. The licensing implications are considerable: any brand strategy that ignores the cultural vocabulary these fandoms have created is speaking to only part of the audience it aims to reach.
Bologna is the Place to Be to Understand Asian Trends
The most important licensing and content conversations of the next five years will not be conducted within regional silos, but across them. In April, Bologna is where that thinking has one of its most important statements in the Western region.
Click here to check the full International Kids Licensing & Media Days Conference programme.
