‘Like family’: Japan’s virtual YouTubers make millions from fans

Iizuka, a virtual YouTuber who voices and animates a character called Yume Kotobuki, posing before a livestream at a studio in Tokyo. Virtual YouTubers have transformed a niche Japanese subculture into a thriving industry where top accounts can rake in more than a million dollars a year. — AFP

TOKYO: Mayu Iizuka sheds her soft-spoken personality and starts cackling, screaming and waving wildly in a makeshift studio in Tokyo as her avatar appears on a livestream before hundreds of fans.

Virtual YouTubers like Iizuka, who voices and animates a character called Yume Kotobuki, have transformed a niche Japanese subculture into a thriving industry where top accounts can rake in more than a million dollars a year.