Prime time TV around 1900-2000 pm in Japan usually slotted for anime for decades. Here is where all those long, long popular mainstream animes like One Piece, Inuyasha etc aired in prime time Japan. However the station broadcast has terminated the anime prime time slot, changing shows even like popular Detective Conan to different time. Citing lack of targeted audience for such shows, it is also indicative of Japanese population issue, simply they are running out of young people to get normalcy going. At the peak, TV stations compete with each other for quality anime prime time series which captures 20 percent of viewership but as latest research shows it dwindled to 6.9 percent in 2005 in one sample study. Besides the population issue, another cited reason is diversification of entertainment for the young: games, PC etc.
A sign of things to come? Less anime in near future is a very real possibility. Time will tell.
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