Taiwan has signed MOUs with a pair of publishers—Japan’s TOHAN Corporation and South Korea’s Contents Lab. Blue—to help Taiwanese webtoons break into the global market.

These long-term partnerships were signed with TAICCA (Taiwan Creative Content Agency), the country’s agency for promoting its entertainment industry. And they will see both publishers jointly develop, co-produce and sell comics and webtoons from Taiwanese creators around the world.

TOHAN is a leading publisher in Japan that showed its interest in Taiwanese comics by staging showcases with TAICCA earlier this year in Japan (August) and Thailand (September). Now TOHAN will take its involvement one step further by marketing and running more promotional events to promote Taiwanese titles internationally.

Meanwhile, Contents Lab. Blue is a webtoon studio that previously teamed up with TAICCA to co-produce webtoon adaptations of the novels The Perfect Way to Get Your Dog Back and C-Class Esper’s Memorandum. 

Both Japan’s and South Korea’s publishing industries are becoming more aware of the commercial appeal of Taiwanese comics, according to TOHAN and Contents Lab. Blue execs in a release from TAICCA. These two partnerships were signed last week at the Taiwan Creative Content Fest, an annual event designed to connect Taiwan’s industry with international buyers.

Digital comics that are designed to be scrolled through on smartphones, webtoons have exploded into a thriving global market. There’s already a sizable kids & family audience for this entertainment format—but in the last year, the industry has seen a surge of interest from kids companies looking to establish a presence in the webtoons market.

Disney recently bought a 2% stake in WEBTOON, a major platform hosting these comics, and the companies are also building a new platform where they will host more than 35,000 Disney titles. Plus, publisher Random House Children’s Books is starting its own line of print editions of webtoons aimed at kids and teens.

Pictured is TAICCA CEO Erica Wang with TOHAN senior executive director Seiki Ono.