RPT-UPDATE 2-Disney takes Lilo and Stitch from Hawaii to Japan

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By Yoko Kubota

TOKYO, March 6 (Reuters) - Having caused mayhem in their home islands of Hawaii, Walt Disney Co's (DIS.N) cartoon TV show characters "Lilo and Stitch" are about to land in Japan, with the U.S. company planning a Japanese version of the show in a hunt for more Asian viewers.

In another move to tap Japan's $2.5 billion anime industry, Walt Disney Japan said it also planned to team up with animation producer Toei Animation Co Ltd (4816.Q), the maker of Dragonball Z, to make a robot adventure using computer graphics that will air in Japan this year.

News of that deal sent shares of Toei up 3.2 percent, outperforming a 1.9 percent rise in the benchmark Nikkei .N225.

Disney would team up with Japanese animation company Madhouse Ltd to produce "Stitch!", a version of the animated TV show set in Japan, a Walt Disney Japan spokeswoman said.

"Japan is an important market with a huge Disney following, especially because we have a Disney resort here," she said, referring to a Tokyo complex that includes Tokyo Disneyland.

The Disney show, about the adventures of a girl named Lilo and a blue alien called Stitch, will go on air in October on the Japanese edition of Disney's pay television channel.

That channel reaches 3.5 million households in Japan, part of a network across Asia that has a reach of 380 million, including in India and Australia, that dwarfs Disney's 95-million-strong pay TV reach in North America.

While Disney has sought partners in Japan, it does not plan acquisitions at this point, the local unit's spokeswoman said.

Disney Channel Worldwide's entertainment president, Gary Marsh, told Reuters last month that the company aimed to form creative teams around Asia to come up with local content that could then be fed to a global audience. [ID:nS21154721]

Disney has already localised some TV series, including one that began in Italy and now has versions running in Britain, the United States and Australia.

The company last month reached a deal worth around $200 million to raise its holding in Indian movie and TV show maker UTV (UTVS.BO) to 32.1 percent. ($1=103.86 Yen) (Additional reporting by Edwina Gibbs; Editing by Hugh Lawson)