It should be remembered that people are always confused about anime in general. In Japan, anime is considered to be any form of art that may be done not only in Japan but also in various parts of the globe. There may be a lot of dictionaries that would state anime as art created in Japan but it may be different depending on whoever is looking at it.
There are some people who feel that they can already create “anime” but there will always be some differences that should be noted. Anime’s popularity all over the world cannot be denied and it can be defined by people in different ways depending on what they think about it.
This is actually a funny answer as it is both yes and no. In Japan, anime can be any kind of animated material but outside of Japan anime is considered to be only animated media that is from Japan. Generally unless you live in Japan, then yes anime is only for animated material from Japan.
Anime is often defined more by the exciting characters, often underlying themes and eye catching animation with bright colors and fantasy worlds. The earliest Japanese animation was all the way back in 1917.