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2006 Japanese Manga Market Drops Below 500 Billion Yen

Sat, 2007-03-10 22:37
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topAccording to a report filed by The Research Institute for Publications, the total sales of domestic manga in Japan last year (2006) were 481 billion yen, a 4.2% decline from 2005. This is the first time ever sales of the manga market dropped below 500 billion yen.

The report says that tankoubon sales have been decreasing for the past two years, and that manga magazine sales have been decreasing 11 years in a row. The decline of manga magazine sales was especially noticeable, which indicates that the readers are moving away from the magazine field.

topJapan's domestic manga market has been gradually decreasing for the past 10 years. In 1996, the scale of the market was estimated to be 584.7 billion yen. After 10 years, the market has decreased by almost 20%. Last year, the size of the market has dropped under a symbolical number - 500 billion yen. This news should draw attention to the gradual reduction of the manga market.

The reasons behind the decline of the manga market could be attributed to the decline in the young adult/teen population Japan, and the movement away from the printed-book culture. Especially with the declining sales of manga magazines, which indicates a change in social trend where the younger generation's time is occupied by their cell phones.

Anime adaptations of manga have always been popular. Recently, many movies and TV series were adapted from popular manga title. Popular hit movies include Nana, Death Note, ALWAYS Sanchoume no Yuuhi, popular TV series include Nodame Cantabile and Boys Over Flowers. The interest for manga in Hollywood is increasing as well. Moreover, manga-based video products such as movies, anime and TV series are increasing in neighboring countries like Taiwan and Korea.

The manga market is one of the foundations of the Japanese entertainment culture; therefore, the weakening of the manga market should cause concern to those in the industry. Research Institute for Publication's February issue of Publishing Monthly Report featured an article "Comic market 2006," which offered an in-depth analysis of the situation.

Source: Anime!Anime!

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>.<

Submitted by NeoSam (not verified) on Sun, 2007-03-11 10:29.

Damn cellular phones >.<

Keep in mind...

Submitted by Matt Thorn (not verified) on Mon, 2007-03-12 12:30.

Sales of all commercial publications have been declining steadily in Japan over the past decade or so. The chunk of the whole pie that manga occupy (about 33% in terms of unit sales, 25% in terms of money paid) remains pretty much unchanged from what it was in 1990.
And, yeah, cell phones are undoubtedly the biggest culprit. People used to kill time on public transit reading magazines, including manga magazines, but today it's easier and cheaper to kill time on your cell phone. More fundamentally, though, new technologies are making people question the whole point of buying a print periodical they know they will be throwing away when they're done reading it.

Perhaps the print-form manga

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 2007-03-13 10:10.

Perhaps the print-form manga magazines are on the decline, but with new technologies, people are finding new ways to enjoy manga, like on the computer or on their cell phone. If taken other media forms into consideration, is manga as a whole really declining?

It's also interesting to note that in terms of cell phones, the U.S. is way behind Japan, people in Japan right now are browsing the web, reading manga, sending emails, chatting, etc. with their cell phone, while here Apple just announced their "revolutionary" iPhone.

Not far fetched to believe

Submitted by Vic (not verified) on Sun, 2007-03-25 06:26.

Cell phones in Japan are years ahead of anything we have here, and yes, even the iPhone. Web browsing, chatting, gps, built in key cards, etc etc. It's like having a laptop built into a phone. Wouldn't you be tinkering with your phone all day if you had a phone like that?

Nationwide VPN

I think the dxecline of

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 2007-11-15 01:30.

I think the dxecline of manga will become more of an issue in the future. Te advancement of high speed internet will cause this. http://best-t1-line.com

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