ANN reports that a special sales campaign called the "I Love Fujoshi Fair" will take place on Wednesday in over 3,000 bookstores across Japan. The campaign's purpose is to promote two fujoshi works: Tonari no 801 chan by Ajiko Kojima and Fujoshi Kanojo (novel) by Petanbu:

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Mediation will be launching a new manga magazine on May 12th. The new magazine, titled Hug, is a BL manga magazine aimed at the adult Otome (maiden).

The first issue of Moe☆Star, a bi-monthly Moe comic-illustration magazine that serializes comics and novels, was released by Mirai Shounen on April 20th.

According to Dengeki Online, Alchemist will be starting a new web delivery light novel magazine titled Shounen Alchemist. Light novels will be serialized weekly on Shounen Alchemist's website and will be available to read free of charge. Shounen Alchemist is scheduled to start on May 1, 2007.

Alchemist originally announced Shounen Alchemist on April 1st, and the news was thought to be an April fools joke.

According to Japan Times, Foreign Minister Taro Aso is urging French Presidential Candidate Segolene Royal, who view manga as being violent and pornographic, to read manga:

As the French presidential election campaign enters its last days, Foreign Minister Taro Aso gave advice to one of the highest-profile candidates in the race: Read more Japanese comics.

Via: Precocious Curmudgeon

Manga Jouhou translates an article from IT Media titled "Should Copyrights be Changed for Industries, such as Rakugo, Doujinshi and Software?" that looks at the issue of how copyright should be handled differs depending on the type of the industry.

In past years the manga magazine market in Japan has experienced a rapid decline, what will be the consequence of this trend? After watching Naoki Urasawa's talk on NHK's "Professional: Styles of Work" series, the author of the Japanese manga blog Mandana Tsushin Blog (Manga Bookshelf Transmissions) was surprise by Urasawa's nervous attitude toward fans' reaction at the sudden ending of 20th Century Boy, and published an article on the current manga magazine scene, how it affects a magazine's serializations, and what the future may hold for the market. Below a portion of the article that takes a look at the mange magazine scene in Japan:

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Yamamoto Kenji's manga Chaotic RunES will be going on hiatus in the June issue of Akita Shoten's Champion Red. According to Champion Red's Editorial Department, Yamamoto Kenji was forced to stop drawing due to his rapidly deteriorating eyesight that has left him almost blind. Below is part of a letter from Champion Red's Editorial Department:

The author Kenji Yamamoto is rapidly losing his eyesight, currently his eyes cannot even recognize objects. According to his doctor, Yamamoto has ablatio retinae caused by intraocular hemorrhage, and so the Editorial Department has determined it impossible for him to continue drawing.

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Two new series will be starting in the upcoming issues of Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump:

Jump Issue 24:
- Boku no Watashi no Yushi Gaku by Shuichi Aso

Jump Issue 25:
- Hitomi no Catobelpas by Tanaka Yasunori

Source: Weekly Jump

The official site for Futabasha's shoujo manga magazine Comic High! has opened at www.comichigh.jp. Comic High! is a shoujo manga magazine aimed at males, genres like moe, yuri, youth, yaoi, fantasy, heartful and gag are all included in this magazine.