Japanese Manga Industry

Manga, as a term originally put forward in Japan, refers to comic and anime especially the Japanese ones. Even though it is a Japanese word, it has become a word that is recognized around the world. Manga is typically printed in black-and-white pictures. Manga is actually a key ingredient to Japanese cultural export. The current global broadcast anime more than 60 percent comes from Japan, the higher ratio in Europe, reaching more than 80% (1). Its Manga has been translated into French, German, English, Korean, Spanish, Chinese, Italian, etc. It is really hard to find somebody now days that hasn’t heard of Dragon Ball, Naruto, Slam Dunk, Pokemon, or One Piece. Besides that, Japanese anime culture has brought huge foreign exchange earnings, has become the third pillar industry in Japan. According to John O’Donnell, Managing Director of Central Park Media, the retail sales alone of Manga books just in the U.S. is estimated to be more than $500 million. He adds, "Looks like about 15-20% growth this year, in total. Should stay in the double digits for the next two years (2). In total, its global network is worth billions. The industry of Manga plays a key role in Japan’s economy and it has become a sensation that attracted millions of readers across the world. Although Japanese manga business becomes worldwide, manga publishing is struggling due to those reasons such as dropping sale and pirated online.

During the 1990’s the Manga market shrunk noticeably. Sales of Manga magazines dropped from 1.34 billion in 1993 to 1.04 billion in the year 2000 (3). Sales dropped by the hundred of million Japanese Yuan every year. This is due to a couple of reasons. First, as many Manga were transmitted into the TV Screen, many readers of Manga became viewers of Anime, cutting expenses on buying Comic books. The second reason that leads to this was the change in the composition of population in Japan. Records show that the number of babies born in 1985 was about 1.43 million. This...