The size of the publishing market in Japan amounted to 1.6 trillion Japanese yen in 2023, which made it one of the largest publishing markets in the world. One factor underpinning the popularity of products such as books and comics is the country’s high literacy rate, which is partly a result of the emphasis on rote learning and the acquisition of Japan’s unique writing system in compulsory school education. Although print continues to make up the lion’s share of the market, the sales value of printed publications has declined steadily for many years, while digital publications have expanded their market share. This divergence between the growth trajectories of traditional media and internet-based media can also be observed in other parts of the
Manga are an important part of the market
One noteworthy aspect of the Japanese publishing market is that the
manga industry accounts for more than one third of the total sales generated within the market. In recent years, a considerable number of
manga apps have sprung up that cater to consumers, which has spurred on the competition between services. One notable trend in this area are vertical scrolling comics, which contributed to an expansion of the user base. The growing adoption of online services resulted in digital comics overtaking the combined sales value of printed comic books and magazines for the first time in 2019. In 2020, the manga market saw explosive growth because of the COVID-19 pandemic, which increased the demand for entertainment as people spent more time at home. While printed manga books profited significantly from this development, this was not the case for printed manga magazines, which continued to decline.
The current state of digital publishing
Survey figures show that
about one-fifth of mobile device users read paid e-books, which in this case also included digital manga and magazines. As a
breakdown of the publishing market by segment shows, comics play an even bigger role in the digital market than in the print market. Comics are the only digital segment that showed consistent growth in recent years. Companies active in the digital comic market not only engage in campaigns and book fairs to advertise their products, but also produce original titles and use media mix strategies. It has also been observed that
social media can play an important role in pushing the sales of specific titles. The competition between stores means that there is a wide variety of services for consumers to choose from, and there is a strong tendency among price-conscious users to migrate between different stores in search of the best offering.
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