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Japan’s Digital Manga Market Grew by 28% Last Year

Last week I reported that the Japanese book publishing industry’s revenues dropped around 4% in 2016, but the news was slightly better for manga publishers.

Anime News Network reports that manga sales were essentially flat in 2016, increasing by only a fraction of a percent:

The All Japan Magazine and Book Publisher’s and Editor’s Association (AJPEA) released a report on February 24 that estimated that the combined physical and digital sales of the manga industry in Japan amounted to 445.4 billion yen (about US$3.91 billion) in 2016, a 0.4% growth compared to the previous year’s 443.7 billion yen (about US$3.89 billion). The combined sales of both physical and digital approach 2008’s 448.3 billion yen (about US$3.93 billion) total.

Sales of print manga volumes amounted to 194.7 billion yen (about US$1.71 billion) in 2016, a 7.4% decrease from the previous year, while sales of manga magazines amounted to 101.6 billion yen (about US$892 million), a 12.9% decrease from the previous year. The combined 296.3 billion yen (about US$2.60 billion) total of print sales of manga from both compiled book volumes and magazines saw a 9.3% decrease from last year. This the 15th year in a row to mark a decline in sales for manga’s print market. The print-only market is now about half of what it was in the mid-1990s.

However, sales of digital manga volumes amounted to 146 billion yen (about US$1.28 billion), a 27.1% increase from the previous year, while sales of digital manga magazines amounted to 3.1 billion yen (about US$27.24 million), a 55% increase from the previous year. The combined 149.1 billion yen (about US$1.31 billion) total of digital sales of manga from both compiled book volumes and magazines saw a 27.5% increase from last year.

To be clear, the manga sales mentioned above were not reflected in last week’s data on ebook, magazine, and print sales. This is a different category, and when added to last week’s data we find that the Japanese  publishing industry’s 2016 sales reached 1.6618 trillion yen, or about $14.8 billion USD.

image y Sjors Provoost

 

 

 

 

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[…] Och i Japan ökar försäljningen av digitala mangaserier starkt. […]


David Cyze September 27, 2017 um 8:23 am

So, if we include digital manga sales in total eBook sales, did the market grow by > 20%?


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