Starting New Manga Magazines in China
Aiko Komai wrote in the Yomiuri Shimbun: “Kodansha and a local corporation in southern China established a joint publishing company to produce a manga magazine. Called Jin Manhua, the magazine features original stories drawn by local mangaka. Yoshiba said the magazine was launched in response to "tight restrictions on publishing Japanese manga abroad." [Source: Aiko Komai, Yomiuri Shimbun, October 19, 2012]
A dozen Kodansha staff were transferred to a Beijing office to teach Chinese mangaka Japanese editing style, which involves collaboration between mangaka and editors to develop storylines. Kodansha is also looking for talent in China by holding manga contests. An all-color comic magazine, Jin Manhua, is priced at 8 yuan (about $1.10) with a normal circulation of 300,000 copies. While the magazine operates in the red, Kodansha aims to create business opportunities by commercializing manga character goods or publishing comic books of individual series. [Ibid]
Elsewhere in China, Kadokawa Group Holdings Inc. established a joint venture company with a publishing group in Hunan Province for a monthly comic magazine Tian Man in September 2011. Tezuka Productions collaborated with a Beijing publisher to launch a monthly magazine that is 80 percent Osamu Tezuka works and 20 percent local manga. [Ibid]
Manga researcher Haruyuki Nakano says the trend has spread due to the limitations of the Japanese manga market in China. "Localization is an inseparable part of expanding business overseas. The Japanese manga industry is in a position to export not only the content, but the culture of manga itself," Nakano said. [Ibid]
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