Japanese manga industry is bigger than you think

The manga is getting really popular around the world especially in the west. However, the amount of popularity it has in Japan is much more than outside of japan. In fact, it is a bigger industry than the comic book industry of USA. For example, in 2018 The All Japan Magazine and Book Publisher’s & Editor’s Association stated that the Manga market was worth about US$3.96 billion while the comic industry worth Us $ 1.08 billion. Let's forget about 2018 and go back to 1996, That year the Shonen Jump magazine sold 6 million copies in one week. That is more than comic books sold in the United States in a whole year. At present, the mangas sell 16 times more than graphic novels in united states.

The main reason for this is that there is a huge diversity and unlike comic books, it not only targets teens and children but also adults and elderly. Most of the comics in America are about superheroes but in japan, there are different types of manga targeting pirates, ninjas, samurai, cooking, basketball, baseball, soccer, office etc. The mangas are also very cheap and can be sold everywhere even in restaurants. They are so huge that they make up to 40% of the sales in book stores all around Japan. The biggest manga publishers that stand out in japan are Kodansha, Shogakukan, and Shueisha. They take most of the profits and most popular manga like Shingeki no Kyojin and Boku no Hero Academia is published by these publishers.  Even though mangas weren't published in the west until the 70s. They slowly became popular thanks to classic anime like Dragon Ball, Astroboy and a couple of other award-winning ghibli movies which generated millions.