Analysts offer different reasons for drop in revenue, decrease in number of manga magazines sold.
Figures released by Japan’s Research Institute of Publications show that sales of manga in Japan fell to Y481 billiion (US$4.1 billion) in 2006, a decrease of 4% from the previous year. This marks the fifth straight year of dropping sales. The number of volumes of manga magazines sold in the country stands at 754 million, from a 1995 high of 1.34 billion copies.
Japanese and American researchers are proposing several explanations for the drop in sales and readership numbers. These include an overall decrease in the percentage of young people in Japan, simple lack of interest in reading, and, according to manga critic and translator Matt Thorn, a growing dissatisfaction with the lack of originality found in many manga. At the same time, as the Reseach Institute for Publications also found, sales of manga for cellphones are rising, reaching Y4.6 billion (US$39 million) in 2005 and as much as twice that last year.
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