このページはフレーム対応ブラウザ用に作成されています。下のリンクは非フレーム使用ページですのでそちらをご覧ください。
この記事をプリントする
漫画の危機
携帯電話や本のリサイクルショップの登場で、漫画産業の市場は縮小を余儀なくされている。この形勢をばん回するために必要なのは…。
Between a rock and a hard place
When it seems the planet is inundated with Japanese manga, it's only natural to assume that manga publishers are at the peak of their profits, but the truth is that they are caught in a decade-long pinch. True, Japan remains the Hollywood of comic art, and any comics publisher anywhere else in the world would envy the readership and profits enjoyed by even a mid-sized manga publisher here. Even so, the manga industry is being steadily squeezed by new media on one side, and by what is euphemistically called "book recycling" on the other.
Manga have accounted for a huge slice of the publishing pie - about a third of all unit sales - ever since the late 1980s. But while manga retains its unrivaled place in the Japanese publishing world, sales of all print publications have been gradually declining since 1995. Why?
Ten years ago, you could step into a train car in Japan and expect to see no fewer than five or six people reading manga, and many more reading some other kind of book or magazine. Today you step into a train car, and while you still see some readers, what strikes you is the number of people who are using their cellphones to send and receive mail, or to surf the Internet. Advances in cellphone
and video-game technology, as well as the gradual spread of broad-band and the growing ubiquity of the Internet have dulled the shine that was once enjoyed by the medium of manga.
At the same time, the once benign field of used-book sales has transformed into a monster that threatens the very existence of the print publishing industry. Used-book shops traditionally specialized in the rare, obscure, and out-of-print, but today huge chains, such as BookOff, buy newly released books from early buyers who have finished reading them, and then re-sell them at a sizable discount to those who were willing to wait a few weeks. What could have been four sales of a new book is reduced to just one, which means both publisher and creator get a quarter of the profit.
With book "recyclers" unwilling to compromise (for example, by not selling books until six months after their original release date), it seems that nothing short of a change in copyright law can stop the flow of blood from this wound inflicted on the publishing industry.
On the other hand, even some manga artists and editors concede that part of the problem of declining sales may be internal. "If we would make manga that people want to keep on their shelves," says artist Takemiya Keiko, "maybe they wouldn't sell them to the recycling shops."
Shukan ST: Oct. 29, 2004
(C) All rights reserved
- Between a rock and a hard place
- 苦境に陥って
- the planet
- 地球のこと
- is inundated with 〜
- 〜でいっぱいになる
- assume
- 推測する
- publishers
- 出版社
- are at the peak of their profits
- 最高の利益を上げている
- the truth is that 〜
- 実は〜だ
- are caught in 〜
- 〜にとらわれている
- decade-long
- 10年に及ぶ
- pinch
- 危機
- Hollywood of comic art
- 漫画芸術の中心地
- envy
- うらやむ
- readership
- 読者数
- (is being)squeezed by 〜
- 〜に押されている
- euphemistically
- 遠回しに
- have accounted for 〜
- 〜を占めてきた
- a huge slice of 〜
- 〜の大きな部分
- publishing pie
- 出版界の総売上
- unit sales
- 販売総数
- unrivaled
- 他の追随を許さない
- no fewer than 〜
- 少なくとも〜
- what strikes you is 〜
- 印象に残るのは〜だ
- cellphones
- 携帯電話
- Advances
- 進歩
- ubiquity
- 普及
- have dulled
- にぶくした
- shine
- 輝き
- medium
- 媒体
- benign
- 害のない
- has transformed into 〜
- 〜に変身した
- threatens
- 危うくする
- very 〜
- 〜そのもの
- specialized in 〜
- 〜を専門とする
- the rare, obscure, and out-of-print
- 希少本、奇書、絶版本
- sizable
- かなり大きな
- What could have been four sales of a new book
- 新刊4冊に相当する売り上げ
- is reduced to just one
- 1冊分に減る
- creator
- 漫画家
- compromise
- 妥協する
- until six months after their original release date
- 初版の発売日以後6ヵ月
- nothing short of 〜 can stop 〜
- ほかならぬ〜でもなければ〜を止められない
- copyright law
- 著作権法
- wound
- 傷
- inflicted on 〜
- 〜が抱えた
- concede
- 認める
- internal
- 内部にある
- Takemiya Keiko
- 漫画家の竹宮恵子