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Weekly Shonen Magazine's Digital Manga Raised 1,913,367 Yen For Charity
posted on by Chris Nishijima
Last year marked the 55th anniversary of Kodansha's Weekly Shōnen Magazine. To celebrate its long run as one of Japan's most popular shonen manga magazines, the staff's editorial department held a special charity campaign. Titled "Kifuyomi," the campaign was designed to help raise money for areas that had been heavily damaged during the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.
Between the dates of June 27 and September 4, each time a reader downloaded a digital volume of one of the many manga serialized in the magazine from a participating online e-book retailer, the staff of Weekly Shōnen Magazine donated 55 sen (0.55 yen), in accordance with it being the magazine's 55th year in print. In order to make downloading digital manga more appealing, Weekly Shōnen Magazine put up two new volumes of manga for free download each week during the campaign.
In total, the campaign was able to raise 1,913,367 yen (about US $15,880.54) to aid areas in the Iwate, Fukushima, and Miyagi prefectures that are still suffering from the effects of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. The funds raised were distributed evenly for a sum of 637,789 yen (about US $5,293.51) for each of the three prefectures, and were officially donated to the respective prefectural governments on November 11.
Some of the most popular series currently being serialized in Weekly Shōnen Magazine include Fairy Tail, The Seven Deadly Sins, and Hajime no Ippo.
[Via Anime Anime and Comic Natalie. Image from Action Japan.]
