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Japan's Publishing Market Sees 1st Overall Sales Decrease in 4 Years

The All Japan Magazine and Book Publisher's and Editor's Association (AJPEA) revealed on Wednesday its report on the publishing industry in Japan in 2022. The publishing market as a whole declined 2.6% in 2022 to a total market value of 1.6305 trillion yen (about US$12.59 billion).

The digital market rose 7.5% to 501.3 billion yen (about US$3.87 billion), and the print market decreased 6.5% to 1.1292 trillion yen (about US$8.72 billion). Digital publications currently take up 30.7% of the market share.

Compared to the pre-pandemic year of 2019, the overall market rose by 5.7% in 2022. The print market decreased by 8.6%, and the digital market rose by 63.2%.

The overall publishing market saw increases in 2019 through 2021, before this decrease in 2022.

In the print market, books saw a 4.5% decrease, and periodicals saw a 9.1% decrease. The category of monthly print periodicals (which includes manga volumes and "mooks" - magazine books) decreased by 9.7%, and weekly print periodicals decreased by 5.7%. The decline in monthly periodicals sales was largely attributed to a double-digit decline in manga volume sales.

In the digital market, digital comics sales continue to rise. Sales rose 8.9% to 447.9 billion yen (about US$3.46 billion) in 2022. Digital comics sales make up 89.3% of the digital publishing market. Digital comics sales have also more than quintupled since 2014.

APJEA will release its report on the manga industry in 2022 on February 25.

Source: Hon.jp