Japan digital manga sales reach 527.3 billion yen as print drops

Japan's manga industry generated 527.3 billion yen from digital sales in 2025, OtakuKart reported citing figures from the Research Institute for Publications. The digital sector now accounts for more than 70 percent of the total manga market in the country. Meanwhile, print manga sales fell by 14 percent compared with the previous year. [1]

The news comes as traditional print publishing continues to lose ground to digital formats. OtakuKart cited reporting by Yomiuri Shimbun regarding the figures released by the Research Institute for Publications. [1]

Manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan, where the term refers to both comics and cartooning. Outside of Japan, the word typically refers to comics originally published in the country. As FTMQ Books reported earlier, digital editions, animated adaptations, and licensing have replaced print magazines and paperbacks as the main revenue sources for major Japanese publishers. Rapid expansion in manga app usage in Japan has been driven by widespread smartphone adoption, while print circulation for Weekly Shonen Jump has dropped from a peak of 6 million copies to under 1 million. [3][6]