New Joint Venture to Market Japanese Manga & Anime

Four major publishers and the ani-goods marketer "Animate" agreed to pool talent and money to set up a new joint venture "Japan Manga Alliance" (JMA), it was reported September 1.

The new company will initially open a store in Bankok, Thailand, to win more  customers for Japanese manga contents already popular in Asia through the internet.

Japan Manga Alliance is headofficed in Itabashi, Tokyo, with capital of 496 million yen shared equally among the five firms participating in the venture, Kodansha, KADOKAWA, Shueisha and Animate. Director Shingo Kunieda of Animate is appointed president with four directors from the rest of the participating firms as directors.

Japan Manga Alliace will invest fully to a local subsidiary in Bankok and open its first store there by next spring. The store site is currently under survey and is expected to be 660 square meters or thereabouts.

The store will display manga books and anime software, character goods, etc. like Kodansha's "Attack on Titan", Shueisha's "ONE PIECE", Shogakukan's "Detective Conan" and other such popular manga items. The store will also arrange autograph sessions and talk shows.

Performance in Bankok will lead to further possible advance in the rest of the region. Pirated copies in Thailand are reported to double the authentic products and Japan Manga Alliance will step up countermeasures.

Director Knieda told the reporters that the new company would try to create an environment where customers could come in physical contact with the real products and feel out the quality of genuine work.

If the market for pirated copies is really double the regular versions in size, it should be somewhere around 15.5 billion yen. Japan Manga Alliance then has quite a market to challenge and, if succeeded, the company would be making substantial contribution toward enhancing Japan's manga culture.