{"id":27239,"date":"2024-02-15T16:18:44","date_gmt":"2024-02-15T07:18:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=27239"},"modified":"2024-02-15T16:18:45","modified_gmt":"2024-02-15T07:18:45","slug":"20240215-27239","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20240215-27239\/","title":{"rendered":"Veteran manga artist exposes exploitative industry practices that are \u201cstrangling\u201d Japanese mangaka\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Veteran Japanese manga artist Mayu Shinjo recently published an article describing \u201cthe biggest problem of Japan\u2019s manga industry,\u201d calling to attention the growing exploitation of mangaka by large corporations coupled with consistently low royalties. The post was prompted by the recent suicide of mangaka Ashihara Hinako. Ashihara is believed to have had her rights as an original creator disregarded by parties involved in a live-action adaptation of her work, and the controversy around the incident is still ongoing.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"ja\" dir=\"ltr\">\u66f8\u304d\u4e0a\u3052\u305f\u306f\u3044\u3044\u3051\u3069\u3001\u305a\u3063\u3068\u6295\u7a3f\u3067\u304d\u305a\u306b\u3044\u305f\u3001\u6f2b\u753b\u696d\u754c\u6700\u5927\u306e\u554f\u984c\u304b\u3082\u3057\u308c\u306a\u3044\u90e8\u5206\u306b\u63d0\u8a00\u3057\u307e\u3057\u305f\u3002\u73fe\u72b6\u3092\u77e5\u3063\u3066\u3082\u3089\u3063\u3066\u3001\u4e00\u4eba\u4e00\u4eba\u304c\u5909\u308f\u3089\u306a\u304d\u3083\u3044\u3051\u306a\u3044\u6642\u4ee3\u306a\u3093\u3060\u3068\u2026\u4eca\u56de\u306e\u4ef6\u3067\u6539\u3081\u3066\u5927\u4f01\u696d\u306e\u5909\u308f\u3089\u306a\u3044\u4f53\u5236\u306b\u306f\u8f9f\u6613\u3057\u307e\u3057\u305f\u3002\u662f\u975e\u8aad\u3093\u3067\u307f\u3066\u304f\u3060\u3055\u3044\u3002\u2026<\/p>&mdash; \u65b0\u689d\u307e\u3086@\u300e\u8679\u8272\u306e\u9f8d\u306f\u5973\u795e\u3092\u62b1\u304f\u300f\u9023\u8f09\u4e2d! (@shinjomayu) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/shinjomayu\/status\/1757622214437072975?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 14, 2024<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Post translation:<\/strong> <em>I wrote this a while ago but was unable to post it&#8230;It\u2019s about what I consider to be the biggest problem of the manga industry. I think we need to raise awareness of the current situation and &nbsp;make change happen on an individual level&#8230;With what happened recently, I\u2019ve grown sick of the unchanging system imposed by large corporations. Please read this. The age of manga artists being exploited by publishers has begun.<\/em>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mayu Shinjo is a sh\u014djo\/erotic manga artist that has been active since 1994. She used to write for Shogakukan (one of Japan\u2019s major publishing houses) but she ultimately left the company to go freelance due to increasingly unfavorable working conditions. In her recent viral post, published February 14, she gives a detailed explanation of the reality facing manga artists , who, as she describes, \u201care being strangled by bad (business) traditions.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the major points Shinjo brings up is royalties \u2013 for print manga, artists have been receiving a standard 10% throughout the years. This low rate was excused by the need to involve various parties such as editors, typesetters, printing companies, retail mediators, retailers, and warehouse management companies in order deliver manga to readers. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, as Shinjo notes, even with the advent of digital manga publications, royalties to the manga artist have remained extremely low \u2013 most often at 15%, in rare cases at 20%. This is despite most of the in-between companies being out of the picture and the publisher having far less responsibility in the process than with print manga.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"460\" height=\"652\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 460px) 100vw, 460px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/20240215-27239-001.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-27244\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/20240215-27239-001.png 460w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/20240215-27239-001-268x380.png 268w\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Mayu Shinjo&#8217;s currently ongoing manga Nijiiro no Ryuu wa Megami wo Daku<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Shinjo also mentions some personal experiences that indicate publishers\u2019 attitudes toward mangaka. After leaving Shogakukan and refusing demands to give up the rights to her works, Shinjo attempted to negotiate with her e-book distributor directly to have her manga published and offered at a higher price. However, when Shogakukan learned of this, they attempted to threaten the distributor, pressuring them not to accept the deal. At the time, e-book distributors were dependent on publishing companies, putting them in a disadvantageous position.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This has changed in the meantime, with publishers increasingly depending on e-book distributors to agree to host their titles, but publishers continue to take the biggest percentage of the royalties. Shinjo mentions that more and more authors are raising complaints about the low rates they receive, but that publishers do not listen, maintaining an \u201ceveryone gets that much\u201d attitude.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Moreover, it is common for professional manga artists to rent studios and hire assistants for their work, but according to Shinjo, this is paid by the artists themselves in most cases, meaning that their already low income is slashed even further by the expenses.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shinjo finishes her article by appealing to manga artists to question publishers about royalties, to ask for break-downs of percentages, and negotiate to have publishers cover assistant fees.&nbsp; She pleads for creators to help protect the mangaka profession and not let themselves be exploited.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Prompted by the recent suicide of manga artist Ashihara Hinako, one industry veteran revealed the biggest problems facing mangaka in Japan, including low incomes and exploitative behavior by publishers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":27243,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,65],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-27239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-nongaming-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Veteran manga artist exposes exploitative industry practices that are \u201cstrangling\u201d Japanese mangaka\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Prompted by the recent suicide of manga artist Ashihara Hinako, one industry veteran revealed the biggest problems facing mangaka in Japan, including low incomes and exploitative behavior by publishers.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20240215-27239\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Veteran manga artist exposes exploitative industry practices that are \u201cstrangling\u201d Japanese mangaka\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Prompted by the recent suicide of manga artist Ashihara Hinako, one industry veteran revealed the biggest problems facing mangaka in Japan, including low incomes and exploitative behavior by publishers.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20240215-27239\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-02-15T07:18:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-02-15T07:18:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/20240215-27239-header.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1398\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1073\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Amber V\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Amber V\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Veteran manga artist exposes exploitative industry practices that are \u201cstrangling\u201d Japanese mangaka\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST","description":"Prompted by the recent suicide of manga artist Ashihara Hinako, one industry veteran revealed the biggest problems facing mangaka in Japan, including low incomes and exploitative behavior by publishers.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20240215-27239\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Veteran manga artist exposes exploitative industry practices that are \u201cstrangling\u201d Japanese mangaka\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST","og_description":"Prompted by the recent suicide of manga artist Ashihara Hinako, one industry veteran revealed the biggest problems facing mangaka in Japan, including low incomes and exploitative behavior by publishers.","og_url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20240215-27239\/","og_site_name":"AUTOMATON WEST","article_published_time":"2024-02-15T07:18:44+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-02-15T07:18:45+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1398,"height":1073,"url":"http:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/20240215-27239-header.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Amber V","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_site":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Amber V","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20240215-27239\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20240215-27239\/"},"author":{"name":"Amber V","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/fdc6517a00e35b6917ffdb02e8b574d9"},"headline":"Veteran manga artist exposes exploitative industry practices that are \u201cstrangling\u201d Japanese mangaka\u00a0","datePublished":"2024-02-15T07:18:44+00:00","dateModified":"2024-02-15T07:18:45+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20240215-27239\/"},"wordCount":603,"commentCount":2,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20240215-27239\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/20240215-27239-header.jpg","keywords":["News (Japan-related)"],"articleSection":["News","Non-Gaming News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20240215-27239\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20240215-27239\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20240215-27239\/","name":"Veteran manga artist exposes exploitative industry practices that are \u201cstrangling\u201d Japanese mangaka\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20240215-27239\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20240215-27239\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/20240215-27239-header.jpg","datePublished":"2024-02-15T07:18:44+00:00","dateModified":"2024-02-15T07:18:45+00:00","description":"Prompted by the recent suicide of manga artist Ashihara Hinako, one industry veteran revealed the biggest problems facing mangaka in Japan, including low incomes and exploitative behavior by publishers.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20240215-27239\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20240215-27239\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20240215-27239\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/20240215-27239-header.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/20240215-27239-header.jpg","width":1398,"height":1073,"caption":"Cover of Sho-comi, published by Shogakukan"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20240215-27239\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"\u30db\u30fc\u30e0","item":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Veteran manga artist exposes exploitative industry practices that are \u201cstrangling\u201d Japanese mangaka\u00a0"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/","name":"AUTOMATON WEST","description":"AUTOMATON is a website that covers the Japanese gaming world. We bring you the news on video games from Osaka and Tokyo.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization","name":"\u682a\u5f0f\u4f1a\u793e\u30a2\u30af\u30c6\u30a3\u30d6\u30b2\u30fc\u30df\u30f3\u30b0\u30e1\u30c7\u30a3\u30a2","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/activegamingmedia_logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/activegamingmedia_logo.png","width":374,"height":190,"caption":"\u682a\u5f0f\u4f1a\u793e\u30a2\u30af\u30c6\u30a3\u30d6\u30b2\u30fc\u30df\u30f3\u30b0\u30e1\u30c7\u30a3\u30a2"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/AUTOMATON_ENG","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCabvYnvuUUbbGUrxkaFRgSA"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/fdc6517a00e35b6917ffdb02e8b574d9","name":"Amber V","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/12252024-100x100.jpg","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/12252024-100x100.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/12252024-100x100.jpg","caption":"Amber V"},"description":"Editor-in-Chief since October 2023. She grew up playing Duke Nukem and Wolfenstein with her dad, and is now enamored with obscure Japanese video games and internet culture. Currently devoted to growing Automaton West to the size of its Japanese sister-site, while making sure to keep news concise and developer stories deep and stimulating.","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/author\/amber-vjestica\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27239"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27239\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27246,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27239\/revisions\/27246"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}