The Four Color Media Monitor

According to this report on Kyodo News, as much as $55 billion:

Lost revenue from illegal online viewing of Japanese manga and other publications worldwide was estimated at around 8.5 trillion yen ($55 billion) a year, highlighting the extent of damage caused to rights holders by piracy websites, a recent study showed.

Anti-piracy group ABJ examined access numbers and viewing times for 913 websites for the month of June. The group found that the sites offering unauthorized access to Japanese comics, novels and photo books received about 2.8 billion visits during the period from users in 123 countries and regions, with total viewing time reaching around 700 million hours.

Losses for rights holders were estimated at 704.8 billion yen, calculated based on the assumption that users finish reading a 500-yen comic book in 30 minutes. This would translate to roughly 8.5 trillion yen a year, according to the Tokyo-based group formed by members from the publishing, e-book distribution and related sectors.

NHK says:

ABJ said it conducted similar studies in the past, but only on the 10 most used websites. It added that its largest ever survey has revealed increasing losses across borders in the face of the growing popularity of Japanese manga among a wide range of generations in Asia, Western countries and beyond.

Well sorry for the huge losses, but it does make clear manga is stratospherically popular, and not simply because of the common character designs and other styles, but because many believe Japan's industry is delivering the goods. Though I will admit, I still find it galling when and how "ecchi" is relied upon to the point it gives sex a bad name. Did anybody in Japan ever consider that might've played a part in the plummeting birthrate? When mangakas go miles out of their way to portray sex more vulgarly than tastefully, it not only risks being divisive, it also discourages potential parents in the making. There's certainly room for improvement.

I admit it's not great if so many piracy sites are dishing out a lot of this stuff at the expense of Japanese businesses, but if you look on the bright side, it does make clear manga's very admired so long as the mangakas aren't as PC as many modern comics creators in the west became in the past decade or so. If stateside comics-making were to improve in terms of artistic value, perhaps that could help reverse a dire situation, and Japan's industry could make some improvements too.

Labels: Europe and Asia, manga and anime, sales, technology