Presentation by Mr. Kazuyoshi Takeuchi, CEO – VIZ Media Europe Group at Readmagine 2018.
During Readmagine 2018 Mr. Takeuchi described the general landscape of Japanese publishing sector amid the challenges from the growing use of the Internet and digital content, which publishing companies have to face:
- Both the book and magazine markets have been shrinking, with a decrease of 1.1 trillion yen in 2015 from the peak year of 1996.
- At the end of Fiscal Year 2015, there were 3,489 publishing companies of which 2,660 in Tokyo. Many are small and specialized houses.
- A characteristic of the industry is its reliance on wholesale book distributors.
Regarding ebooks, there is a milestone in the Japanese publishing industry:Manga eComics drive Digital Contents overtaking paper.
Born in Hiroshima, Kazuyoshi Takeuchi graduated in Social Sciences from Hitotsubashi University in Japan. In 1974, he joined Shodensha, a company that publishes non-fiction, “light novels”, mangas and magazines (Feel Young, Zipper, Nina’s), where he was administrative and financial director, sales, marketing and publishing licensing director, to be finally appointed as president in 2002. Since 2015, he has been an advisor for Shodensha Publishing Co., Ltd. – Hitotsubashi Management Group. As PACE (Publishers’ Association for Cultural Exchange) Chairman, he contributed to the cultural exchanges in the publishing industry.
