▲ Japanese manga magazine 'Weekly Shonen Jump'
The quarterly circulation of Japan's leading manga magazine, Weekly Shonen Jump—which once set a Guinness World Record with a single issue publication exceeding 6 million copies—has fallen below 1 million, according to the Yomiuri Shimbun and other reports on August 6.
Launched in 1968, Weekly Shonen Jump is a representative Japanese manga magazine with a history spanning over 50 years, producing numerous hit titles such as Dragon Ball, Slam Dunk, and One Piece.
In early 1995, its New Year's combined issue featuring popular works like Dragon Ball and Slam Dunk reached a circulation of 6.35 million copies, earning a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records.
Shueisha, the publisher of Weekly Shonen Jump, announced that the magazine's circulation for the second quarter recorded 985,000 copies.
This marks the first time circulation has dropped below 1 million since the publisher began compiling and publishing data under the current method in 2008.
With this milestone, no print magazines with a circulation exceeding 1 million remain in Japan.
Weekly Shonen Jump saw its circulation fall below 2 million in 2017 as it lost ground to webtoons fueled by the proliferation of smartphones and e-books.
Other prominent Japanese boys' manga magazines are also experiencing a decline in print circulation, with Kodansha's Weekly Shonen Magazine recording 281,000 copies and Shogakukan's Weekly Shonen Sunday recording 120,000 copies in quarterly circulation.
Nobuhiko Saito, an editor well-versed in boys' manga, told the Yomiuri Shimbun regarding Weekly Shonen Jump dropping below the 1-million circulation mark that it is "an event that marks a turning point in an era," forecasting that the contraction of the print magazine market will also deal a significant blow to Japan's bookstore industry.
(Photo: Screen capture of Shueisha website, Yonhap News)
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