Headquartered in Tokyo, Shueisha is the largest manga publisher in the world, with an alleged market share in Japan of 30%. It belongs to the Hitotsubashi Group, a keiretsu (holding structure) that owns the Shogakukan, Shueisha and Hakusensha publishing groups. Shueisha is headquartered next to Shogakukan.
The company was founded in 1926 as the entertainment-related publishing division of Japanese publisher Shogakukan. The following year Shueisha became a separate, independent company.
Shueisha's Jump Comics division is a large publisher of Manga. Shueisha later founded Hakusensha, which has gone on to become another of Japan's most successful publishers. Shueisha operates many imprints, including Homesha.
Many titles published in its Weekly Shonen Jump have enjoyed circulation of over 1 million copies in the graphic novel form. Dragon Ball has sold over 150 million copies overall, and One Piece has sold over 140 million, according to company information from VIZ Media.
Shueisha, together with Shogakukan, owns Viz Media, one of the major publishers of manga in the United States.
Since 1967, Shogakukan, together with Shueisha and Hakusensha, operates ShoPro to distribute, license and merchandise many of the most popular magazines and comic books in Japan. VIZ Media is among the licensing partners.
Key Company Developments 2012
Financial
Revenues at Shueisha declined continuously over the past 5 years, while profits stabilized after a sharp decline in 2011.
International
Shueisha made a strong push in 2013 to increase its international presence. A promotional campaign in the US claimed to have 345 million international readers for its manga series, with Eiichiro Oda’s “One Piece” as the most popular manga series worldwide.
Yaoi, a romance Manga especially popular among women, was started under VIZ Media’s SuBlime label in the US, in a joint effort with Animate Ltd. and Libre Publishing Co.
Digital
In fall 2013, Shueisha launched the new “Jump Next Generation Manga Grand Prix”, based on digital submissions to encourage new talent. The top prize is worth 1 million JPY (or $10,000).
Shueisha launched a dedicated e-book store at ebooks.shueisha.co.jp.
S-Manga.net is a portal site covering content on Shueisha's comics, on-sale dates for remixes and magazines, media adaptation information, introductions on new releases and content samples. Shueisha also operates several pay (subscription) sites, notably VYJ, and Shupure.net.
Bestselling Authors & Titles
Eiichiro Oda’s “One Piece” is considered to be the most popular manga series worldwide. Dragonball Z is another top seller.
In books, Sheuisha’s program includes a wide range of series, of (usually Manga based) “Bunko” fiction in genres such as romance, history, mystery, classics and translations. Bestselling comics include Ribon, which began in 1955, and Margaret, started in 1963.
In 2011, and continuing its efforts to translate and adapt also international comics to the Japanese market, Sheuisha released a translation of Belgium comic artist Schuiten’s Les Cités Obscures via ShoPro, with an initial set of three books in a 400 page volume.
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