Shueisha is a major publisher in Japan and the largest manga publisher in the world with a 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 headquartered in Tokyo.
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 Manga publisher. Shueisha later founded Hakusensha, which went on to become another successful Japanese publisher. Shueisha operates a number of imprints including Homesha.
Many titles published in its Weekly Shonen Jump have enjoyed circulation of over 1 million copies in graphic novel form. Dragon Ballhas sold over 150 million copies overall and One Piece has sold over 140 million. Shueisha, together with Shogakukan, owns Viz Media, one of the major publishers of manga in the United States. VIZ Media is based in San Francisco, CA and is one of the most comprehensive and innovative companies in manga publishing, animation and entertainment licensing of Japanese content.
Translations have come to play an important role at Shueisha in recent years. The Japanese group translated work from authors such as Marcel Proust, Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio, Samuel Huntington, Sandra Brown, and Camilla Läckberg.
Shogakukan has operated ShoPro with Shueisha and Hakusensha since 1967 to distribute, license and merchandise many of the most popular magazines and comic books in Japan. Licensing partners include VIZ Media.
Analysis & Key Developments
Financial
During fiscal 2016 revenues again increased slightly at Shueisha and climbed from 121.2 billion JPY during 2015 to 123 billion JPY. Net profits rose by 41.3% to 5.8 billion JPY in 2016.
Internal organization
In 2016 Sueisha announced the creation of a new department called Dragon Ball Room, which focuses on optimizing and expanding the manga brand.
International
Together with Shogakukan Inc. and Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions, Co., Ltd., Shueisha Inc. owns VIZ Media, a leading company in publishing and distribution of Japanese manga for English-speaking audiences in America and Europe.
Bestsellers
Shueisha is known for the Dragon Ball and One Piece manga. These manga titles are licensed in over 35 countries and are further spread through animated versions, live-action versions and game versions.
In 2015 the One Piece manga series, which was first published in 1997, broke the Guinness World Records as the comic book series with the most copies published by a single author. Shueisha Inc. published more than 320 million copies of Eiichiro Oda’s series in 77 volumes, which are still ongoing.
