Fujio Akatsuka's Struggles with Magazines: Against the Background of the Publishing World in the 1970s

Fujio Akatsuka's Struggles with Magazines: Against the Background of the Publishing World in the 1970s

In the early 1970s, Japan's publishing industry was in the process of consolidating a system of "mass production by big capital," driven by the country's rapid economic growth. Weekly magazines such as Shonen Magazine and Shonen Jump were competing for circulation and sales were becoming more and more important, and the emphasis tended to be on commercial serialization projects and the use of famous authors rather than the creativity of the artists. It was against this backdrop that Fujio Akatsuka launched "Manga No. 1," for which he was responsible for editing.

With an editorial staff of only three and limited funds, the monthly publication soon came to a standstill and had to be changed to a quarterly publication. Nevertheless, Akatsuka criticized the reality that major publishers invested their profits in buildings and land, and he set forth his ideal that "all profits should be returned to books. He even talked about his vision of an all-color magazine and tried to maintain a place for creative work even though he was constantly losing money. This stance offered a kind of hope to the young manga artists of the time and to the generation that was searching for new forms of expression.

He also said that he witnessed his magazine being sold by chance at the Sapporo airport, and was deeply moved when he saw a designer-looking man purchasing it. It was a small sign of resistance in an age of commercialism.