Factbook

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Publishing

Limited consolidation within Japan’s publishing industry

[UPDATED: 2-12-2018]

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) amongst Japanese publishers is very rare, unlike in the United States and the United Kingdom where the big story is consolidation.

The vast majority of Japan’s publishing houses are small or medium sized. 60% of publishers in Japan employ less than 10 people.

Only 30 publishers employ more than 1,000 people across all forms of publishing and the five largest Japanese publishers are all relatively small when compared to the largest international publishing houses.

Currently, there are about 3,700 publishers in Japan. The top 500 publishers account for more than 90 percent of sales.

Limited consolidation within Japan’s publishing industry Posted March 22nd, 2017 by Richard Nathan

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Factbook

Limited consolidation within Japan’s publishing industry

Writing about ‘The Lost’ or ‘Old and New’ or Japan ‘Off-The-Beaten-Track’ in English is an enduring publishing trend that goes back to at least 1878[UPDATED: 6-17-2024]

‘The Life of an Amorous Man’ written by a 17th-century Japanese poet spawned the genre now known as ‘Floating World’ publishing[UPDATED: 1-16-2024]

A poem about a frog written in 1686 by Japan’s most famous poet is Japan’s best known poem[UPDATED: 10-2-2023]

In the 1960s a member of the Japanese Imperial Family started moonlighting as a science fiction author[UPDATED: 8-22-2023]

Writing about the plight of women in Japan is not a new trend. In the 1870s visitors to Japan were already pontificating on the topic in print[UPDATED: 8-4-2023]

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