Short answers, pulled from the story.
Josei manga is an editorial category of Japanese comics aimed at adult women. It emerged in the 1980s and is distinguished from shōjo manga, which targets girls and young adult women, by its focus on adult topics such as work, sex, and life after marriage.
Josei manga emerged as a category in the 1980s. Its direct precursors appeared earlier: in 1968, the women's magazine Josei Seven published the first gekiga manga aimed at a female audience, by artist Miyako Maki, and dedicated ladies' comics magazines launched with Be Love and You in 1980.
Josei manga has three primary subgenres: drama, romance, and pornography. In 2002, drama and romance titles combined represented roughly 80 percent of sales in the josei collected-volume market, while pornography made up the remaining 20 percent.
Josei manga is considerably less popular by circulation. In 2010, the top-selling josei magazine You had a reported circulation of 162,917, while the top-selling shōnen magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump had a reported circulation of 2.8 million.
Several josei series have been adapted into anime, including Paradise Kiss (1999), Bunny Drop (2005), Chihayafuru (2007), Princess Jellyfish (2008), and Eden of the East (2009). Anime adaptations have been a significant factor in bringing josei manga to a mainstream audience since the 2000s.
Ladies' comics was the first term used to describe manga for adult women and developed a negative connotation in the 1990s due to its association with pornographic content. Josei manga is a term coined by critics and academics in the late 1990s to describe all manga aimed at adult women, and is most commonly used by Western audiences.