Shogakukan

• 1. Introduction

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  Shogakukan is a Japanese publisher that founded Shueisha, and Shueisha in turn founded Hakusensha. The three remain separate companies, yet people refer to them together as the Hitotsubashi Group. It counts among the largest publishing groups in Japan and in the world. Shogakukan itself works from the Shogakukan Building in Hitotsubashi, a district within Kanda, Chiyoda, Tokyo. The Jimbocho book district lies close by, and the two sister companies are based in the same ward. Shogakukan publishes comics, magazines, light novels, dictionaries, literature, non-fiction and home media. This documentary asks how one company fills shelves for readers of so many ages, how its titles reach readers in other countries, and what happened when its own pages and its own staff drew public anger.

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• 2. A Magazine For Every Age

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  Weekly Shōnen Sunday has been published since 1959, and it sits among a crowded family of comic magazines sorted by who is meant to read them. Young children get CoroCoro Comic, which began in 1977, followed by Bessatsu CoroCoro Comic in 1981 and CoroCoro Ichiban! in 2005. Girls have Ciao, also from 1977, along with Betsucomi from 1970 and Cheese! from 1996. Shōjo Comic began in 1968 and has been called Sho-Comi since December 2007. Adult readers can turn to Big Comic, which dates from 1968, and to Big Comic Original, Big Comic Spirits and Big Comic Superior. Women's titles include flowers from 2002 and Petit Comic from 1977. Some magazines ended. Monthly Ikki ran from 2003 to 2014, Weekly Young Sunday from 1987 to 2008, and ChuChu from 2000 to 2010. Shogakukan also publishes the fashion magazine CanCam, which started in 1981, and news titles such as Weekly Post and Josei Seven. SAPIO, another news title, was discontinued in 2019. Schoolchildren have their own line, beginning with Shogaku Ichinensei, meaning First Grade. The Third and Fourth Grade editions stopped in 2012, the Fifth and Sixth in 2010, and the Second in 2016. In 2017 a magazine named Shogaku Hachinensei, or Eighth Grade, arrived to take their place.

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• 3. From Magazine To Screen

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  Tentomushi Comics, abbreviated TC, is the imprint that issues bound tankōbon volumes of series first serialized in Monthly CoroCoro Comic and Bessatsu CoroCoro Comic. Magazine serials are not the only route a story can take after publication. Shogakukan also produces anime based on its manga, or takes part in making it, mostly through its subsidiary Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions. That subsidiary was previously called Shogakukan Productions Co., Ltd. The pipeline also begins with newcomers. Shogakukan runs New Manga Awards for amateur artists who hope to turn professional. Entrants have two choices, which are to send a manuscript by mail or to bring it to an editor in person.

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• 4. Crossing The Pacific

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  In 2005, ShoPro Entertainment, Shogakukan's licensing arm in North America, was merged into Viz Media. Viz Media is owned jointly by Shogakukan and Shueisha, and it publishes manga from both companies in the United States. That arrangement gave the group one American publishing house instead of several. A separate partnership followed in March 2010, when Shogakukan announced it would work with the American comics publisher Fantagraphics. The two would release a line of manga, and the American translator Rachel Thorn was named as its editor.

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• 5. Europe And Singapore

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  In 2009, Viz Media Europe bought the French Kazé Group, whose main business is publishing manga and home video for French and German audiences. Viz Media Europe is a joint venture formed by Shogakukan, Shueisha and ShoPro. Local houses carry the rest of the load. In France, manga from Shogakukan and Shueisha appear through Pika Édition, Ki-oon, Kana and Kazé. In Germany, the publishers include Kazé, Carlsen, Egmont and Tokyopop. Closer to home, Shogakukan Asia is a wholly owned subsidiary headquartered in Singapore. It produces English-language editions of Detective Conan, Pokémon and Future Card Buddyfight. It also works with local creators, among them Johnny Lau, to publish comic series for Southeast Asian readers.

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• 6. The Genghis Khan Cartoon

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  On the 15th of February 2018, the March issue of the children's magazine CoroCoro Comic carried a cartoon that mocked Genghis Khan, founder of the Mongol Empire. The strip followed a mischievous boy who scribbled silly drawings on pictures of famous people, such as a dog's face on a portrait of Albert Einstein. Genghis Khan received a crude doodle on his forehead. Shogakukan sent an apology to the Mongolian Embassy in Tokyo on the 23rd of February. It did not satisfy Mongolians living in Japan, who regard Genghis Khan as a national hero. On the 26th of February, Mongolians and citizens of China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region living in Japan sent a formal letter of protest. Roughly 90 demonstrators gathered outside company headquarters. After the Mongolian Embassy filed an official complaint with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the bookselling chains Kinokuniya, Miraiya and Kumazawa pulled the magazine from shelves. In March 2018, Shogakukan issued a second public apology, announced a national recall and offered refunds. Asumi Yoshino, author of the serialized manga Yarisugi!!! Itazura-kun, which contained the image, also had an apology posted on the magazine's website.

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• 7. The Yamamoto Verdict

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  On the 20th of February 2026, a judge found Shōichi Yamamoto liable for sexually abusing a minor. According to the outlet Ashita no Keizai Shimbun, the victim was 15 years old and Yamamoto was her high school teacher. The outlet also reported that he assaulted her again a year later. The lawsuit had been filed years earlier, after a mediation attempt run by Shogakukan failed. Shogakukan's own handling of his work is part of the record. In 2020 the company suspended his series, citing his poor health, and in 2022 it announced the manga was ending. Later that year, editors at Shogakukan arranged for him to write a new series, Jojin Kamen, under the pen name Hajime Ichiro. The trial's verdict became public in 2026. The platform that hosted his work then suspended Jojin Kamen and revealed who the author was. Shogakukan released its own statement of apology and promised to form an investigative committee.

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• 8. Artists Push Back

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  Eri Tsuruyoshi, the illustrator of Jojin Kamen, posted on social media that they had not known about Yamamoto's legal case. They had met him only once, and all contact had passed through their editor. They also said they hoped the victim would recover, and they apologized to readers. Other creators acted too. Several manga artists asked for their works to be taken off MangaONE and urged readers to find them elsewhere. Ryuhei Tamura, creator of Cosmos, Haro Aso, creator of Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead, and Kaeru Mizuho, creator of Magical Girl Dandelion, asked for their series to be halted there. One, the creator of One-Punch Man, said he would not work with Shogakukan again if the matter stayed unresolved. Frieren, Mobile Police Patlabor, Major, Mogura no Uta, Aoi Honō and the works of Rumiko Takahashi were removed from the service. The Japan Cartoonists Association called for an investigation and for steps to stop a repeat. The ceremony for the 71st Shogakukan Manga Award, planned for the 3rd of March, was postponed. On the 2nd of March 2026, Shogakukan found that MangaONE had published Seisō no Shinri-shi. Its writer, an Act-Age writer using the pen name Miki Yatsunami, had been arrested and indicted in 2020 over a coerced indecent act against a female middle school student.

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