Japan is the home of manga, and the market for these uniquely Japanese comic books is an extraordinarily vital one. Weekly manga magazines tailored for different readerships serialize a range of different stories. Should one of these strike a chord with the general public--Vagabond, or The Silent Service are cases in point--it will then take on a life of its own, moving on to publication in trade paperback, live-action film and anime adaptation, novelization and so forth.

Kodansha moved into manga publishing with the launch of Shukan Shonen Magazine in 1959. This weekly anthology for boys went on to become one of the top-selling titles in Japan, with a circulation of almost 2 million copies (2007). Addressing every gender and age group, many of Kodansha's manga magazines now belong to the so-called "megacomic" category, selling hundreds of thousands of copies on a regular basis. Whether it's Rival, aimed at junior high school kids, Bessatsu Friend, for high school girls, or Young Magazine, designed for the youth market, Kodansha's comic magazines cover every major demographic.

Kodansha currently publishes 18 manga magazines and around 1,270 manga trade paperback titles annually.