Shueisha

Company Information & Key Figures

About

Shueisha is a major publisher in Japan, headquartered in Tokyo and the largest manga publisher in the world with an alleged market share in Japan of 30%. It belongs to the Hitotsubashi Group, a holding structure, owning the Shogakukan, Shueisha and Hakusensha publishing groups.

The company was founded in 1926 as the entertainment-related publishing division of Japanese publisher Shogakukan. The following year Shueisha became a separate, independent company.

Shueisha is part of the Hitotsubashi Group, a Japanese “Keiretsu”, a set of more or less interconnected companies with shared interlocking business relationships and shareholdings. The Hitotsubashi Group also includes several other publishing companies, notably Shogakukan. The two companies have their headquarters next to each other.

Shueisha’s Jump Comics division is a large publisher of manga. Shueisha later founded Hakusensha, which has gone on to become another of Japan’s most successful publishers. Homesha is one of the many imprints operated by Shueisha.

Many titles published in its Weekly Shonen Jump have enjoyed a circulation of over 1m copies in their graphic novel form. Dragon Ball has sold over 150m copies overall. One Piece has sold over 140m overall, according to company information from VIZ Media. Shueisha, together with Shogakukan, owns Viz Media, one of the major publishers of manga in the US. Headquartered in San Francisco, CA, VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), is one of the most comprehensive and innovative companies in the field of manga (graphic novel) publishing, animation and entertainment licensing of Japanese content. (company statement – VIZ Media)

In recent years, translations play an important role in Shueisha’s publishing portfolio. The Japanese group translated various Western authors such as Marcel Proust, Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio, Samuel Huntington, Sandra Brown, and Camilla Läckberg.

Since 1967, Shogakukan together with Shueisha and Hakusensha, also operate ShoPro to distribute, license and merchandise many of the most popular magazines and comic books in Japan. Licensing partners include VIZ Media.