In an interesting move, the Japanese comic book industry has announced that they plan to help Vietnam develop their comic book market. Currently, the vast majority of the comics bought in Vietnam are Japanese manga translations, but the industry leaders are hoping to change that. One of the things that stands out is that Japan sees Vietnam as a market with tons of school-age consumers ready to devour their offerings. This is a pretty interesting counterpoint to America’s comic book market focusing so intently on adult readers the last decade or two…aside from the popularity explosion of manga, of course.

“Japan will help hone the comic skills of Viet Nam’s cartoonists and will transfer modern publishing technology to help make interesting comics with nice designs for young readers, ” Matsutani Takayuki, president of Japanese Comics and Cartoons Association, said.

He said Viet Nam was a potential comics and cartoon market with young people accounting for 60 per cent of the total population of more than 80 million.

“The number of school-age children is on the rise as is the demand for children’s books with lively stories, ” he said at a seminar organised last weekend in HCM City.

“To make comics more attractive to children, it is important to have a well thought-out theme, as well as familiar and imaginative characters,” Tomari Tsutomu, president of Japan’s Toei Cartoon Film Company, said.

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