Ask John: Are Manga Collectable in Japan?

Question:
Do people in Japan collect manga like people in America collect comics? While in Japan I noticed that many people would simply toss away their manga when they were finished reading it. I would find stacks of the weekly distributed manga collections (like Shonen Jump for example) lying next to the trash. In the U.S. whenever most people buy a comic book, they keep it, re-read it and in many cases hope it goes up in value. Is there no chance that a particular manga collection issue in Japan can go up in value? Do people not collect manga collections over there to re-read at a later time, or do they just wait for the tankouban version to come out instead? I’m guessing space in people’s homes is one key factor.

Answer:
As you’ve guessed, space is a premium in Japan and saving dozens or hundreds of telephone book sized manga magazines is simply impractical for most Japanese natives. Instead, Japanese collectors keep the reprinted tankouban books that are not only smaller but are also sometimes revised, “final” versions with touched up art or other changes from the initially published version that appeared in weekly or monthly magazine installments. Vintage manga magazines, primarily ones printed in the 1950s or earlier, do command high collector prices in Japan’s fan community, but more recent manga magazines aren’t generally considered collectable. Manga magazines are printed cheaply and sold at low retail prices because they’re intended to be disposable entertainment, and that’s the way Japanese natives treat them.

I don’t know for certain, but my guess is that the aftermarket value of manga in Japan’s collector market is based on its scarcity rather than its vintage. Most mainstream manga in Japan is collected into tankouban books that are kept in print, so like other types of fiction and literature, the stories are always available commonly and inexpensively. American comic collectors value original comics because they are the first edition releases. In effect, the monetary value of American comics is in their physical publication format. Japanese fans are more concerned with content than attributes, so a cheap and easily available edition can be more desirable than an older but less convenient edition. The types of manga that most often appreciate in value in the Japanese market are doujinshi, which are fan produced manga published in limited quantity. Unlike mainstream manga that stay in print and therefore don’t increase in value, doujinshi do sometimes increase in value because the stories and art they contain don’t remain in print and commonly available.