Japanese Teens Are Reading Less Manga, And The Numbers Are Falling
A new survey points to a worrying reality for the industry: young people in Japan are reading less manga, with the numbers dropping at an alarming rate.
If you think manga consumption among teenagers is rising because of the global success of anime adaptations like Jujutsu Kaisen, Demon Slayer, and Chainsaw Man, the latest data from the Japanese domestic market shows the exact opposite.
Understanding The Decline In Manga Readers Among The New Generation
The debate gained traction recently when Japanese writer and critic Kazushi Iida (@cattower) shared alarming data on Twitter. According to statistics published in the Impress Research Institute’s “E-book Business Survey Report 2025”, manga readership among teenagers in their late teens has fallen sharply.
To give you an idea of the scale of the decline, Iida pointed out that 70% to 80% of young people used to read manga regularly. Today, the situation has changed dramatically:
- Only around 30% of boys between the ages of 10 and 19 regularly read manga, whether physically or digitally.
- Among girls in the same age group, the number is somewhat higher, remaining around 40% to 50%.
The graph shared by Iida itself reaches a sad conclusion: “Even in Japan, known as a ‘manga superpower,’ more than half of teenagers are moving away from manga.”
The Differences In Consumption: Physical Vs. Digital
One fascinating detail revealed by the survey was the clear difference in how boys and girls consume this content when they do choose to read. The exact consumption figures, combining people who read regularly and occasionally, show that:
- Physical Manga (Printed Volumes): Consumed by 35% of boys and just 28% of girls.
- Digital Manga (E-comics): Read by only 28% of boys, but consumed by an impressive 48% of girls.
While boys seem to be simply moving away from reading, girls are strongly shifting toward digital platforms, driving manga-reading apps on smartphones.
Why Are Young People Abandoning Manga?
But why have young people in Japan stopped reading manga? The answer isn’t that the stories have gotten worse, but rather the battle for attention.
In the past, magazines like Weekly Shonen Jump and Shonen Magazine were a teenager’s main source of cheap entertainment. Today, a young person riding the train has a smartphone with access to an endless sea of instant entertainment.
- Short-Form Videos (TikTok, YouTube Shorts): The quick-consumption format makes it harder to stay patient with longer-form reading.
- Gacha and Mobile Games: Titles like Genshin Impact, Honkai: Star Rail, and Fate/Grand Order consume not only teenagers’ free time, but also their money and emotional energy.
- VTubers and Streams: Watching virtual idols, such as those from agencies like hololive and Nijisanji, has become a major hobby for millions of young people in Japan, replacing time that might otherwise be spent reading.
Some of the reactions I came across actually mentioned these exact things as well: YouTube, streamers, games, and so on.
What Does This Mean For The Future Of The Industry?
As Kazushi Iida himself warned in his post, “The manga industry should seriously work on promoting manga reading.” If the core audience—the younger generation—stops consuming the original medium, the industry could face long-term creative challenges.
Right now, the market is being heavily supported by adult fans in their 20s to 40s who have maintained the habit since childhood, as well as by international audiences. However, if Japan fails to win back its own younger generation, manga could eventually stop being the heart of pop culture and become merely secondary “source material” for anime production.