Concerns about declining manga readership in Japan may not reflect the complete picture. A new survey conducted by Japanese digital manga company Comici suggests that relatively few people have completely abandoned the medium over the past five years.
Published on November 4, 2026, the 2026 Manga Awareness Survey collected responses from 3,000 Japanese men and women aged between 15 and 69. According to Kai-You, the research examined reading frequency, preferred manga formats, changing consumption habits, and how readers discover new titles.
The findings show that 51.5% of respondents, representing 1,544 people, had read manga during the previous 12 months. The survey included physical volumes, manga magazines, digital books, and manga accessed through websites and applications in its definition of readership.
Importantly, the remaining 48.5% should not automatically be considered former manga readers. Approximately two-thirds of this group reportedly had not read manga five years earlier either.
The survey’s most notable finding concerns people who stopped reading manga. Only 6.7% of all respondents said their manga consumption had declined over the previous five years to the point that they no longer read it. Meanwhile, 32.8% said they had not read manga either five years ago or during the past year.
However, the 6.7% figure should not be interpreted as proof that Japan’s manga readership declined by that amount. It reflects respondents’ recollections of their own reading habits rather than a direct comparison between two surveys conducted five years apart.
Print Manga and Digital Platforms Have Almost Equal Readership
The survey also highlights how Japanese audiences consume manga today. Physical comic volumes were read by 34.4% of respondents, narrowly ahead of app and web manga at 34.1%. Digital e-books accounted for 28.8%, while printed manga magazines attracted 17.6%.
Among the 1,544 manga readers, 48.1% used both physical and digital formats. Digital-only readers represented 30%, while 22% preferred physical publications exclusively.
These findings suggest that digital distribution has not completely replaced printed manga. Instead, many readers continue to use both formats depending on their preferences and accessibility.
The research was conducted online between October 2 and 5, 2026, using 3,000 respondents aged 15 to 69. Comici plans to repeat the survey annually to monitor changes in manga consumption across Japan. The findings provide a more detailed picture of the industry, suggesting that changing reading formats may be a bigger concern than a widespread loss of interest in manga.
