Manga has long been one of Japan’s defining forms of youth entertainment, but new readership data suggests the medium is no longer reaching teenagers at the same rate it once did. According to figures from the 2025 E-Book Business Report, shared by researcher Ichishi Iida, teenage girls are now significantly more likely than teenage boys to report reading manga, particularly through digital platforms.
The figures indicate that around 35% of teenage boys read print manga, while 28% consume manga digitally. Among teenage girls, approximately 28% read print manga, compared with 48% who read digitally. The data points to a major shift in how younger audiences interact with manga, with smartphones and digital platforms playing an increasingly important role.
The report was published by Impress Research Institute, which surveyed smartphone users and examined broader trends across Japan’s digital publishing market.
Teenage Manga Reading Shows a Noticeable Decline
The latest figures form part of a much larger change in Japanese reading habits. Manga consumption among middle and high school students was considerably higher in previous decades, with reported readership reaching 85% among middle school students and 77% among high school students in 1985.
By 2023, those figures had fallen to approximately 60% for middle school students and 49% for high school students. The decline has occurred even as manga itself has become increasingly successful internationally through anime adaptations, streaming services and digital distribution.
The shift is also visible in Japan’s traditional publishing market. Weekly Shonen Jump averaged 985,000 copies in certified print circulation between April and June 2026, falling below one million for the first time in the current reporting record.
Economic pressure appears to be one factor behind the changing readership. Iida has previously pointed to the cost of digital subscriptions and in-app purchases, while declining access to physical bookstores has also made traditional manga consumption more difficult for younger readers.
Bookbase CEO Masato Kondo similarly identified reduced purchasing power, bookstore closures and declining circulation of used books as factors affecting youth readership.
The change is not limited to manga. The 2025 report also highlights broader growth in digital publishing, while the rise of smartphones and online platforms continues to reshape how Japanese audiences consume written entertainment. Japan’s domestic electronic publishing market reached ¥670.3 billion in fiscal 2024, with manga accounting for a substantial portion of digital consumption.
The figures therefore do not necessarily indicate that interest in manga itself is disappearing. Instead, they suggest that Japan’s younger audience is increasingly selective about what, where and how it reads, with digital platforms becoming central to the future of manga consumption.
