The quarterly circulation of Japan's flagship manga magazine Weekly Shonen Jump, which once made the Guinness World Records with a single-issue circulation of 6.35 million, has fallen below 1 million for the first time. As a result, there are no longer any paper magazines in Japan with a circulation exceeding 1 million.
According to Yomiuri Shimbun and other Japanese media on the 6th, publisher Shueisha said the average quarterly circulation of Weekly Shonen Jump in the second quarter of this year was 985,000. Since the Japan Magazine Publishers Association began compiling data in 2008, this is the first time circulation has dipped below 1 million.
Launched in 1968, Weekly Shonen Jump has serialized global hits such as Dragon Ball, Slam Dunk, and One Piece, representing Japan's manga market. In particular, the New Year's combined issue in 1995, when Dragon Ball and Slam Dunk were being serialized, printed 6.35 million copies and was entered into the Guinness World Records.
However, as the spread of smartphones and e-books and the growth of the webtoon market have shrunk the paper magazine market, circulation has steadily declined. It fell below 2 million in 2017, and this time even the 1 million mark has collapsed.
Other paper manga magazines are also on the decline. Kodansha's Weekly Shonen Magazine recorded a quarterly circulation of 281,000, and Shogakukan's Weekly Shonen Sunday recorded 120,000.
Saito Nobuhiko, an editor specializing in boys' manga, told Yomiuri Shimbun that "the collapse of Weekly Shonen Jump's 1 million circulation is an event that marks a turning point of an era," adding that "the contraction of the paper manga magazine market will also have a major impact on Japan's bookstore industry."
Meanwhile, according to the Research Institute for Publications, Japan's paper magazine market in 2025 totaled 370.8 billion yen, down to less than a quarter of the 1.5644 trillion yen peak in 1997.