Entrepreneur Nishimura Hiroyuki (西村博之), known as Hiroyuki, expressed his personal views on X on the 26th regarding the current state and future development of manga subscription services in Japan. He also pointed to the challenges involved in taking manga subscription services overseas and translating their content.
On the 26th, entrepreneur Nishimura Hiroyuki (西村博之) posted his personal views on subscription services for Japanese manga from his X account. He also raised the issue while introducing a YouTube video in which he appeared.
He said Netflix controls film subscription services, while anime, although centered on Japanese titles, has been captured by Crunchyroll. He also pointed out that manga subscription services could fall behind overseas competitors because of insufficient cooperation from Japanese companies and walled-garden business models. He expressed hope that the market would expand if translation functions and systems for worldwide distribution were put in place.
Readers responded to the post by calling for a manga version of Netflix to be created in Japan, and the exchange continued with discussion of the possibility of a worldwide rollout, including translation. Nishimura Hiroyuki (西村博之) himself also said that it would be good to have a system capable of delivering translation and worldwide distribution.
He also spoke of his frustration with trends in the e-book market, particularly Kindle, rather than subscription services. In response to calls for the industry to “take action even now,” he reportedly said that there was still potential under the current circumstances, but that the motivation to act was lacking.