Perhaps no single cultural product is held more dear in Japan than manga. It was a dominant form of pulp entertainment in the early post-World War II period, a forum for social dissent in the 1960s, then for female creativity in the '70s. By the '80s, manga was at the center of a mass market that outstripped its overseas comic-book equivalents. At last count, there were more than 20 manga museums in its home country, including The Kyoto International Manga Museum, and now there is talk of creating a National Center for Media Arts to include manga and anime.
But as the national government swings belatedly into action, some experts are saying it is time to shift the focus from manga itself onto the fans' subculture that has fed its success.
"As with the pyramids of Egypt, the greater the base, the higher the zenith," said Kaichiro Morikawa, 37, associate professor of Global Japanese Studies at Meiji University in Tokyo. "The focus tends to be on the zenith rather than the base."