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Shuho Sato: Top 100 Manga Creators Averaged 70 Million Yen in Volume Royalties

Manga creator Shuho Sato (Say Hello to Black Jack, Umizaru) reported on his Twitter account on Saturday that a manga researcher friend told him that the top 100% manga creators made an average of about 70 million yen (about US$860,000) from book royalties in 2009.

The website Yucasee Media noted that the best-selling manga creator, One Piece's Eiichiro Oda (pictured right), earned an estimated 1.3 billion yen (US$15.9 million) in royalties from compiled book volumes (tankōbon).

However, Sato also noted that there were a total of about 5,300 manga creators whose works were published in compiled book form in 2009. Of the bottom 5,200 published manga creators, their average income from compiled book royalties in 2009 was about 2.8 million yen (US$34,000).

In comparison, the average income of a company employee in Japan was 4.09 million yen (US$51,000) in 2009. Sato noted that in order to make as much as an average company employee, a manga artist must sell at least 120,000 copies of their published works each year.

The Weekly Bunshun magazine calculated in 2010 that Oda's annual income was 2 billion yen (US$24 million): 1.29 billion yen (US$15.5 million) for book royalties and 749 million yen (US$8.97 million) in royalties for character goods. A television program tallied his other sources of income for a final estimated total of 3.1 billion yen (US$38 million).

Source: Yucasee Media