At the Kodansha House Editorial Committee meeting on October 7, 2025, Kodansha announced the development of a new manga award that will welcome international submissions in “early 2026.”
To become a manga artist in Japan, most manga artists begin by submitting one-shots (complete short comics) to the award contests of the magazines they wish to publish. Winners and runners-up will be introduced to editors, who will work with creators to submit story ideas for potential serialization in the magazine. However, most of these awards require applications to be submitted in Japanese.
In recent years, manga publishers have become increasingly interested in discovering international talent, with Shueisha launching Manga Plus, a monthly manga awards platform for English- and Spanish-speaking creators, and last year Kadokawa running an international wordless manga contest.
At the Kodansha House presentation, editors discussed how Kodansha’s magazines already publish several manga artists from outside Japan, both of whom may or may not be paired with Japanese authors. For example, Kraken Mare by Izu and Hagane, published by Monthly Afternoon, is created by a French writer and an Italian artist with extensive experience in the French comics industry.
The “Mochikomi” event held earlier in the day was an invitation-only event where aspiring manga artists showed their work to Kodansha editors. Submitted comics were translated into Japanese, and an interpreter was available to help creators discuss their work with editors and ask questions about how to publish it in Japan.
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