Manga Award Planned for Gaijin Authors

If you love to draw manga and dream of being “big in Japan” here’s your chance:

Manga award planned for foreign authors

“An international manga award to honor foreign authors of Japanese-style comics is due to be established, with an award ceremony planned for July, it was learned Tuesday. The award, being promoted by Foreign Minister Taro Aso, a self-professed manga fan, will be set up by an organizing committee whose members include the Japan Foundation. Aso said he hoped the award would promote Japanese pop culture.

“I want to make the award like the Nobel Prize of manga, to enhance the voice of Japanese pop culture and subculture,” Aso said in comments made after a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday morning. Candidates for the prize will come from general applications and recommendations by publishers in Japan and overseas. A panel including manga authors Machiko Satonaka, Takashi Yanase and Tetsuya Chiba, and former editors of well-known Japanese comic magazines will select the winning entries on June 22. Top works will be given the “international manga award” and other prizes. The award ceremony is scheduled for July 2, in Tokyo.”