Hello everyone!

For this week’s episode of Manga Insider, I’m going to be jumping right out of the office!

Just the other day, the apprentices of the ComicZENON & SMAC! Editing Teams had an opportunity to tour the company which does our printing, and learn a little about the printing process! I went along with Dai, Mr. Yokoyama, Mr. Yamanaka, Mr. Imazeki (my arbeit co-worker) and the editors Mr. Tanaka and Mr. Watanabe.

So, this week’s theme will be the Manga Printing Process!

This is just going to be a brief explanation, but I’m proud to be able to introduce some of the people besides the editors that support the manga industry.

I also want to thank the staff of the Toppan Printing Co. Ltd. for giving us this opportunity!

Toppan is one of the largest printing specialists in Japan. Besides printing books and magazines for publishers, they have broad range of specialist outputs such as printing of stock certificates and credit cards, advertising printing, package printing, creation of industrial materials and electronics research.

Additionally, in the Bunkyo ward of Tokyo, they run a “Printing Museum”. (Link to the official site: http://www.printing-museum.org/en/index.html )

Here, you can see both the history of printing technology, and some of the latest gadgets. They also have “hands-on” exhibits where visitors can actually experience printing using an old style letterpress (this used to be the primary method of printing in Japan).

It’s very close to the Tokyo Dome, so if you’re interested in the history of printing, I recommend paying them a visit!

(さらに…)