Those members of the expat community in Japan who are addicted to their weekly or monthly fix of English-language magazines will have surely noticed all the changes going on lately. These are troubled and exciting times and, just as it has in the past, the local media world is trying to rise to the challenge by adapting and innovating.
Next year will be the 150th anniversary of the birth of the first English-language magazine in Japan, offering us a flimsy excuse to prepare for the (hopefully joyous) celebrations by looking back at the history of these media and the current state of the industry.
Often in the vanguard of new trends, foreigners in Japan were among the first to embrace the magazine format. In 1862, Charles Wirgman (1832-1891), a British journalist, established The Japan Punch, the country's first magazine. Named after and modeled on the popular British satirical publication, Wirgman even "borrowed" the eponymous character from the masthead of Punch magazine, dressing him in Japanese garb. Georges Bigot (1860-1927), a French artist, illustrator and lover of Japanese culture, started Tobae in 1887, the same year Japan Punch stopped publishing.