The popularity of "manga" comic books in Japan is a reflection of low literacy rates, a New York Times story said Thursday.
"Comic books account for 60 percent of printed publications in Japan, a reflection of low literacy rates due to the difficulty of learning Japanese characters," according to the article. "A Wizard of Animation Has Japan Under His Spell."
The article profiles the appeal in Japan of Hayao Miyazaki's blockbuster animated film "Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi," whose English title is "Spirited Away," which tells the tale of a 10-year-old girl who gets trapped in a bathhouse. The article also comments on the wide appeal of comic books across all age groups in Japan.
Reached by phone and asked if the claim was a cheap shot, the article's author, James Brooke, said, "The cheap shot is to say The New York Times doesn't know how to read the U.N. literacy tables."
He said the popularity of comics is a reflection of the difficulty today's Japanese have with kanji.
"What we are talking about here -- and a lot of older Japanese have told me this -- reading and writing kanji skills are deteriorating," he said. "And this is what I meant by low literacy. In other words, a lot of Japanese people read comic books because they don't want to sit on the subway with a long, full-text kanji book."