is a Japanese

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

series written and illustrated by Kenshi Hirokane. It depicts the growth and career of a fictional salaryman named Kōsaku Shima. It has been serialized in

Kodansha is a Japanese privately-held publishing company headquartered in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Kodansha is the largest Japanese publishing company, and it produces the manga magazines ''Nakayoshi'', ''Afternoon'', ''Evening'', ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' an ...

's '' Morning'', starting with the first series ''Kachō Shima Kōsaku'' in 1983 and has currently been divided into eight parts. The current part, ''Shagai Torishimariyaku Shima Kōsaku'', began in 2022. The manga has also been published as 7 bilingual volumes (Japanese-English) called ''Division Chief Kosaku Shima'' and ''President Kosaku Shima'', and in French and German. In addition to various manga there has also been one comedic ONA, and two comedic anime adaptations lasting 11 episodes each, a live action film, and a single episode TV drama. The character also acts as the "host" or framing device for a business documentary series on NHK World, ''Shima Kosaku's Asian Entrepreneurs''. As of February 2022, the series had over 47 million copies in circulation, making it one of the

best-selling manga series The following is a list of the best-selling Japanese manga series to date in terms of the number of collected ''tankōbon'' volumes sold. All series in this list have at least 20 million copies in circulation. This list is limited to Japanese ...

. In 1991, the manga won the 15th

Kodansha Manga Award is an annual award for serialized manga published in the previous year, the event is sponsored by the publisher Kodansha. It is currently awarded in three categories: '' shōnen'', '' shōjo'', and general. The awards began in 1977, initially w ...

in the General category.

Summary

At the start of the long-running series, Shima Kōsaku is a ''kachō'', or section chief, of a huge conglomerate, Hatsushiba Electric. He is later promoted to ''buchō'' (division chief) and eventually promoted to manager and executive-director, and with each promotion the title of the series changed as well. He was promoted to the president of Hatsushiba Electric, and the title changed to "Shachō" Shima Kōsaku, which means "President Kōsaku Shima". The fictional conglomerate is modeled after Panasonic, or Matsushita Electric, where Hirokane worked before and is highly accurate in its portrayal of Japanese corporate culture.

Series

*, 1983–1992: 17 volumes *, 1992–2002: 13 volumes *, 2002–2005: 8 volumes *, 2005–2006: 6 volumes *, 2006–2008: 5 volumes *, 2008–2013: 16 volumes *, 2013–2019: 13 volumes *, 2019–2022: 6 volumes *, 2022–present: 1 volume

Spin-offs

*, 2001–2006, ''Evening'': 4 volumes **, 2006–2010, ''Evening'': 4 volumes *, 2010–2013, ''Evening'': 4 volumes *, 2014–2017, ''Evening'': 6 volumes **, 2017–2018, ''Evening'': 3 volumes *, 2017 (written by

Shin Kibayashi is a Japanese manga storywriter, novelist and screenwriter. Under the name Yuma Ando, he received the 2003 Kodansha Manga Award for '' shōnen'' for writing ''Kunimitsu no Matsuri''. The pen name "Tadashi Agi" (亜樹直) is shared with his si ...

), ''Morning'': 1 volume *, 2019
(crossover with That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime; co-written by Fuse and Taiki Kawakami; character design: Mittsubā), ''Evening'': 1 volume *, 2019–present (illustrated by Fusuke Miyamoto), ''

Monthly Comic Zero Sum is a ''josei'' manga magazine published by Ichijinsha and launched in March 2002. Its volumes usually contain over 600 pages and tackles a variety of genres, with well-known manga like ''Saiyuki Reload'', ''Amatsuki'', ''07-Ghost'' and '' Love ...

'': 1 volume

Video games

*''Kachō Kōsaku Shima: Super Business Adventure'' ( Super Famicom) 1993 (published by

Yutaka Yutaka is a masculine Japanese given name. Possible writings Yutaka can be written using different kanji characters and can mean: *豊, "bountiful" *裕, "affluence" *穣, "fertile" *温, "warmth" The name can also be written in hiragana ゆた ...

) *''CR Kachō Kōsaku Shima'' ( Pachinko) 2006 (published by

Newgin is a privately owned Japanese manufacturer of pachinko and pachislot machines incorporated in May 1968 in Nagoya, Japan. The company slogan is . History The company was founded in October 1949 as Marushin Bussan, then was reorganized into in 1 ...

) *''Kachō Shima Kōsaku DS: Dekiru Otoko no Love & Success'' (

Nintendo DS The is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens working in tan ...

) 2008 (published by Konami)

Reception

As of February 2022, the series had over 47 million copies in circulation. In 1991, ''Kachō Shima Kōsaku'' won the 15th

in the General category. In 2019, the series also received a Special Award at the 43rd Kodansha Manga Award, commemorating 110 years since Kodansha's founding.

References

External links

*
A question of character
', '' The Economist'', 7 August 2008 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kacho Kosaku Shima 1992 manga 2001 manga 2002 manga 2005 manga 2006 manga 2008 manga 2010 manga 2013 manga 2014 manga Business in anime and manga Kodansha manga Seinen manga Winner of Kodansha Manga Award (General)