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Foreigners for the first time in Japan are always amazed
at how much manga there is. If you walk into any
bookstore or pass any train station kiosk, there it is. Get
onto a train and there are both old and young passengers totally absorbed in it. It
is as popular among college students and businesspeople as it is among teenagers. Foreigners
are also often shocked to see how much sex and violence there is in manga, and
frequently write letters of complaint to newspapers. As
all aspects of Japanese life adapt to Western values, manga continues to increase
in popularity as a purely Japanese phenomenon. It
is an important aspect of present day Japanese culture. What
many foreigners fail to understand is that manga has the same range of expression
as modern fiction, from deep intellectual work to shallow love stories. In
the 1960s the salaryman began to be found in manga stories, then a new type of
business manga began to appear, featuring salarymen who were less concerned with
their jobs and companies than with their hobbies or families. Now,
there is an even newer style, which features rich elite businessmen. Right
now, with the birth rate falling and the population aging, we can be sure that
these changes will be reflected in newer forms of manga. | 
