While most companies don't want their employees to read manga at work, an increasing number are encouraging the practice through the publication of an in-house edition.

They are turning to this unusual form of communication to promote their business plans and corporate identities among their employees.

Many companies previously used cartoons to publicize themselves to their clients. But now, corporate manga is accepted as an alternative to familiarize employees with the organizational culture and boost their motivation.

"Manga is an extremely excellent tool for organizing information," said Toshimitsu Kawanaka, a professor at the Department of Manga Media of Kobe Design University. "For companies, manga has become a means to convey what their purposes are in a clear manner."

EASY EXPLAINER FOR EMPLOYEES

Earth Corp. produced a manga about its midterm business plan (MBP) for 2021 through 2023 and has been streaming the cartoon for its employees since fall 2021.

The drug maker distributed 2,000 copies of a 116-page, A5-size printed edition to its group companies in June 2022.

The manga portrays the company's future direction and other goals set forth in the MBP by showing how staff members approach their daily work to achieve each of its strategies such as "expanding a revenue base in Asia" and "creating a cost synergy."

President Katsunori Kawabata appears at the end to give a pep talk, telling employees: "There's nothing wrong with failing to yield results!"

Earth said it produced the manga to explain its priority operations, numerical goals and other purposes listed in the MBP in simple terms and instill them into staff members.

"MBPs are also made available for viewing by those outside the company, so they are written with many formal business terms," said Isao Goji, 51, head of the Corporate Planning Department. "But that would alienate the feelings of employees, so we wanted to bring them back."

In the manga, corporate social responsibility (CSR), creating shared value (CSV), materiality (evaluation of priority issues) and other big words are explained in layman's terms to show how employees can utilize such concepts for their work.

Goji and four other members of the department in charge of compiling the MBP spent nine months to produce the manga, working closely together with a production company.

It was only natural that the corporate workers were conservative in their ideas.

But the production company said there was no need to create a manga if they wanted to deliver messages in an earnest and accurate manner.

"We had difficulties in finding a balance between how to make use of the merit of manga and what we wanted to convey," Goji recalled.

SHARING CORPORATE PURPOSE

Siemens Healthcare K.K., a Japanese subsidiary of German medical equipment giant Siemens Healthineers, used manga to promote its new corporate goals adopted in 2021 among its employees.

"With manga, we thought we could help employees take inspiration from a story based on an actual case and think about our new mission as their own," said Naoko Miyoshi, head of the communications department.

In February 2022, Siemens Healthcare solicited suggestions from three production companies to create a manga themed on a project that actually saw the light of day at the med-tech firm.

Tokyo-based industry leader Trend-pro Inc. won the contract.

The company came up with a story about an aspiring young staff member and her immediate superior who remembers what it is like to take on a challenge and works together with her.

The story was created in two separate versions, told from the perspective of each character.

The manga places emphasis on the importance of the company's new purpose, "We pioneer breakthroughs in health care. For everyone. Everywhere," and incorporates keywords required to achieve that goal such as "engage voluntarily."

The manga was streamed online between May and September 2022, with 10 pages published each month.

It was viewed by about half of about 1,600 employees each time, and an in-house survey showed that the cartoon was well-received, according to the company.

INCREASE IN DEMAND

According to Trend-pro, many companies previously placed orders for corporate manga to promote themselves to their clients and customers.

But in recent years, it has been receiving a growing number of orders from companies to produce manga for their own employees.

In the business year ending in October 2022, Trend-pro received 57 orders, an almost threefold increase from the same period three years earlier, and sales rose by about eight times to approximately 47 million yen ($361,000).

After it became difficult to conduct group training sessions and other programs because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the production company has been receiving an increasing number of orders to produce manga dealing with themes such as "the promotion of corporate identity," "the preparation of manuals" and "compliance."

Currently, corporate cartoons take on a wider range of themes.

Trend-pro received no orders for manga about MBPs before the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020.

But there were three orders in the business year ending in October 2021.

It also received five orders in the following year, during which the company also received three orders for manga themed on career education for the first time from companies that said they wanted to assist employees feeling isolated while working remotely and unsure about their career development.

CLEAR METHOD OF COMMUNICATION

"Text is easier to understand when it is added with photos, but manga can make points clearer because the medium combines illustrations and letters," professor Kawanaka said. "Illustrations also have their advantage because, compared with photos, they can easily emphasize what they want to convey."

He added that companies can also use manga to increase the willingness of their employees by sharing the success stories of their fellow workers.