Shares of manga publishers and anime production companies soared in Japan based on widespread speculation that Taro Aso, secretary-general of the Liberal Democratic Party and avowed otaku, may be the country’s next prime minister.
Although the surprise resignation of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe caused most stocks to stumble, The Wall Street Journal reports that “shares linked to hobbies associated with ‘otaku,’ or nerds, jumped.”
On Wednesday, shares of manga publisher Broccoli shot up 71 percent, while those of second-hand comic store chain Mandarake climbed 13 percent. Shares of We’ve, which produces a Japanese version of Sesame Street, rose 14 percent.
In May, while serving as Japan’s foreign minister, Aso established the International Manga Award, often referred to as “the Nobel Prize of manga.”
