Written by Kenshi Hirokane Demographic Seinen Volumes 72 Magazine Weekly Morning | Published by Kodansha Original run 1983 – present Written by Kenshi Hirokane Publisher Kodansha | |
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Similar Human Crossing, Cooking Papa, Gurazeni, Space Brothers, Oishinbo | ||
Kachō Kōsaku Shima (Japanese: 課長島耕作) is the first in a number of Japanese manga series, by Kenshi Hirokane, about a fictional salaryman named Kōsaku Shima. The series ran from 1983–1992 under this title, winning the 1991 Kodansha Manga Award in the General category. As of 2013, the series has sold over 40 million copies in Japan.
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It depicts the life of a salaryman, a Japanese white-collar worker who devotes his life to his company. The manga have been translated from Japanese into English (partially; through Kodansha Bilingual Editions), 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.
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.