According to the tweet by user @eifalkfjanv, readers seem to have mixed feeling about the sudden hike on the price of “Weekly Shonen Magazine”. This magazine releases every Wednesday. The latest issue i.e the 25th issue released on May 19th 2021, had a price of 320yen instead of 300yen.

Many readers are dissatisfied with the silent hike. Furthermore, such increase is also visible in the online stores’ price. Due to this many readers have decided to not buy the future copies anymore. However, this is not the first time that the Weekly Shonen Magazine has increased the price. Statistics shows, they have increased the price every 5 years. But the unannounced increase that happened this year, is not gradual.

1959 First issue 40 yen

1960 : 30 yen
1965 : 50 yen
1970 : 70 yen
1975 : 130 yen
1980 : 170 yen
1985 : 180 yen
1990 : 190 yen
1995 : 210 yen
2000 : 230 yen
2005 : 240 yen
2010 : 250 yen
2015 : 260 yen
2020 : 300 yen

Latest issue 320 yen

The 25th issue had 486 pages, which includes the 11 opening gravure pages of the idol group “Hinatazaka46” and 56 pages of the 2nd chapter of “Hero’s Lovelock”. The rest is other manga series and advertisements. And the price offered is 320yen including tax.

Previously, the 24th issue was a big magazine of 518 pages and cost 320yen while, the merger 22/23 issue was also 320yen, which had only 472 pages. But again, the 21st issue was 486 pages and cost 300yen. Taking a look at the “300yen Era”, the 20th issue had 438 pages,19th issue had 440 pages,18th issue had 440 pages, and the 17th issue had 422 pages. Thus, this inconsistent change in the price of the weekly magazine has put the readers in concern.

Nonetheless, for the upcoming 26th edition, the publishing company has clearly stated the new price of the Weekly Shonen Magazine will be 320yen. The clear reason for the increase has not been stated, however, there is a noticeable increment in the number of pages that has increased since the “300 yen Era”. In addition, the other possible reason for the price increase of magazines is related to the quality of the paper and the number of color pages.

Source: MyJitsu