Coamix Inc.
President
Interview with Nobuhiko Horie
Thanks to you, Coremix celebrated its 2025th anniversary on June 6, 14.
We asked President and CEO Nobuhiko Horie about his thoughts on the company and its employees a quarter century after its founding.
Nobuhiko HorieBorn in Kumamoto City in 1955. After graduating from Waseda University's Faculty of Law, he joined Shueisha in 1979. As an editor for "Weekly Shonen Jump," he worked with Tetsuo Hara and Tsukasa Hojo to create many popular works such as "Fist of the North Star" and "City Hunter." In 1993, he became the 5th editor-in-chief of the magazine, setting a record high circulation of 653 million copies. After leaving the company in 2000, he co-founded Coamix Co., Ltd. with Tetsuo Hara, Tsukasa Hojo, and Ryuji Tsugihara, and launched "Weekly Comic Bunch," serving as editor-in-chief until 2004. In the same year, he established North Stars Pictures Co., Ltd. for content management purposes (merged with Coamix in April 2020). In 2009, he opened "Cafe Zenon" in Kichijoji (renamed and changed to "Gallery Zenon" in 2024). In 2010, he launched "Monthly Comic Zenon," serving as editor-in-chief until 2013. In 2011, he established Jizoya Co., Ltd. In 1920, she founded the all-female opera company "O'Clock Kumamoto Opera Company." In 1924, she opened "Kumamoto Manga Arts," a facility in the city that houses the company's theater and a gallery exhibiting original manga artwork. In 1925, she received the 4th Kumamoto Nichinichi Shimbun Manga Culture Award for her contributions to the development of manga culture. In March 1926, she was awarded the Medal of Honor with Dark Blue Ribbon. She also works as a writer under the pen name Kitahara Seibo.
A company is a public institution. Employees are craftsmen.
That's the core mix.
Now that a quarter of a century has passed since the company was founded, what are your thoughts about Coremix and its employees?
Coremix is a public company. In other words, it does not belong to the management or shareholders, but to all the employees. Because it is a public company, each employee strives to do their best in their own position, cooperates with each other, and aims to make everyone happy.
What does our company do? We create content and develop it into a hit. Creating content is the act of creating something from nothing. This takes a lot of time and effort. And developing the content into a hit is like threading a needle while running. To continue doing this, each and every person with an inquisitive and ambitious spirit needs to join forces and use their wisdom.
That's why I tell my employees to "be craftsmen." A craftsman is someone who feels that even if they give 100% to their job, it's still not enough. Even if people around them praise them, they are people who always feel that "it's not enough. I could have done more." I hope that Coremix will be a group of craftsmen like that.
And I often tell my employees, "Let's work steadily and steadily, adding one more trick to each step." There are tons of excellent companies and as many talented people as there are stars in the sky. In such a world, the most important thing for us to continue to produce results is to have the perseverance to continue and not give up.
Looking back, when I was editing the manga at "Weekly Shonen Jump," I was surrounded by many excellent people. The reason I was able to serve as editor-in-chief in this environment was not because I had great ability, but because I had the perseverance to work "steadily and diligently." I would like to convey these and other thoughts of mine, as I turn 71 this year, through conversations with employees.
In recent years, Coremix has been focusing on nurturing manga artists. What is the aim of this?
One of the things we are focusing on is nurturing manga artists. 25 years have passed since our founding, and the birthrate in Japan has been declining. It is said that the percentage of people who want to become manga artists is increasing, but I believe that the absolute number is decreasing. In such a situation, we will soon reach our limit if we continue to accept submissions and hold manga awards and give prizes as we have done in the past. We need to create a place to nurture them, take the initiative to invite them, and develop them into professional manga artists.
To that end, we opened a residential building and restaurant that can accommodate about 50 people in Aso, Kumamoto, where our second headquarters is located. Since 2022, when the COVID-30 pandemic has passed, we have been inviting manga artists and aspiring manga artists from Japan and abroad here. In an environment where there is no worry about living expenses, and with the support of a resident manga editor from Coremix, nearly XNUMX people are now honing their talents and working on serializations and assistantship in Coremix publications.
In training manga artists, we are also fully cooperating with the Takamori High School Manga Department. In September 2021, an agreement was signed between Takamori Town, where our second headquarters is located, the Kumamoto Prefectural Board of Education, Takamori High School, and Coremix, and the department was opened in April 9. This is the first Manga Department to be established at a public high school in Japan. We believe that the fact that the school was established at a public school, rather than a private school, in order to provide equal opportunities to all high school students, is a major development for the future of the Japanese manga world. The application ratio is high at 23 times (first half of 4), and junior high school students from all over the country come to visit and take the exam.
Coremix dispatches lecturers to the Manga Department, creates textbooks, and also supports the Manga Club, an after-school club activity. There are students in the general education department who want to draw manga. Coremix manga editors rotate between classes every day to provide support to these students, hoping to provide them with an opportunity to learn how to draw manga.
Also, while working to train manga artists in Aso, Kumamoto, I realized something. That is, when you spend time in the nature-rich Aso, you discover a lot of beauty hidden in nature. Light shining through cracks in the clouds, gradations of color in the distance, scenery that looks like a sumi-e painting on a rainy day... I think that people who see something beautiful can also draw something beautiful. Aso's nature is a treasure trove of beauty. I hope that they will be able to hone their skills in such an environment.
