Tanma-kun Manga Creator Sadao Shoji Dies at 88

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©Sadao Shoji, Bungeishunjū

Japanese news website nippon.com reported on Wednesday that manga artist Sadao Shoji died on April 5 at a hospital in Tokyo due to heart failure. He was 88.

Shoji was born in Tokyo in 1937 and made his debut as a manga creator in 1967, and is known for his salaryman-themed manga series. His long-running manga Tanma-kun ran from 1968 to 2025, for a total of 57 years and 8 months, in Bungeishunjū's Shūkan Bunshun weekly tabloid. Bungeishunjū published a commemorative mook (magazine book) for the manga in October last year (image right) when the manga ended.

Kodansha's Shūkan Gendai magazine published Shoji's Salaryman Senka manga for 55 years from 1969 to 2024. Shoji also drew the Asatte-kun four-panel manga, which was published in the morning edition of the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper from 1974 to 2014, for 13,479 installments. Aside from his salaryman-themed manga, Shoji was also active in writing essays about everyday foods.

Shoji won several manga awards including the grand prize in the Japan Cartoonists Association Awards in 2001 for his Asatte-kun manga, the prestigious Japanese national honors "Medal with Purple Ribbon" in 2000, and the "Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette" in 2011. 

Sources: nippon.com, TBS News Dig, Asahi Shimbun, Bunshun Online (臼井良子)