ONE PIECE Vol. 87 Sold 1.5 Million Copies In October. How Much Did Eiichiro Oda Make?
As a follow up to our report on the top-selling manga in Japan for the month of October, let's examine how much money Eiichiro Oda earned from One Piece.
As we reported yesterday, of the top 20 selling manga in Japan for the month of October, the latest tankoubon (volume) of One Piece sold 1,505, 639 copies. That's more than double the next closest title, Kingdom Vol. 8, which still sold a respectable 688,666 copies. Per ShueishaManga.net, the latest One Piece volume retailed for ¥400 yen or $3.55 USD. Yes, that same manga volume that retails for $9.99 USD on the VizMedia app is only $3.55 in Japan. The reason behind the price difference is because Viz must recuperate costs for their licensing fees, translators and the higher grade of paper U.S. books are printed on.
Moving on, if we take that ¥400 yen retail price and multiply that times the number of copies sold, One Piece Vol. 87 had a gross revenue of ¥602,255,600 yen or $5,337,791.38 USD. Keep in mind, the statistics for this report range from October 2 - November 5 and Vol. 87 didn't go on sale until November 2! In just 3 days, One Piece drastically outsold titles that were released weeks prior.
It's widely reported that mangaka in Japanearn anywhere from 8-10% of the retail price of their book, before taxes. That means from the ¥400 yen price tag on the volume, Oda receives anywhere from ¥32 to ¥40 yen per sale (.28 to .35 USD). With 1,505, 630 copies sold in October, Oda pocketed anywhere between ¥48,180,448 to ¥60,225,560 yen ($427,023.31 to $533,779.14 USD). Now Volumes collect the individual chapters (or issues) that are published weekly in the aptly titled Weekly Shonen Jump. One Piece volumes usually contain about 10-11 chapters and are published every 3 months. So 4 times a year, Oda will earn himself a cool $500k just by releasing a volume. Keep in mind, this figure only represents sales in Japan and doesn't include:
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sales from previously released volumes
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international sales
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Oda's salary from Weekly Shonen Jump (manga authors are naturally paid for the chapters they supply to a magazine)
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One Piece anime royalties
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other licensing and merchandise products (video games, toys, etc)
Even during months where there's no volume being released, Oda likely earns well over $500k.