In recent Japan, on platforms like X (Twitter), there are numerous individuals, both professional and amateur, who share their comics on Twitter. They compile their desired content into 4 to 8 panels and post them on Twitter.I will introduce what kind of content posts are common.
Events that happened in one’s daily life.
For example, many people create comics depicting events such as “finding something good while shopping” or “being able to eat something delicious” that happened in their daily lives and share them. Comics with such themes are popular because authors can easily draw inspiration from their everyday experiences, making it relatively easy to create stories. Additionally, readers can easily empathize with these stories and enjoy them with a positive outlook.
Examples：
・I went to a cute cafe and had delicious food.
・My cat’s behaviour is so cute that I started keeping a cat observation diary.
・Once a week, I set aside a day to eat my favorite foods. On that day, I draw a comic about what I ate.
・My favourite town is going to be lost due to redevelopment, so I’m writing about my memories of there.
Experiences of being cheated on by a husband or wife.
This theme is clearly inappropriate for children’s comics. However, topics resembling gossip, such as infidelity, are beloved as a great pastime for housewives and adult readers in the Japanese comic genre. In such comics, the ultimate purpose is to alleviate readers’ frustrations by depicting the cheating husband or wife facing severe consequences in the end.
Examples：
・My husband was having an affair with a woman at work, so I divorced him and forced them both to quit their jobs.
・He left home with his children because his wife was having an affair.
Comics related to current events or trends.
Creating comics based on one’s past experiences related to topics that are currently making headlines in the news is also becoming popular. Additionally, expressing one’s thoughts on these matters through comics is a trend.
Examples：
・In response to the news about a woman who became mentally ill after being molested, another woman who was molested on a Japanese train writes a comic about her own experience, describing how terrifying it was.
・A comic book explaining the political conflict between neighboring countries
・Scientific phenomena explained in easy-to-understand comic form.
Conclusion
In addition to comics on the above themes, comics on a much wider range of topics are freely posted on Twitter in Japan. For Japanese people, comics are simply a method of expression and a tool for self-expression.