Yoshihiro Yonezawa
President
Comic Market
Tokyo, Japan
Biography:
On October 1st, 2006, Yoshihiro Yonezawa, the prolific manga critic and co-founder and president of the Comic Market (Comiket, the world's largest doujinshi marketplace event), died of Lung Cancer at age 53.
Born March 21st, 1953 in Kumamoto, he started getting involved in manga criticism while still in Meiji University. In 1975, while still a student at Meiji University, Yonezawa co-founded The Comic Market (Comiket), which has since grown into the largest doujinshi market event in the world. Originally a 1-day event, Summer Comiket 2006 featured doujinshi published by 35,000 publishing groups and attracted over 430 thousand attendees, over a 3-day period (August 11-13, 2006). In 1980 he assumed the role of president of The Comic Market.
After his passing, his personal doujinshi collection was donated to Meiji University, which is converting one of their buildings to a library in his memory.
Convention Guest Appearances
- Anime Expo Tokyo 2004 - January 16-18, 2004 in Ikebukuro, Toyko, Japan
- Yaoi-Con 2001 - September 1, 2001 in San Francisco, CA, USA
- Katsucon 1995 - February 17-19, 1995 in Virginia Beach, VA, USA
- Anime America 1993 - June 25-27, 1993 in Santa Clara, CA, USA