Originally posted by Maciamo
So how comes you never find them in combinis ? There is only one place I know where to find "other" kind of magazines (actually mostly about travel) and it's in big bookshops like Maruzen or Kinokuniya. However, I was talking about what was available in a local "kiosk" or newsagent or kind of combini in Europe. I should even be more accurate. As magazines are published in just one language and there are dozens of languages in Europe, we should take each language separately. I was speaking of French-speaking magazines. A "kiosk" the size of a Japanese convenience store has a much greater variety. Even if there are some specialised interests mags in Japan (I and don't doubt it with a population of 126million, that 2x more than all French-speakers/readers in Europe).

I've never seen a specialised history, literature, arts, architecture or real estate magazine in a combini. What you call "general weekly magazines" (週刊なんか) are basically disguised porn shrouded in tabloid-like gossips (where the Mainichi Shimbun in English gets its scandal/wai wai stories).

The important here is how many readers of each kind of magazines there are in each country ; and if I can see any time people reading history or culture magazines in Paris, I rarely see anything else than porn (including manga versions) in the hands of Japanese businessmen on the train. That has been my impression ever since I came to Tokyo 2 years ago.
This is starting to sound quite different from your original post. The reason you won't see the variety in a combini (and you can find a great variety in small book shops as well) is because the combini is just going to sell the most popular ones. this is no different then the rack you see at the grocery store in the US, sorry we don' t have too many conbinis where I am from. Those racks display the most popular magazines and in the US they will be covered with every trash tabloid there iis as well as People, Cosmo, GQ and all the women's magazines and normally Reader's Digest, and Prevention magazine as well as a couple cooking ones. These are the kinds that sell the best in most countries and people use them as a form of entertainment, something to read with out actually having to think . The same reason as fiction paperbacks sell a lot better then scholarly works, sometimes it is nice to read something without having to analyze. If I was riding on th etrains everyday I would probably carry something entertaining that I could read without asking my brain cells to help. Most of the Japanese I know have an incredible variety of magazines in their homes.


And then there is manga...........