Machiko Hasegawa's popular manga series "Sazae-san" and "Ijiwaru Baasan" have been released as ebooks, with distribution beginning on April 22nd. The two works were made available as ebooks for the first time, coinciding with the 80th anniversary of the start of "Sazae-san's" serialization on the same day. All 68 volumes of "Sazae-san" and all 6 volumes of "Ijiwaru Baasan" are now available at various ebook stores across Japan.
"Sazae-san" was first published in the "Yukan Fukuchi" (Fukuchi Newspaper Company) on April 22, 1946, and celebrated its 80th anniversary on April 22, 2026. "Ijiwaru Baasan" was adapted into a drama starring the late Yukio Aoshima, former governor of Tokyo, but the original manga has a different flavor, full of humor that sharply captures the nuances of everyday life and a sense of the times.
The ebook version of "Sazae-san" includes newspaper publication dates and explanations of terminology from that era, which were not present in the original version, making it a valuable cultural resource for understanding the social conditions of the time. "Ijiwaru Baasan" is an ebook version of a reprint of the original edition published by Shimaisha, a publishing company founded by Hasegawa and her sister Mariko.
"Sazae-san" began serialization in the "Yukan Fukuchi" newspaper in 1946, and was serialized in the Asahi Shimbun from 1951 to 1974. The TV anime has been broadcast on the Fuji TV network since October 5, 1969, and has been a long-loved staple program on Sunday afternoons at 6:30 pm, spanning the Showa, Heisei, and Reiwa eras. In October 2024, it celebrated its 55th anniversary and broke the Guinness World Record for "longest-running TV anime series."
