Dates: The next Comiket will take place on August 14 to 16,  2009.
Location: Tokyo Big Sight
Admission: Free (purchase of the catalog is recommended)

Comiket (Comic Market, ???), is held twice a year in Tokyo and boasts 35,000 Dojinshi (coterie comics) publishing circles and many atenders. The expo is broken into separate groups such as Doujinshi Circles (publishing groups), Cosplay and Corporate booths.  For those dressing up in their cosplay gear (i.e. those dressing up as their favourite anime, manga and/or characters), they have a dedicated dressing room. It costs about 800 yen per person to register. There are about 4 to 5 girls for every 1 guy who dresses up in Cosplay (thank god!).

The ‘Circle’ genres are broken down into Manga (comic books), Anime, Games and other. Other includes things like live action monsters, science fiction, mechanics related, military related, trains, travel, music, celebrity related and sports.

Comic Market participants are suprisingly mostly women (71%) to men (29%) – these are the ‘Circle’ organizers. Average age of the organizers is about 28. The gener breakdown of general attendees also favors women – 57% women and 43% men.

Comiket Inc. incorporated in 1985 and changed to its present form in 1996, was formed in order to facilitate activities that require the presence of a legal entity, such as negotiating with public agencies, signing contracts etc. The main role of Comiket is to support the Comic Market Preparations Committee for activities it can’t do on its own.