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"Tokyo These Days" (Vol. 1) by Taiyô Matsumoto wins Inalco student prize for manga
The Prix Émile Guimet de littérature asiatique
Initiated in 2017 by the Musée Guimet, the Prix Émile Guimet de littérature asiatique aims to promote works by Asian authors recently translated and published in France. Since 2024, it has included two categories, novels and comics, and this year has been enriched by a student prize dedicated to manga, in collaboration with Inalco.
A new feature: the manga category
Echoing the major exhibition it will devote to manga from November 2025, the Musée Guimet has teamed up with Inalco to create the Inalco Student Prize for Manga. It recognizes a voice and an approach that make a significant contribution to Japanese comics. The prize aims to make an active contribution to the promotion of author-driven manga and to introduce this vast universe to France.
The jury is made up of five Inalco students enrolled in the Japanese Studies department.
Winners of the 8th edition
🏆 Novel prize: "The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida" by Shehan Karunatilaka, translated from English by Xavier Gros (éditions Calmann Lévy).
🏆 Comics prize: "Hana" by Lee Dong-Eun and Jeong Yi-Yong, translated from Korean by Lee Young-Joo and Loïc Gendry (éditions çà et là).
🏆 Inalco student prize for manga: "Tokyo These Days", volume 1 by Taiyô Matsumoto, translated from Japanese by Thibaud Desbief (éditions Kana).
"Tokyo These Days" wins Inalco student prize for manga
Among the 8 mangas selected, the students chose to reward "Tokyo These Days", volume 1 by Taiyô Matsumoto, translated from the Japanese by Thibaud Desbief and published by Kana.
In this three-volume series, Taiyô Matsumoto recounts the journey of Shiozawa, a former manga editor who has left his publishing house after three decades of service. He sets out to revisit his past by tracking down the authors with whom he collaborated. Through an introspective narrative with a singular style, Matsumoto explores the complex relationship between solitude and artistic creation.
"Tokyo These Days", by Taiyô Matsumoto, is a manga with a crude but meticulous graphic style that plunges us into the daily life of a manga publisher. The author shows us the other side of the business and its darker side. The characters, both established artists and publishers, touch us with their personal challenges and difficulties, but they all share a common passion: manga.
Laudatio of the Inalco student jury
The apparently hard line reveals a sensitivity in detail, and is the perfect accompaniment to this introspective, intimate tale. "Tokyo These Days" is a touching story about the other side of a field of passion and hard work.
The five members of the jury also wished to award a "coup de cœur" to volume 6 of the manga "The bike store salesman" by Arare Matsumishi (éditions Le lézard noir).
Students as cultural ambassadors
At the ceremony, Delphine Allès, vice-president of Inalco, expressed her gratitude to the Musée Guimet for this collaboration that enhances the critical and cultural skills acquired by students at Inalco. She emphasized the importance of manga as a gateway to Japanese studies, while recalling the establishment's historic role in teaching Japanese in France, and the way it accompanies this passion towards numerous outlets (literary translation, animation, cultural mediation...).
Delphine Allès also congratulated the award-winning author, Taiyô Matsumoto, and the translator, Thibaud Desbief, an Inalco graduate. She paid tribute to the latter's remarkable work, mentioning the complexity of manga translation, which requires preserving orality and cultural references without altering the meaning.
The institute is proud of this initiative, which reflects its mission to train players in tomorrow's cultural and literary exchanges.