00:02Surrounded by the smell of ink and humming printing presses,
00:0640-year-old photographer Obara Kazuma and his creative partner
00:09are here to check up on their latest publication.
00:13Without a professional publishing house,
00:15the pair has found editorial freedom and a niche younger fan base
00:19through their rather old-school creation, a zine.
00:23Obara says print media has the power to bring people closer,
00:27especially in the digital age.
00:32I think print media is incredibly open.
00:34You can hand it to someone, you can read it together.
00:37Phones, by contrast, feel like they are very insular.
00:40Everyone is each in their own little space, enjoying their own little world.
00:47This printing factory in Kyoto has served more and more artists like Obara.
00:52While the traditional print media dwindles in number and sales,
00:55self-published zines are on the rise, all thanks to younger readers.
01:03People in their 40s and 50s might even be the generation that calls them old media.
01:08But as I do this kind of work now, I'm finding that, surprisingly,
01:12it resonates with younger people in their 20s and early 30s.
01:16I even hear comments like, it's interesting, precisely because it's old.
01:24At this zine fest in Tokyo, some say it's nostalgia.
01:28Some say it's the sensory experience of the rustling pages and the smell of ink.
01:36I simply love paper and books.
01:39I think AI and digital tools make it possible to create all kinds of things now.
01:44And the range of possibility is really broad.
01:47But with analog, there's this quality of having something that actually remains in your hands.
01:52And I found that really appealing.
01:54The zine publishing market in Japan is estimated at over 900 million U.S. dollars,
02:00and it has doubled in the past four years.
02:03Now, with the big Japanese bookstore chain putting zines on its shelves,
02:07the nostalgia economy of print media seems to be moving back into the mainstream,
02:13bringing people out to share what they love.
02:15Andy Xue and Aring Lin for Taiwan Plus.
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