The Comic Market Committee announced on Friday that it has canceled this year’s Comic Market (Comiket 98) dojinshi convention to help prevent the spread of the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19). The Comic Market 98 Catalog (pictured below) will still go on sale on April 11, and the committee asks people to purchase the catalog to support the event in the future. However, the wristbands used as entry passes for the event will no longer go on sale on the same day, nor the DVD-ROM edition of the catalog originally slated on April 18.
The committee added that it cannot confirm if the Tokyo Big Sight venue is available this December, or in July and August of 2021, since the Tokyo Olympics has been postponed from this summer. “Plans for Comic Market 99 (Winter 2020) will be announced separately, once the schedule and venue have been confirmed.”
As of Thursday, the WHO reported that Japan has 1,291 cases of COVID-19 with 45 deaths. These numbers do not include the number of cases from the Diamond Princess cruise ship docked in Yokohama.