Tezuka Award
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The Tezuka Award (手塚賞, Tezuka Shō) (since 1971) is a semi-annual manga award offered by the Japanese publisher Shueisha (集英社), under the auspices of its Weekly Shonen Jump magazine. It awards new comic artists in the Story Manga category. Its counterpart award, Akatsuka Award, awards new comic artists in the Comedic Manga category. The award is named after the manga pioneer Osamu Tezuka and is designed to cultivate new artists. The prize for a top Selected Work is worth one million Japanese yen and for a lesser but still worthy work, half-a-million yen. These cash prizes may not be awarded (as is often the case) if the judges deem none of the candidates worthy.
Historically the awardees have been in their early twenties, although two notable winners were over 90 years of age.
Selection committee
Committee chair
- Osamu Tezuka (1971-1988)
- Fujio Akatsuka (1989-2008). Due to his failing health, this title was merely a formality during the years leading up to his death on 2 August 2008.
Major committee members
These are the most prominent members of the committee only. Other adjudicators are also present in the committee.
- Akira Toriyama (acting committee chair)
- Nobuhiro Watsuki
- Eiichiro Oda
- Masashi Kishimoto
- Riichiro Inagaki
- Tezuka Productions