Josei

Josei manga (literally "women's comics", also called ladies' comics or redikomi) is an editorial category of Japanese comics that emerged in the 1980s and, strictly speaking, means manga marketed to an audience of adult women, in contrast to shojo, which targets girls and young adult women. Its dramas tend to be realist stories about the lives of ordinary women, and its romances usually run soap opera-style melodrama. Early josei distinguished itself by exploring work, sex and life after marriage, where shojo typically depicts life before marriage, though the line between the two categories is often blurry. Be Love and You are the anchor magazines; Paradise Kiss, Bunny Drop and Chihayafuru are visible hits.

For a novelist it is the rare shelf defined by life stage: the audience reads about the decade it is living, which makes workplace and relationship realism the default register, close kin to adult romance writing.