The portal Yahoo! News reported that the Kitamura Kamiten paper mill has filed the necessary paperwork to file for bankruptcy with the Tokyo District Court since May 14. The information was confirmed by financial research firm Teikoku Databank.
Although Kitamura Kamiten worked with a wide variety of production orders related to both Japanese and Western styles, earnings were strongly affected by the cancellation of Comic Market 98 (Comiket 98). The doujinshi convention was originally planned to take place on May 5.
The company was already suffering from financial problems since the decline in demand for paper products in recent years. In February, the company reported a profit of 105 million yen (about 975 thousand dollars), one million yen less than the same month in 2003. The entity had been relying on sales made during Comiket to pay its liabilities, But the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic brought with it a hard and irreparable blow to the company's finances, which finally closed its doors on May 13.
Kitamura Kamiten was founded and established in 1970. The company specialized in the manufacture of wrapping and covering paper, as well as the manufacture of Japanese "washi" paper, which is used to write letters.
