Organizers of Comiket 99 have announced that the event has been postponed, due to to the coronavirus pandemic.
In their full statement on the official website (translation: Google Translate), it explains that rather than holding the event during Winter 2020, it will now be held in 2021 during Golden Week (April 29th to early May).
After the cancellation of Comiket 98 due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Japanese government and local governments sent guidelines to event organizers in late May. The guidelines were to be followed from June onwards, to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Based on the guidelines, the organizers still expressed concerns about there being a risk of the virus spreading at the event. Further, the convention center (Tokyo Big Sight) will host the International Broadcasting Center and Media Press Center in its east hall for the now postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Winter 2020.
While this would have meant Comiket 99 would have been extended to four days to compensate for the loss of space, it was “not realistic considering the end of the year holidays.” While the event could be held with major change, there would still ultimately be a risk of infection- leading to the events postponement.
Development of the “Air Comiket” event during Golden Week will commence this Winter; expanding the event to celebrate the 45th anniversary of Comiket.
Further details will be announced in Fall 2020. Comiket (Comic Market) first began in December 1975, a convention for amateur and indie manga creators (doujinshi) could sell their works.
The ongoing coronavirus pandemic (also known as COVID-19 officially, or Chinese Flu to others) has affected many worldwide, from businesses to public gatherings and events.
This includes postponements of GDC, the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, the physical events for EVO 2020 and Tokyo Game Show 2020, and cancellations E3 2020 (including digital events), BlizzCon 2020, the physical event for Gamescom 2020, Comiket 98, and MAGStock 2020.
We also reported Mafia: Definitive Edition being delayed, and Japanese theme parks implementing a soft ban on screaming on attractions.
The Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering are mapping the virus’ spread [1, 2]. As of this time of writing, there are over over 5.189 million active cases worldwide. There have been over 556,000 deaths, however over 7.031 million people have made a “total recovery.” There have been over 12.776 million total confirmed cases.
Japan has 3,011 active cases (21,839 total cases active cases), 983 deaths, and 17,845 recoveries.
Image: Wikipedia
