A is a store that specializes in doujinshi, self-published works. They exist mainly in Japan. Doujin shops can be both brick and mortar as well as online stores. Some sell only second-hand doujinshi, but particularly larger chain stores also sell new doujinshi. Many doujin shops also handle other kinds of doujin works, such as doujin music or doujin games, or commercially published popular media such as manga and anime. Summary Doujin shops are either independent or part of a larger doujin shop chain. Doujin shop chain outlets can be found in many large cities in Japan. They often cluster together in areas that are seen as gathering places for pop culture fans, such as Tokyo's Akihabara and Ikebukuro neighborhoods, or the Nipponbashi area of Osaka. Outlets can be very large and often have multiple floors dedicated to doujinshi for different audiences, or to new and second-hand doujinshi. Together with doujinshi conventions, doujin shops are the main distribution outlets for doujinshi. Doujin shops fill a need that doujinshi conventions cannot meet: making doujinshi accessible to buyers who, for whatever reason, cannot attend conventions. While some regular bookstores very occasionally carry some doujinshi, doujinshi are usually excluded from regular book distribution channels. This is partly because they are per definition self-published, but also because most doujinshi are fanworks, meaning that they exist in a legal gray area of Japanese copyright law. Tolerance towards doujinshi on the part of copyright holders means that doujin shops can continue to operate. Some doujin shops also have online stores through which they sell print doujinshi, and sometimes also downloadable digital doujinshi, doujin games, and so on. Stores that sell digital doujin works are called "download stores". Some download stores operate purely online and do not have a physical store attached to them. The largest of these is . Additionally, some fan creators operate their own online shops. History The first doujin shops emerged in the early 1980s and were located mostly in Tokyo. As doujinshi creation became more popular in the middle of the 1980s because of the boom in such new genres as lolicon and especially yaoi, doujin shops expanded as well and began to sell not just second-hand doujinshi but also new doujinshi on commission. Some developed into large chain stores that continued to expand throughout the 1990s, along with the rising number of participants in Comiket and other doujinshi conventions. The commercial impact