Yeah, I think these stats are bs, some people are also debunking the taco bit.
According to Wikipedia, France is about 40% of the European market and I don't think Japanese read much western comics, so I don't think that's what we talk about.
In my perception this French anomaly comes from two factors :
There was a French TV segment in the 90s called "club Dorothé" that imported a lot of Japanese animation, initially because it was cheaper that producing or importing other TV shows. This got a whole generation addicted to mangas and now it's just part of culture.
There is an actual cultural proximity between France and Japan, the most obvious part being the obsession about food.
actual cultural proximity between France and Japan
Yes. It is also my perception. We are so far apart from each other, physically and culturally but somehow it fells like there is some link that connected us. For example, French and Japanese are among the hardest language to learn in the world, bc they both have a overly complicated writting system but somehow, there is an ease for a japanese speaker to learn spoken french vice versa.