Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story
The Hugo Awards are given every year by the World Science Fiction Society for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine "Amazing Stories", and was once officially known as the Science Fiction Achievement Award. It has been described as "a fine showcase for speculative fiction" and "the best known literary award for science fiction writing". The Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story is given each year for science fiction or fantasy stories told in graphic form and published or translated into English during the previous calendar year. The Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story has been awarded annually since 2009. It was started then with the requirement that it would only continue as an official award if approved again by the World Science Fiction Society after that year. It was, and was again awarded in 2010; it was ratified as a permanent category after the 2012 awards.
Seiun Award
It is similar to the Hugo Award, which is presented by the members of the World Science Fiction Society, in that all of the members of the presenting convention are eligible to participate in the selection process. But it is not strictly correct to call it Japan's "equivalent" to the Hugo Awards, as the Hugo Awards are open to works from anywhere in any language while the Seiun implicitly limited the area and the language like as the BSFA Award.