Factbook

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Book Selling

Japan has 14,000 bookshops, and more bookshops per capita than the United States

[UPDATED: 2-12-2018]

At pixel time Japan had 14,000 bookshops, according to the Japan Book Publishers Association (JPA), of which 4,000 belong to the Japan Booksellers Federation.

However, in the 1990s there were more than 20,000 bookstores in Japan. The number of bookstores – especially independent stores – like in many countries, has been in decline.

Nevertheless, Tokyo still has a very large number of bookstores with a ratio of one for every 1.3 square kilometers. In addition, Tokyo also boasts 630 secondhand bookstores.

Today, there are approximately 6,100 people per bookstore in Tokyo compared to a national average of around 7,700. This is a much higher per capital ratio than in the United States (27,350), the United Kingdom (15,000) and South Korea (13,300).

Japan has 14,000 bookshops, and more bookshops per capita than the United States Posted March 22nd, 2017 by Koji Chikatani

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Factbook

Japan has 14,000 bookshops, and more bookshops per capita than the United States

Writing about ‘The Lost’ or ‘Old and New’ or Japan ‘Off-The-Beaten-Track’ in English is an enduring publishing trend that goes back to at least 1878[UPDATED: 6-17-2024]

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A poem about a frog written in 1686 by Japan’s most famous poet is Japan’s best known poem[UPDATED: 10-2-2023]

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