Factbook

A Dynamic Compendium of Interesting Japanese Literary and Publishing Facts

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Publishing

The Path, by the founder of Panasonic, has outsold Harry Potter in Japan

[UPDATED: 2-12-2018]

Japan’s second bestselling book is The Path, by Konosuke Matsushita, the founder of Panasonic.

The Path has sold more than 5.2 million copies in Japan since it was first published in March 1981 by PHP Research.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, the first title in JK Rowlings’ Harry Potter series, published in Japanese in December 1999, is the third bestselling title in Japan with sales of more than 5.1 million at pixel time.

Japan’s all time bestselling novel is Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi.

The Path, by the founder of Panasonic, has outsold Harry Potter in Japan Posted March 23rd, 2017 by Koji Chikatani

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Factbook

The Path, by the founder of Panasonic, has outsold Harry Potter in Japan

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]

‘The Life of an Amorous Man’ written by a 17th-century Japanese poet spawned the genre now known as ‘Floating World’ publishing[UPDATED: 1-16-2024]

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

In the 1960s a member of the Japanese Imperial Family started moonlighting as a science fiction author[UPDATED: 8-22-2023]

Writing about the plight of women in Japan is not a new trend. In the 1870s visitors to Japan were already pontificating on the topic in print[UPDATED: 8-4-2023]

New international standards for measuring time, weights and measures encouraged some to call for Japan to adopt a Westernised writing system abandoning traditional alphabets[UPDATED: 7-7-2023]

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