Bookstore Revitalization Drawing More Attention;Yomiuri-Kodansha Proposal Spurs Fresh Interest

The Yomiuri Shimbun

21:02 JST, February 21, 2025

After The Yomiuri Shimbun and Kodansha Ltd. made public their joint proposal for revitalizing bookstores early this month, discussions on promoting bookstores are deepening not only inside the industry but also in other fields such as politics.

Hiroo Kotera, a member of the House of Representatives from the Liberal Democratic Party, asked questions on supporting bookstores at the House of Representatives Budget Committee on Thursday.

“Bookstores are important as they are cultural hubs in local communities,” he said after the questioning.

“It is important to make the burden on bookstores as small as possible,” he added, noting that the joint proposal states that fees for credit cards and other cashless payment methods are putting pressure on bookstores’ operations and that it calls for reduction of such fees.

“We would like to promote support measures, such as boosting cooperation between local bookstores and libraries, with the support of governors and mayors of municipalities,” said Kotera, the secretary general of an LDP Diet members’ group for “energizing local bookstores and preserving Japanese culture.”

Bookstore owners have also voiced positive opinions on the proposal.

After the announcement of the joint proposal, Tohan Corp., a major publication distributor, received about 50% more inquiries than usual about Honyal, a project that it started in October to support the opening of small bookstores. The company has received more than 350 inquiries so far, probably because more people are becoming interested in the fact that bookstores are decreasing in number. Seventy percent of the inquiries are from individuals, many with no prior experience as bookstore operators.

One new bookstore that uses Honyal, called Sprout Books and Art, opened near Futakotamagawa Station in Setagaya Ward, Tokyo, on Thursday. The shop sells art-related books as well as a large selection of accessories, illustrations and other miscellaneous goods. The owner, Toru Iizuka, 53, said, “I would like to hold events in the future to keep the bookstore open for a long time.”

Digital transformation using IC tags, a move called for in the proposal, is also accelerating. In January, PubteX, a new firm established by companies including three publishers — Kodansha, Shueisha Inc. and Shogakukan Inc. — plus trading company Marubeni Corp., launched a commercial service to attach IC tags to books to reduce costs and improve operations at bookstores. Currently, IC tags are attached to comics from five companies, including Kodansha, and 10 bookstores of six corporations have begun to use the service.

PubteX President Jun Watanabe, 48, said, “The proposal has created a trend to encourage the use of the service, and we hope to expand the number of bookstores to 100 by the end of fiscal 2025, with the goal of increasing the number to 1,000 as soon as possible.”