October 21, 2024
TOKYO – From rising logistics costs to cashless transaction fees, Japanese bookshops are under siege as they struggle to stay afloat at a time when fewer people are reading.
These are among 34 challenges identified by a Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (Meti) project team tasked with reviving bookshops, in a 24-page report released on Oct 4.
It sounded an existential alarm of a young generation “growing up without knowing what a bookshop is or encountering new books”, which it said “could have a major impact on the foundation of our country’s existence and competitiveness”.
Physical bookshops are a sunset industry in Japan, like their counterparts in most parts of the world, in a digital era that favours less clutter and greater convenience.
The report cited problems such as cashless transaction fees – of about 3 per cent per transaction, which chips away at low returns – and the comparable disadvantage physical bookshops face against e-tailers that deliver books to doorsteps, often faster and for free.
Other issues are unique to Japan, such as pricing fixed by publishers in a policy that was historically aimed at reducing the urban-rural divide, but is increasingly unsustainable as bookshops have no room to raise prices to cover overheads like rent or logistics.
The report also noted that the country may be publishing “too many” titles per year – about 70,000 – which are distributed to bookshops using a consignment system that, on paper, is supposed to protect bookshops by reducing inventory risk and allowing them to return unsold titles.
But the cost of returns is borne by bookshops, which are thus pressured by rising logistics fees. The return rate has also climbed to a record 33.4 per cent for books and 47.3 per cent for magazines in 2023.
Tokyo is, until Nov 4, canvassing for views in a public feedback exercise following the report, which was drawn up after a half-year review where officials travelled across the country to speak to owners of bookshops big and small.
The views will then be used to formulate policies to sustain bookshops. Among the pleas by bookshop owners are rental subsidies, larger grants to diversify their businesses, banning the free shipping of books bought online, and tax exemptions for book purchases.
Former minister of economy, trade and industry Ken Saito, who was a published author before he entered politics, launched the project team in March as he warned that the demise of bookshops will consequently “result in a literarily and culturally bankrupt nation”.
The Oct 4 report described bricks-and-mortar retailers as “extremely important social assets”, adding: “Bookshops are important hubs that can promulgate culture, disseminate information and promote diverse schools of thought, and thus have the ability to grow a nation’s power.”
“But one by one, they are closing down,” the report said, ominously adding: “We must reverse this declining trend, although the task is not an easy one that can be just solved by implementing a few government policies.”
According to the All Japan Magazine and Book Publisher’s and Editor’s Association (APJEA), the number of bookshops in Japan has fallen by nearly half from 20,880 in 2004 to 10,918 in March 2024.
Today, 27.7 per cent of Japan’s 1,741 municipalities do not have a bookshop.
The decline in physical stores has been caused by growing competition from e-commerce and sales of electronic books.
APJEA data shows that sales of printed publications plunged 60 per cent from the peak of 2.66 trillion yen in 1966 to 1.06 trillion yen (S$9.3 billion) in 2023, even as sales from online stores have climbed from about 160 billion yen in 2013 to 290 billion yen in 2022.
Yet the bigger crisis is that fewer Japanese are reading.
In September, the Cultural Affairs Agency released survey findings showing that for the first time a majority of Japanese (62.6 per cent) do not read at least one book a month – whether physical or electronic, excluding magazines and manga.
This was a 15.3 percentage point spike from the previous survey in 2019.
The 2024 poll, conducted between January and March, also found that those who do not read regularly are still consuming text, through bite-sized social media posts, “almost every day”.
The Sankei newspaper said in a Sept 29 editorial: “We need to tap our creative wisdom to figure out how to refashion an environment where people can better enjoy books again.”
It is in this environment that Mr Saito’s successor, Mr Yoji Muto, told reporters on Oct 4 that both national and local governments “must do all they can to revive bookshops”.
The Meti report, comparing physical stores with online stores, noted that bricks-and-mortar retailers have staff who put in effort to curate books and arrange shelves. “A book that you had no interest in before, or did not know about, may catch your eye by chance,” it said.
Libraries may provide a comparable browsing experience, though the difference lies in how “readers cannot keep the book, underline or re-read it”. Book sales are also necessary to help writers pay the bills.
In the light of the challenges, the more entrepreneurial bookshop bosses are carving out space for cafes and bars on their premises, or even co-working spaces. Some are holding meet-the-author events, or selling lifestyle goods and merchandise.
Tsutaya, one of Japan’s largest bookshop chains, even has a Pokemon Card Lounge at its revamped store at the Shibuya Scramble Crossing in Tokyo for visitors to battle it out in the card game.
“Shared bookshops” are also taking off across the country, with the concept reducing entry barriers by allowing bibliophiles or self-published authors to lease shelf space in a bookshop rather than an entire shop.
The ministry report also cited positive examples of how libraries – such as those in Tottori prefecture and Yamagata city – are supporting local stores by filling their shelves with books bought locally.
Machida, in Tokyo’s suburbs, allows people to reserve and return library books at a local bookshop. This has driven foot traffic to the shop, resulting in an increase in sales by up to 20 per cent.
Major convenience store operator Lawson is introducing book corners at its stores in municipalities without bookshops.
“From now on, bookshops must be places where people can gather,” Mr Masahiko Motonoki, the seventh-generation owner of Motonoki Bookstore, was cited as saying in the Meti report. “It is not enough today to only sell books – each bookshop must have its own character.”
The bookshop, founded in 1877 in his native Iizuka in Fukuoka, has evolved and Mr Motonoki now also runs a “roving bookshop” using a second-hand lorry, while also considering the introduction of card games and developing book vending machines catering to areas without bookshops.
Mr Seita Fukui of independent publisher SPBS, or Shibuya Publishing & Booksellers, told The Straits Times that bookshops must now provide “experiential value-add” to capture customers.
SPBS has four stores in Tokyo, with employees who Mr Fukui said are “trained to have deep understanding about books and can curate the shelves themselves”.
While he positively evaluated Meti’s efforts, he said: “Rather than just handing out subsidies, I hope the government can address the structural problems facing the entire industry and work thoroughly to create an industry that can leave behind a ‘human archive’ for the next generation.”