Japan's book scene is moving from bookstores to libraries

Are you a book lover?

If you are, I suspect you already do this: when you travel abroad, you find yourself walking into a local bookstore.

I do it everywhere, not only in Japan but also abroad. My shelves hold some Chinese and Russian books even though I cannot read a word of them. A bookstore is one of the best places to understand the local culture: what people there are curious about, what they worry about, what they love.

But lately I’ve become obsessed with another kind of book place: local libraries.

I know that reading books is a trend among young people all over the world, and here in Japan, a big trend is emerging from libraries.

The book that changed my point of view for libraries

I recently read a Japanese book called 『都市のような図書館をつくる』—Building a library like a city. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been translated into English yet, but it captures precisely what libraries in Japan are trying to become a core of local community.

Building a library like a city

Until recently, oh, maybe still now… libraries have been boring and uncool place for most Japanese people.

That changed in 2013, when Tsutaya—a famous Japanese bookstore chain, known for its popular Daikanyama store in Tokyo— opened an innovative public library in Takeo, a small city in Kyushu area.

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