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Bookstores are disappearing on the streets of Japan. According to the "Japan Times" report on the 25th, data from the Japan Publishing Infrastructure Center showed that in 2012, there were 16,722 bookstores in Japan, and in 2022, the number will drop to 11,952, a decrease of nearly 30% in 10 years. To this end, the operators racked their brains to keep the bookstore open.

Data map

　　Located in Koriyama City, Fukushima Prefecture, "Takashima Bookstore" is a 72-year-old bookstore. The bookstore is densely packed with books, magazines, picture books, etc., but there are no customers. Still, the bookstore remains profitable. The owner of the store, Takashima Mizuo, said, "Bookstore sales account for less than 10% of total revenue, while the remaining 90% mainly comes from purchases from school libraries and public libraries." Takashima said, if the local government department that manages the library Purchasing goods from local bookstores will help the stable operation of local bookstores, which is also the key to the continued operation of local bookstores.

　　However, "Takashima Study" is only one of the few successful business cases, and more bookstores are still facing the risk of bankruptcy. Kazuyuki Ishii, director of the Japan Bookstore Business Association, believes that the number of bookstores will continue to decrease in the future. "The reduction of bookstores will lead to a decrease in the number of reading people, which is likely to fall into a vicious circle."