Yomiuri: Tokyo blitzed by behemoth bookshops (link now dead)

A plethora of behemoth bookstores have opened around Tokyo and Shinjuku stations this autumn, and they are waging a fierce battle for the hearts, minds and yen of readers using the tactic of mass sales under one gigantic roof.
Despite the decline in publishing sales for seven consecutive years that has been forcing more than 1,000 small and midsize bookstores out of business every year, the rush to open mammoth bookstores nationwide continues unabated.
...Caught in the middle between these super-bookshops and convenience stores offering books, many existing small and midsize bookstores went bankrupt.
In the past five years, these closures have slashed the number of bookshops from 22,000 to 18,000.
Shinichi Sano, a nonfiction writer specializing in the publishing business, said today's trend toward jumbo bookstores emerged out of a compulsive idea by book distributors to confront online bookstores, which allow customers to browse all sorts of books.

I was in the big Kinokuniya in Shinkuku on the foreign book floor when a middle-aged Japanese woman started singing "I could have danced all night". I'm no expert on the song but I suspect we got the whole thing although she managed to turn it into a mournful cry of lost hope rather than the usual bright, uplifting song of first love. The staff weren't quite sure how to react but, as customers, we all seemed to draw the same conclusion and pretended to be deeply interested in books on the philosophy of religion. Not coincidentally, the section furthest away from the impomptu performance.

Asahi: Internet becoming vital to bookseller survival
With easy search and ordering systems, the Internet is becoming the book source of choice for a growing number of shoppers. Online sales are expected to top 50 billion yen this year after expanding six-fold over the five years from 2000. Retailers that have established themselves in cyberspace are now competing for customers in the physical sphere, with cheap and quick delivery. The rise of online shops is proving fatal to small and midsize bookstores that are not plugged into the Internet. They are losing customers and being forced out of business.

Amazon.com Inc. of the United States, which entered the Japanese market in November 2000, ignited competition in delivery fees. The Japanese arm Amazon.co.jp staged a free shipping campaign during its first four months. It now offers free delivery for orders of 1,500 yen or more. The war over fees is accelerating. Rakuten Books Inc., a subsidiary of Rakuten Inc., is running a two-month free shipping campaign through the end of January. "We want to increase members in the year-end and new-year season, when consumers' buying motivation is high," President Akio Sugihara said.

An online bookstore operated by Seven and Y Corp., a joint venture between Yahoo Japan Corp. and Seven-Eleven Japan Co., ships free for buyers who pick up books at Seven-Eleven convenience stores. Free delivery is the strongest cost incentive an online bookstore can offer customers because of the nation's no-discount resale system. But the risk is that it can deeply eat into its profits. Online bookstores have to cover the costs of wrapping and shipping with a margin of about 20 percent, the same as ordinary retailers.

In June, Kuroneko Yamato Book Service, run by an affiliate of Yamato Holdings Co., ended free shipping service, which was launched in August 2003. "It became difficult to cover costs because small orders increased, such as those for a single comic book," a company official said. Speed is another aspect of competition. Cyber bookstore bk1, operated by Toshokan Ryutsu Center Co. and others, offers to deliver books the same day if the order is placed by 10:30 a.m, the address is in the Kanto region and the book is in supply. Amazon.com ships within 24 hours of an order.

To enhance speed by keeping more stock, the company opened a massive distribution center in Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture, in November. The floor area is 62,300 square meters, 1.3 times the size of Tokyo Dome. The growth, however, comes at the expense of traditional brick-and-mortar shops. In the five years from 2000, there have been 204 bankruptcies among booksellers, according to credit research company Tokyo Shoko Research Ltd. The number is about 50 percent more than the preceding five years, even though annual book sales have been steady at around 2.2 trillion to 2.3 trillion yen. Small shops with capital less than 100 million yen account for most of the bankruptcies.

The Web site e-hon, of book wholesaler Tohan Co., gives small shops a presence on the Internet. About 2,300 bookstores nationwide have joined the e-hon network for a monthly fee of 3,000 yen. Buyers place their orders on the Web site but pick up the books and make payments at a store they selected from the network. A store in Aomori, which joined the network two years ago, now has about 900 customers that shop through the network. "Covering shipping costs is not easy, but the variety of books has expanded and we are gaining credibility," the owner said.

Customers of Shibuya's Book 1st might like to know that the store will be closing in October. Owner Hankyu Railway has announced that the site will be redeveloped and they will be relocating the flagship store to Shinjuku. The store will be in the basement of the new 50 storey Mode Gakuen Cocoon Tower which is currently under construction.

Randon Walk at Roppongi is also having a closing down sales until 30th Apr (only 4 days left!).

http://www.bookshop.co.jp/roppongi/index.html

mode gakuen are also building a new tower in nagoya.

http://www.powells.com/

the world's largest independent bookstore.

Well, this is a shame...I thought they had a pretty good magazine section. I doubt they are going to get the same amount of foot traffic in that spot in Shinjuku...While not off the beaten trail, it is also not quite a location where you just happen to walk by it when shopping in Shinjuku.

I think the architect missed a trick with this building. It could have been legendary if he had included the other testicle.

Slightly off the original topic.... Where/what site is the best to track down hard to find books??? Im trying to get a book called Shadows by Japanese photographer 中野正貴 (masataka nakano) but its sold out everywhere and im trying to avoid paying nearly 3 times more for a used copy on amazon.co.jp

Very hard to find book. Most seem to be out of it (Kinokuniya, etc.). Maruzen only sells via Amazon. So, your only 2 options are:

http://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/offer-listing/4898150799/ref=dp_olp_2/503-4096124-5623158

Or

http://page7.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/g51948646

See if the seller will bite on a lower price....

Hey thanks for the sites. it was fairly popular for a Japanese photography book so im a bit surprised i cant buy it new - even the photographers own website has it as sold out. If anyone hasnt seen his work i strongly suggest you take a look at the book "Tokyo Nobody" which is just damn brillance and freakiness at the same time. You can see some here on the site http://www.artunlimited.co.jp/nakano/gallery.html

Killed some time at the Tokyo Maruzen near the Tokyo Station Marunouchi North Exit. Amazon has gaiatsu-d them into lowering their prices on a lot of mainstream prices, but stray off the beaten path and...Jesus! This book goes for 147.25 Euro at Amazon.fr:

http://www.amazon.fr/Encyclop%C3%A9die-pendule-fran%C3%A7aise-Pierre-Kjellberg/dp/2859174125

I asked the cute cashier chick how much it would be if I ordered through Maruzen, and the price came back 30,980 yen, i.e. Maruzen is internally valuing the Euro at about 200 yen. Defure has a long way to go before the prices of a lot of things here can be characterized as other than batshit insane.

Catoneinutica wrote:Killed some time at the Tokyo Maruzen near the Tokyo Station Marunouchi North Exit. Amazon has gaiatsu-d them into lowering their prices on a lot of mainstream prices, but stray off the beaten path and...Jesus! This book goes for 147.25 Euro at Amazon.fr:

http://www.amazon.fr/Encyclop%C3%A9die-pendule-fran%C3%A7aise-Pierre-Kjellberg/dp/2859174125

I asked the cute cashier chick how much it would be if I ordered through Maruzen, and the price came back 30,980 yen, i.e. Maruzen is internally valuing the Euro at about 200 yen. Defure has a long way to go before the prices of a lot of things here can be characterized as other than batshit insane.

I noticed the same thing. If it is a book that they don't store in the warehouse it seems like they just order it from amazon and jack up the price to insane. The fucked thing is that japanese people will pay any price for an item that they want and don't know that there is a world outside japan willing to ship internationally. So, in the end, these stores to get away with things like this.

wuchan wrote:I noticed the same thing. If it is a book that they don't store in the warehouse it seems like they just order it from amazon and jack up the price to insane. The fucked thing is that japanese people will pay any price for an item that they want and don't know that there is a world outside japan willing to ship internationally. So, in the end, these stores to get away with things like this.

Yes! They do just order it from Amazon and jack up the price. Cute cashier chick let me go behind the counter to look at her computer screen, and she first pulled up the Amazon.fr page. Then she verified the ISBN (I think) and entered in Maruzen's DB. She seemed embarrassed at the price difference and suggested that maybe just ordering it from Amazon.fr would be better.

The passivity of the Japanese in not pushing back against this flagrant scamming bogles the mind.

Catoneinutica wrote:The passivity of the Japanese in not pushing back against this flagrant scamming bogles the mind.

It's not a bad thing if you get on the right side of that sort of deal.

[quote="FG Lurker"]It's not a bad thing if you get on the right side of that sort of deal. ]

...slowing down everybody to make a quick easy buck... I somehow prefer the Bernie Madoff method...

BTW, bookstore in seoul are impressive for their foreign book aisle... one got nerly all the Mc Graw and Hill engineering buks. Between 20 000 and 30 000 wons each... (2000/3000 yens)

This isn't going to help with Catone's complaint but, in the spirit of providing full information, A new large-scale bookshop has opened near the South exit of Shibuya station. Aoi Shoten has moved into the location formerly occupied by JTB and will stay open 24h, which is rare for a larger bookshop. It's their 14th Tokyo store but they aren't known for stocking too many foreign language titles, even in the shop close to Roppongi station, so I doubt the new shop will be any different.

Mulboyne wrote:This isn't going to help with Catone's complaint but, in the spirit of providing full information, A new large-scale bookshop has opened near the South exit of Shibuya station. Aoi Shoten has moved into the location formerly occupied by JTB and will stay open 24h, which is rare for a larger bookshop. It's their 14th Tokyo store but they aren't known for stocking too many foreign language titles, even in the shop close to Roppongi station, so I doubt the new shop will be any different.

Mulboyne... no clue how you keep up with this information. I go right past there virtually every day and didn't notice the new store (granted, it just opened yesterday). For what it's worth, Kinokuniya's medium-sized branch across the street in the Tokyu Plaza building has an English section, if I recall. Probably not a particularly large selection, though.

Mrs. Omae Mona just dragged me up to the 7th floor of the Tokyu department store (the honten at Bunkamura in Shibuya). There, Maruzen and Junkudo have jointly launched the creatively named "Maruzen & Junkudo Book Store" taking up the entire floor. It contains a cafe (alas, with signs asking customers not to read unpurchased books) and a stationery store as well.

That is one big bookstore.

According to this article (Japanese only) the store is 3,630 square meters and they have 1.3 million books in stock. The store manager says they built the store explicitly to fill the void left when the Book1st across the street closed down in 2007 (see Mulboyne's related post, above).

omae mona wrote:Mrs. Omae Mona just dragged me up to the 7th floor of the Tokyu department store (the honten at Bunkamura in Shibuya). There, Maruzen and Junkudo...

I just popped in there yesterday and saw this:



At first, this seemed a great pun on "chick lit" for which the staff should be congratulated. On closer inspection, I realized that it was just a misspelling and English books of the latter genre were on the lower shelves.