The Japan Book Publishing Scene -- 2003

by Sally Taylor -- Publishers Weekly, 5/1/2003

Japan has for decades been the largest non-English-speaking market in the world for English language titles from the USA. In 2001, this small country with only a third of the population of the USA, was laboring with prolonged economic stagnation at home. Yet Japan was the only one of the top ten USA book export destinations to increase their dollar purchases, to $129.3 million.

In 2002, total book sales in Japan rose slightly in value, for the first time in six years, to $7.9 billion, according to the Japan Research Institute for Publications statistics. Part of this was credited to the Harry Potter series (Japanese editions published by Seizansha.), which sell in hardcover for over $30 per title, three times the average book price in Japan. Last year, the RIP estimated sales of the four Potter titles at $167.5 million.

While volume of sales declined slightly to 739 million copies, over 72,000 new titles were published, a 4.4% increase over 2001. The largest increase in both 2001 and 2002 was in picture books for children, which has grown 41% in the least two years.

In 2002, Harry Potter 4 was the only translation among the top six million sellers. However, in 2001 five of the top sellers in Japanese were English language translations. Three were Harry Potter titles, but Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson, was number one, with over 4 million copies in Japanese published by Fusosha.

This was only the second time a foreign title in translation had made the number one spot since 1945 and the first time since 1974 when Richard Bach's Jonathan Livingston Seagull earned the honor.

As is common in foreign language markets, sales of these best sellers in translation brought high sales volumes of the English language editions of these titles as well. Well over a million copies of the Harry Potter series has sold in English in Japan, according to Nori Watanabe of Yohan, a major book importer. Who Moved My Cheese? was also the number one import for Yohan in 2001.

The irony is that it is predominantly the British editions of these titles that are selling in Japan, as the U.S. publishers have been slow to release the books in paperback.

"Japanese readers who bought the British editions of the Harry Potter titles will likely purchase the British editions again when the next volume comes out," says Watanabe. "It is a great shame for the US publishing firm, as they will never catch up with the UK counterpart, but they will be left behind in the international market."

Sadly, Watanabe notes that "this is a typical example of the American publishing houses who are not export-oriented because of the huge domestic market."

Another interesting difference in Japan is the book buying audience. The Japanese translations of the Harry Potter series are aimed at female readers. The young woman publisher Yuko Matsuoka, who was awarded Japanese translation rights in 1998, told PW that she was targeting females in their 20's and 30's. Her scheme has proved successful.

In Japan, adolescent youth are so busy with educational curricula, they have little time even for the wildly popular Japanese comics, Manga.

A major problem with the book industry in Japan remains fixed prices for books. Protecting the whole chain of supply, from publisher to distributor to wholesaler to retailer, book price controls are meant to keep the industry stable. In effect, however, prices for books remain high while smaller retailers and even some distributors go out of business.

Amazon is reportedly doing very well with US titles shipped directly to end users at USA prices, but sales figures are not available. Two major importers of English titles, Yohan and Tuttle Shokai, merged earlier this year (see report elsewhere on these webpages) in response to this strong competition.

For the last ten years, the publishing industry has been encouraged by the Fair Trade Commission of Japan to drop fixed pricing, as most of the world outside of France has done already. One could readily argue that lower book prices would bring more sales, as retailers like Costco have certainly proven, at least for some popular USA titles.

Unfortunately, buckling to tradition and the poor economic conditions, the Fair Trade Commission agreed last year to let the publishing industry keep their fixed price system.

In January 2003, Kodansha, Japan's largest publishing house, announced a new joint venture with Random House in the USA. They will publish books in Japanese, both translations and Japanese language originals.

Bigger retail stores continue to be the trend in Japan. Last year, 486 bookstores opened and 1,285 closed, according to Arumedia. Two of the largest retailers (who are also the biggest importers of scholarly and professional titles from abroad), Maruzen and Kinokuniya, are actively expanding their retail operations.

Maruzen has plans for a 60,000 sq. ft store opening near Tokyo Central Station in 2004. Kinokuniya opened an 18,000 sq ft outlet in Kobe in March 2002 and a 25,000 sq. ft. facility in Yokohama in April. Another retail chain, Hankyu, opened their own new 19,000 sq. ft. facility in March 2002 in nearby Aobadai.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Besides the highly informative quarterly newsletter Quidnunc, written and distributed free of charge by Yohan (email nori@yohan-pub.co.jp or fax 81-3-3984-0160 for a copy), there is an online source for general discussions of book publishing, both in Japan and beyond, at www.honco.net.

The Japan Society also publishes a quarterly, Japan Book News. You can find it on the web at www.jpf.go.jp/e/media/publish/4_04right.html.

And the Publishers Association for Cultural Exchange has a "Practical Guide to Publishing in Japan" with many resources. Fax number is 81-3-3233-3645 for a copy.