Yohan Bankruptcy Leaves Void

The collapse last month of Yohan, the only major distributor importing English-language books into Japan, has created an unexpected disruption for American houses.

While most of Japan's largest booksellers buy English language titles directly from big wholesalers, Yohan was the key supplier of those books into mass merchants, independents and other retailers. According to the U.S. Commerce Department, book exports to Japan totaled $78 million last year. Now, said a source at one of the major houses, “there's no major English book distribution in Japan.” This, the source noted, “hurts on all accounts.”

Hiroshi Kagawa, the former president of Yohan who now heads IBC, is one of several players looking to form a new company to pick up Yohan's business. Kagawa, who is also considering opening an English-language bookstore in Tokyo, believes the failure of Yohan stretches beyond just book sales; he thinks a decline in the availability of English-language titles will curtail interest in Japanese-language rights. Whether IBC wins Yohan's old business or not, it's now a waiting game for U.S. houses doing business in the country. One American publisher estimated that it could take four to five months for a clear successor to emerge.