15 of Japan municipalities have no libraries or bookstores

TOKYO - A total of 256 municipalities have neither a public library nor a bookstore, the Yomiuri Shimbun has learnt. This amounts to 15 per cent of the 1,718 municipalities nationwide.

“If having few chances to enjoy books becomes normal, print culture itself will fade away,” an expert said about the decrease in places where people can encounter a diverse range of books.

The Yomiuri Shimbun tallied data from the Japan Library Association, which surveyed municipalities that had no libraries as of April 2024, and the Japan Publishing Industry Foundation for Culture, which compiled municipalities that had no bookstores as of November 2024.

The two groups looked at libraries, where materials are collected and librarians and other staff are assigned based on the Library Law, and general bookstores, which handle new publications.

According to the Yomiuri tally, 256 municipalities had neither a library nor a bookstore, including Hakone, Kanagawa prefecture, and Kamiyama, Tokushima prefecture.

A survey conducted by the Japan Library Association and others in fiscal 2022 found 247 municipalities in such a state. Nine more municipalities have now been added, including Ichinomiya, Chiba prefecture, where the last bookstore closed in 2022, and Yuzawa, Niigata prefecture, where the last bookstore closed in 2023.

Libraries are on the rise, but bookstores are in steep decrease nationwide.

There were 20,880 bookstores in fiscal 2003, compared to 10,918 in fiscal 2023, almost halving over 20 years. The rise of online sales and a decline in reading due to the spread of smartphones are among the factors cited.

“Reading enriches people’s thinking and knowledge. Bookshelves provide encounters with unknown cultures and information,” said Mr Kosuke Okabe, secretary general of the Japan Library Association.

“People who cannot buy books online are left behind, and the habit of reading gradually becomes obsolete in areas where there