Ministry reports issues facing bookstores

The industry ministry has released a report listing challenges facing bookstores in the country, including low profit margins and fierce competition with online stores.

Based on the report, released Friday, the ministry will set up by year-end a liaison committee of officials from relevant government agencies to fully launch discussions on support measures for bookstores.

The report, which was drawn up at a time when the number of bookstores continues falling, noted that digitalization has led to decreases in magazine and comic book buyers and regular visitors to bookstores.

It also said that transportation costs for returning unsold books and magazines to publishers are weighing on bookstores’ earnings.

Bookstores cannot reflect higher operational costs, such as soaring utility bills, in prices because publishers have the right to decide the prices of their books, it added.

Moreover, the report showed an analysis that brick-and-mortar bookstores are not competing on a level playing field with online bookstores, some of which effectively sell products at a discount by offering excessive reward points to customers. It said that bookstores are lagging in digitalization, including in inventory management.

The ministry cited a total of 34 problems crippling bookstores in the report.

According to a survey by the Japan Publishing Industry Foundation for Culture, more than 25% of municipalities in Japan do not have even a single bookstore.

The industry ministry created in March a project team directly under its minister to listen to challenges from bookstore owners.

“The central and local governments and related industries should understand these problems and do what they can (to revive bookstores),” industry minister Yoji Muto said at a news conference Friday.