(20 Feb 2025) 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.
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