The Book Week of Japan
The Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper of Japan has revealed a survey result on authors whose works are the most read by the general public as the book week of Japan will start from October 27.
1. Keigo Higashino
2. Ryotaro Shiba
3. Haruki Murakami
4. Seicho Matsumoto
5. Hiroyuki Itsuki
6. Miyuki Miyabe
7. Syotaro Ikenami
8. Kyotaro Nishimura
9. Naoki Uchida
10. Syuhei Fujisawa
11. Jun Ikeido
12. Jakucho Setouchi
13. Junichi Watanabe
14. Mariko Hayashi
15. Jiro Akagawa
16. Osamu Dazaiji
17. Kotaro Isaka
18. Soseki Natsume
19. Jiro Asada
20. Hiroshi Arikawa
21. Seiichi Morimura
22. Eiji Yoshikawa
However, according to the survey, those Japanese who read a book or more in a recent month account for 46%. Since 1995, this ratio has been around 50%, but this time it shows the lowest level. Japanese people have come to have less time for reading a book. One of reasons is apparently an influence of wider and exhaustive use of smart phones, especially, among young people.
The genre Japanese male readers prefer the most is historical fictions or period novels. The genre Japanese females like the most is cooking and dietary life.
In Japan total sales of published matters are estimated to be about $18 billion. (The US publishing trade records $23 billion of sales per year.) There are 3,400 different magazines issued yearly, monthly, weekly or so on. The number of books newly issued every year is about 75,000. (In America more than 180,000 published matters are delivered every year.)
But do any foreigners read Japanese books?
The Number of Learners of the Japanese Language in the World:
1. China 1,046,490
2. Indonesia 872,406
3. S.Korea 840,187
4. Australia 296,672
5. Taiwan 232,967
6. US 155,939
7. Thailand 129,616
8. Vietnam 46,762
9. Malaysia 33,077
10. Philippine 32,418
Good or bad, it looks like Chinese that can understand Japanese minds and hearts more than any foreigners, since Japan and China share many kanji characters and knowledge of ancient Chinese classics.
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