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jezebel · Joined: 18 May 2005 Posts: 53

How easy is it to get ahold of English-language reading material (American/British magazines, books) in Japan? Do you have to be in the big cities to find it or do most bookstores have a small English section? Do many libraries carry English books (and as a foreigner, can you get a library card)?

David W · Joined: 17 Jan 2003 Posts: 457 Location: Japan

Most medium size cities will have a bookshop with an English section. Amazon Japan is also your friend.
Big libraries have English books and being foreign is no hindrance to getting a card, as long as you're a resident of the city (in most cases)

gaijinalways · Joined: 29 Nov 2005 Posts: 2279

Guess depends on what you mean by big. My nearest library in Tokyo has no English books, one English magazine and two newspapers. The American library has quite a few magazines, and mostly older books, but the location is not very convenient for where I live and travel to for work.

markle · Joined: 17 Jan 2003 Posts: 1316 Location: Out of Japan

Yes, very hit and miss. The first place I lived was a medium sized city that had a great English section that included reference books and lifestyle books as well as novels, even an extensive children's section. My current town has an equally large library but no English section. International centres can be a source of books.

Glenski · Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Posts: 12844 Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN

Depends on what you call big, indeed! I'm in a city of 170,000 and even with two fairly large bookstores, there's practically zilch here. And, the city library only a couple of months ago just opened an English section with an all-donation collection. Pitiful.

Besides, magazines are twice the US cost here anyway.

Dipso · Joined: 28 Apr 2004 Posts: 194 Location: England

I always found HMV good for reasonably-priced magazines, particularly British ones.

AndyH · Joined: 30 Sep 2004 Posts: 417

When I lived in a remote, medium-sized city in Hokkaido, the local library had a modest selection of good English-language books. I had no complaints. Finding books in bookstores was another issue.

When I lived in Chiba Prefecture, about an hour from Tokyo, my public library had a large English section, but as far as magazines went, was limited to Time and Newsweek. However, Tokyo was just a train ride away, and places like Tower Records, Kinokuniya, Good Day Books, and Morazan kept me supplied with plenty of reading material.

Lyrajean · Joined: 19 Jul 2006 Posts: 109 Location: going to Okinawa

I think some of your luck will also depend on what your tastes are. There are 2 small english bookstores near me,but I rarely ever find anything there as my reading interests are rather esoteric... They seem to be stocked with magazines, translated manga and literary 'classics', whatever that means.

However, Amazon is your friend. And they still do COD here for a 500yen fee, I think. I wonder how english readers avoided death by boredom over here before the whole online thing hit?

And yes anything imported will have anywhere between a 20percent and a 100 percent markup! Magazines are about double and I think cheap paperbacks might be about 100 yen more than their price in $ back home.

Honestly, I've been buying as many Japanese books as english ones, though.

nawlinsgurl · Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2008 10:54 pm Post subject:

Was recently in Costco and they had a good selection of American/British magazines like time, Vogue, Real Simple and Etc.
You could try there if you are near a Costco.

vancouver_syndicate · Joined: 09 Sep 2004 Posts: 46 Location: Canada

when i lived in tokyo it was easy to get a hold of books, but they were expensive. even used books were expensive.

Inflames · Joined: 02 Apr 2006 Posts: 486

I also recommend amazon. You can even pay in Lawson's or Family Mart.

There's a trick for the Economist I picked up from a friend. You can transfer your subscription for free (without paying a difference in the per country rates). So I know some people that buy multiyear subscriptions, have them delivered to someone back home for a few months, then call, say they're moving, and get it transferred.

jezebel · Joined: 18 May 2005 Posts: 53

Okay, so it sounds like it depends where you live and what you're looking for. I guess I'm just concerned because I read about 50 books a year and don't plan on lugging them all with me in my luggage! Do many teachers swap books amongst each other?

vancouver_syndicate · Joined: 09 Sep 2004 Posts: 46 Location: Canada

me and my co worker swapped books, then we would sell them at the used bookstore when we were done.

saloc · Joined: 04 Jul 2003 Posts: 102

There is also this site:

http://bookswapjapan.forumotion.com/

It doesn't look like much has happened on it lately but i think it's quite new and could be good with a few more members.

Hoser · Joined: 19 Mar 2005 Posts: 694 Location: Toronto, Canada

I'm going to third Amazon.co.jp. I've found that for a lot of novels, (at least when the CDN $ was stronger) I could get for even cheaper than I could in Canada when you factor in the Canadian sales tax. Even if it is more expensive than what it costs back home it will probably still be cheaper than buying it straight out of a store like Kinokuniya. Also if you order at least 1500 yen then the shipping is free.