Japanese used bookstores see 5x sales surge as books are being bought by the ton

Short-term boom could lead to a longer-term drought and removal of important works from circulation.

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(Image credit: Getty Images) Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter Bookstores in Japan are enjoying a boom in sales right now. However, this welcome spurt in business, where used books are bought in the 100s or even by the ton, is causing mixed feelings among owners of these businesses, reports NTV Japan (machine translation). It is suspected that many of the well-read hardbacks and paperbacks, often directed to "a logistics center in Okayama Prefecture," will be scanned and then pulped by one of the foreign AI tech giants.