Book Reading in Japan
February 28, 2009
About how many books do you usually read? (Sample size=9,566)
Ten or more books a month 6.9% Six to nine books a month 3.5% Four or five books a month 7.7% Two or three books a month 20.0% One book a month 14.8% One book every two or three months 13.2% One book every six months 8.1% One book a year 4.6% Less than that 11.9% Don’t read books 9.3% What genres of books do you read the most? (Sample size=6,321, those reading more than one book every three months, multiple answer)
推理小説 [Detective Novels] 41.4% Hobbies (film, travel, cars, etc) 31.9% Nonfiction 28.6% Essay 28.5% Science fiction, fantasy, horror 26.8% Living, lifestyle 25.9% Historical novels 24.7% Business, economy 21.9% Other novels 21.7% Computer 19.4% Education (qualifications, test, reference, etc) 16.4% Romance 14.8% Current affairs, politics 11.6% Picture books, children’s books 8.2% Pets 5.0% Fortune telling, psychological tests 4.8% Other 3.0% Don’t know, none in particular 1.8% What things are important when buying a book? (Sample size=5,925, those buying books, multiple answer)
Contents 71.0% Author 54.9% Price 39.4% Best-seller, topic of conversation 14.1% Length of series 12.3% Book band, promotional catch-copy, introduction 11.5% Hardcover or softcover 10.7% State of the book (not sunbleached, etc) 9.3% Book physical size, weight 7.6% If it’s a series 6.9% Published date 5.8% Cover design 5.6% Publisher 5.5% Print size 5.4% Illustrations 5.2% Award-winning 4.6% If it has been made into a drama, film 4.5% Amount of printed type 3.7% First edition 1.6% Other 1.3% Nothing in particular 4.3%
Source: What Japan Thinks
It’s amazing just how many people you see reading in japan. and of all ages too..
Reading books or manga?
about 50/50, I’d say. which is pretty darn good!
Oh, that’s a nice distribution, but I hope they read more books than manga per year.
I thought suiri shousetsu was more like detective novels.
Yes, that is it. Thank you, I’ll add that translation