CURRENT TOPICS
Time has passed so quickly and it is now one year since Yushodo had its celebration of its 70th anniversary in November 2002. At that time we had a commemorative reception with more than 500 guests including 20 guests from overseas, our book fair, the Gesner Award presentations and commemorative publishing. However since then the overall decrease of academic and library budgets has strongly influenced our publishing and book business. With the growth of the on-line business, this has then necessitated cuts in other media business as well as the subscriptions of journal business.
In Japan, the overall publishing market is worth about $20 billion U.S. dollars but business has averaged a 2-3 % decrease each year over the past five years. However various associations in Japan, such as Journal publishers, Book Publishers, Electronic Publishers, Libraries, Bookshops and Book Importers have all cooperated together and started a campaign to encourage the public to "read more books and use libraries more." All publishers have exerted their best efforts to cut costs and expenses as well as the number of employees in order to try and publish nice books. Totally speaking, 2004 will be a very important time in the book business but I feel it is our responsibility as publishers and book dealers to maintain our position in preserving culture and to continue our academic contributions to humankind.
When looking at the traditional way of the book import business from the past, usually we would receive offers from abroad, negotiate with publishers and then finally decide on the number of copies of a title that we would purchase for the exclusive agency in Japan. As far as I know, in the Japanese market for academic professional monographs published by foreign publishers, about 5% goes to the humanities market and 10% to the STM market. Generally speaking, this percentage is considered to be quite successful. Of course after the markup is added on either through a wholesaler or a book dealer, naturally the retail price of a book will increase. However I believe that it is very difficult to continue with this traditional method due to the influence of the Internet and as a result, dealers’ margins have gradually decreased. Under decreased budgets, clients now try to buy books by themselves and of course wish to purchase them as cheaply as possible. In this day and age, the pace of communications as well as the movement of goods has quickened.
Looking toward a new market, Yushodo has developed a different approach. Now when a publisher has plans for a new publication, we will ask about the possibility of a co-edition. For example, Yushodo has partnered with Harper Collins on a co-edition for the new edition of the Comprehensive World Atlas. In this case, we insert our own ISBN for Japan and our own title page. This also means that we must share some of the investment and risk. This fundamental change then allows us to sell these co-edition or co-published titles through the normal Japanese book distribution channels and since the law allows us to sell the item at a fixed price, we are then able to invest more on advertising and promotion. Another strategy is that of translation and now we are beginning to publish legal titles into Japanese - a bilingual edition - with the cooperation of American law publishers.
When the top executive of a computer firm or digital brand firm visits librarians, too often librarians are reluctant to ask these firms about the digitizing of their rare books and items since these firms do not know how to handle rare books or archival materials. However since Yushodo is one of the top reputable firms in the antiquarian book world, librarians will then ask us about the digitizing of their rare items and acting as a facilitator between the library and the technological firms. So this business enhances the Yushodo name in the rare book world too. I will be reporting on these matters as a case study at the IPA Congress in Berlin in June 2004.
As of this month we have opened our virtual rare bookshop at www.rarebook-yushodo.jp and as far as I know this is the first trial in the rare book business in the world. I would welcome you to our site and to come in and browse our virtual bookshop.
In Japan we have 500 university libraries and next year more than 70 new law schools are planning to open. Even though the economical situation has not totally recovered yet, as a specialist of professional contents, we have a lot of things to do in order to cooperate with our overseas friends.
Finally I would like to tell everybody that during a recent trip to London, I was interviewed by Ms. Sheila Markham who is the publisher of the trade weekly, "The Bookdealer. This publication with a circulation around 3,000 copies to dealers and book collectors, is a very unique journal published in the U.K. Its contents include books wanted and for sale as well as various articles of interest to those in the book world. As a result of the interview, I have since received many letters and emails from all of my friends.
To close, as the end of 2003 approaches, I send you my best wishes for a happy and healthy and prosperous New Year. |
