News Survey finds majority of Japanese never read books

The Cultural Affairs Agency polled over 6,000 adults aged 16 or older between January and March, finding that nearly 63% of respondents hadn't read a single book (including e-books) in the past month. This marks a significant increase of over 15% compared to a similar survey conducted five years ago. Even among those who do read, the survey uncovered a concerning trend: nearly 70% said they've been reading less than before. Many attributed this shift to spending more time on smartphones and other digital devices, while others cited work and study commitments. These findings suggest that reading habits in Japan are changing rapidly, with fewer people turning to books for entertainment, education, or leisure.

When the respondents were asked whether they wanted to increase the amount of time they spent reading, 40.8 percent chose they do not want to or probably won't want to. The figure topped 40 percent for the first time. Agency officials said they believe fewer people are reading books because they are using smartphones more. They said another factor may be that there are less bookstores, so people have fewer opportunities to come in contact with books. They said they hope to try to increase opportunities for people to spend more time with words and printed material.

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How many books have you read in the past month?

I'm well read but I rarely read books any more. I've read just one book this year. It's due to lack of time (or my wasting time on other things including smartphones or internet forums. ;-)

When I was younger and unmarried and childless I would read more than a hundred books a year, for a little over a decade I didn't even have TV. These days with crazy work demands, trying to help children review or otherwise learn, entertain them and yes wasting time on the internet I also will only get 1 book this year. This is not a Japan only thing. With smartphone/tablet games and social media, online videos etc. young people read less books as well globally is my bet.

I had to give up reading several years ago. While driving home from work one day I suddenly went totally blind in one eye and almost blind in the other. I thought for sure I was suffering a stroke. I pulled over to the side of the road and closed my eyes for about 5 minutes and my sight returned. I figured it was a one time event due to being tired and forgot about it. Then 2 weeks later it happened again. My doctor sent me to an eye specialist who said I was suffering from "ocular migraines" from over use of my eyes. I usually had 3 or 4 books going at the same time as well as heavy computer use and she said my eyes couldn't take it. She said if I gave up reading or the computer , I should be OK. I was hooked on JREF & Facebook , so I gave up reading. I never had another migraine , so I guess the doctor was right.

I have spans where I read a lot and spans where I don't read much at all, in terms of books. Currently I'm reading about a half dozen books, none of which are written in Japanese. The last one I started in Japanese was about post-war Taiwan, but I only got about half way through before I got busy and had to put it down. I actually read a few "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" books in Chinese (and English...they're a learning tool that I had to put aside when my father's health turned for the worse earlier this year.)

I read two or three books a month.

A few years ago I used to read one book per week. Now it's more like one or two per month.

I made two maps on Eupedia to show reading habits in Europe (as well as the US and Japan). The year of the data varies by country but it is between 2011 and 2020. At that time only 20 to 25% of Japanese people didn't read any book over the past year, a similar percentage to Germany.

The new survey that Thomas posted asked respondents if they had read a book over the past month. I suppose that It would be more reliable to ask people about the books they read over the past year instead as for those read only occasionally there might be several months when they don't read anything.





In general we see that people in Northwest Europe are the most avid readers. The bad weather maybe partially responsible for that, although education levels also play a role.