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  • Jürgen Ledderboge

    Friedrichstadtpalast. Vom Neubau zum Denkmal

  • Arch+ Zeitschrift für Architektur und…

    ARCH+ 259. Wonders of the Modern World

  • Paola Vigano

    The Biopolitical Garden. Space, Life, Transition

  • Ramon Gras, Jeremy Burke

    City Science. Performance follows Form

  • Paul B. Preciado

    Dysphoria Mundi

  • Barrault Pressacco

    Wallness. Nature and culture of insulation. Building with…

  • Olivier Kaeser (Ed.)

    Dance First Think Later. The Thinking Body between Dance…

  • Sven Durst

    3 objects (Issue 2)

  • Paul-Antoine Lucas, Bui Quy Son (Hg)

    Housing, Micropolitics, and Pedagogies. Designing and…

  • Itsuko Hasegawa, Kersten Geers, Jelena…

    Itsuko Hasegawa. Shonandai - Exposing the World

  • Chris Dähne, Martin Mäntele, Helge…

    Programmed for Hope. Architectural Experiments at the HfG…

  • Alexander Kluge

    Aus dem Bauhaus der Natur. Die Republik der Tiere in uns

  • Elizabeth Duval

    Nach Trans. Sex, Gender und die Linke

  • SendPoints

    Creative Book Design

  • Bruno Munari

    Bruno Munari. Fantasy. Invention, Creativity, and…

  • Nick Dyer-Witheford, Alessandra Mularoni

    Cybernetic Circulation Complex. Big Tech and Planetary…

  • Andjelka Badnjar, Kristina Pujkilovic,…

    Trees, Time, Architecture! Entwerfen im Wandel

  • Sico Carlier

    Currency #6

  • Julia Bee, Irina Gradinari, Katrin…

    digital:gender – de:mapping affect. Eine spekulative…

  • Zhiyi Cao

    Sediments

  • Tal Stadler

    Strategies for Landing

  • Vladimir Safatle

    Zynismus und das Scheitern der Kritik

  • Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe, Jean-Luc Nancy

    Der Nazi-Mythos

  • Boris Groys

    Zum Kunstwerk werden

  • Luise Rellensmann, Alexander Stumm (Hg.)

    Die Abrissfrage. Fundamente Ökologisches Bauen No 1

  • Marlon Miguel, Elena Vogman (eds.)

    Psychotherapy and Materialism. Essays by François…

  • Olya Kuzovkina

    Road Works (version 1.0)

  • Nadi Abusaada, Wesam Al Asali (eds.)

    Arab Modern. Architecture and the Project of Independence

  • Luc Boltanski, Arnaud Esquerre

    The Making of Public Space. News, Events and Opinions in…

  • Nick Couldry

    The Space of the World. Can Human Solidarity Survive Social…

  • Mark Stoll

    Profit. An Environmental History

  • Guillaume Paoli

    Etwas Besseres als der Optimismus

  • Barragán Foundation

    Barragán Outside Barragán

  • Leila Taylor

    Sick Houses. Haunted Homes and the Architecture of Dread

  • Christina Köchling (Hg.)

    Ästhetik der Technik. Drei Ökohäuser in den 1970-90er Jahre

  • Prof. Dr. Richard Woditsch (Hg.)

    Chronologie einer Ideologie. Architektur-Biografien im…

  • Wenke Seemann

    Wenke Seemann. Utopie auf Platte

  • Stefan Heidenreich

    Attraktion und Mitmacht. Wie Kunst dem Kult des Exklusiven…

  • Aylin Akyildiz, Karoline Fahl, Steffen…

    Einrichten in der Normalität – Wie Kinder und Jugendliche…

  • Henning Lundkvist

    Columns

  • Joseph Vogl

    Meteor. Versuch über das Schwebende

  • Sezgin Boynik, Tom Holert

    Engström/Farocki: About Narration (1975). Materials,…

  • Derek Jarman

    Derek Jarman. A Finger in the Fishes Mouth

  • Jean-Pierre Chupin

    Analogical Thinking in Architecture. Connecting Design and…

  • Scott Colman

    Ludwig Hilberseimer. Reanimating Architecture and the City

  • Ammar Azzouz

    Domicide. Architecture, War and the Destruction of Home in…

  • Marko Jobst, Naomi Stead (eds.)

    Queering Architecture. Methods, Practices, Spaces,…

  • Marina Tabassum

    Khudi Bari. A social project by Marina Tabassum Architects…

  • IDEA Magazine

    IDEA 408. Pixels Speak: Worlds of Tiny Dots and Design…

  • IDEA Magazine

    IDEA 407. Towards a Future Bound to Print Media: Those Who…

  • IDEA Magazine

    IDEA 406. Ikki Kobayashi - Life through Design Drawings

  • IDEA Magazine

    IDEA 405. Sneaking a Look. Cross Sections, Floor Plans…

  • Ludwig Heimbach (Hg.)

    Mäusebunker und Hygieneinstitut. Eine Berliner…

  • Pascal Gielen

    Trust. Building on the Cultural Commons

  • Irene Revell, Sarah Shin (eds.)

    Bodies of Sound. Becoming a Feminist Ear

  • Ilaria Marotta, Andrea Baccin &…

    The Uncanny House

  • Enzo Traverso

    Gaza Faces History

  • Irene V. Small

    The Organic Line

  • Sandra Schäfer

    Contested Landscapes

  • Nina Franz

    Militärische Bildtechniken. Von der frühen Neuzeit bis ins…

  • Volker Pantenburg

    Einfachheit ohne Vereinfachung. Zur Praxis Harun Farockis

  • Justin Barton, Steve Goodman, Maya B.…

    Sonic Faction. Audio Essay as Medium and Method

  • Torsten Andreasen, Emma Sofie Brogaard…

    Finance Aesthetics. A Critical Glossary

  • Lucas Ferraço Nassif

    Unconscious/Television

  • Terry Farrell, Adam Nathaniel Furman

    Postmodernism. Architecture That Changed Our World

  • Natasha Aruri, Katleen De Flander,…

    Critical Mapping for Municipalist Mobilization. Housing…

  • Nida Abdullah, Chris Lee, Xinyi Li (…

    Through Witnessing. Threading the critiquing, making,…

  • Cecilia Casabona, Ginevra Petrozzi (Eds…

    Death Design Data

  • Miriam Rasch, Jojanneke Gijsen, Harma…

    hands on research for artists, designers & educators

  • Rosi Braidotti

    Posthuman Knowledge and the Critical Posthumanities

  • Anna Colin

    Alternative Pedagogical Spaces: From Utopia to…

  • Annett Jahn, Ulrike Mönnig (Hg.)

    An den Rändern taumelt das Glück. Die späte DDR in der…

  • Silvia Franceschini, Nikolaus Hirsch,…

    Pre-Architectures

  • David Toop

    Two-Headed Doctor. Listening For Ghosts in Dr. John's…

  • Thordis Arrhenius, Ellen Braae, Guttorm…

    Architecture and Welfare. Scandinavian Perspectives

  • NIcole Schweitzer (Hg.)

    Uriel Orlow. Forest Times

  • Michael Schäfer

    Invasive Links

  • Daniel Berndt, Susanne Huber, Christian…

    ambivalent work*s. queer perspectives and art history

  • Jorge Silvetti, Hg. von Nicolás Delgado…

    Large, Lasting and Inevitable. Jorge Silvetti in Dialogues…

  • Giulio Bettini, Daniel Penzis

    Typostruktur. Sehnsucht nach architektonischer Relevanz

  • Laura U. Marks

    The Fold. From Your Body to the Cosmos

  • Emmanuele de Donno

    Construction of the Universe - Artists' Magazines and…

  • Julia Grosse, Jenny Schlenzka

    Rirkrit Tiravanija: On Making Less

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    Radio Cologne Sound. Das Studio für Elektronische Musik des…

  • Marion Hirte, Daniel Ott, Manos…

    Schnee von morgen. Statements zum Musiktheater der Zukunft

  • Oana Stănescu, Chase Galis (Hg)

    Cover me softly

  • Claire Bishop

    Merce Cunningham's Events: Key Concepts

  • Viyaleta Zhurava

    FIGUREN / SHAPES

  • Diskursiv (Hg.)

    Diskursiv No. 2, Colors

  • dérive

    dérive N° 98, Eigentum (Jan-Mar 2025)

  • Viktoria Schabert

    Eileen Gray's Museum

  • Arch+ Zeitschrift für Architektur und…

    Arch+ 258. Urbane Praxis

  • Oxana Gourinovitch

    Raising the Curtain. Operatic Modernism and the Soviet…

  • Alexander Eisenschmidt

    Felix Candela From Mexico City to Chicago. Rise and Fall of…

  • Lydia Kallipoliti

    Histories of Ecological Design. An Unfinished Cyclopedia

  • Anders Engberg-Pedersen

    Martialische Ästhetik

  • Matthias Ballestrem, Katharina Benjamin…

    Constructive Disobedience

  • Sofie De Caigny, Hülya Ertas, Bie…

    As Found. Experiments in Preservation

IDEA 402. Opening paths with small press publishing: Independent Publisher and Future of Distribution in Japan

This issue’s feature will take a look behind the scenes of publishing. The world behind the words you read in the book you’re holding publishers, the people involved in the book’s production, locale, and details don’t really have any direct effect on the enjoyment you would derive from the book itself. The world is full of books; for those of us who want to read certain books at certain times, the work of those behind the publishing scene is as essential to us as the infrastructure that supports our daily lives. These past few years have brought with them a breakdown of norms. Gone are the bookshops we knew, and steadily fall the numbers of magazines and books published; we’re left with an anxiety surrounding the future of the publishing industry in Japan. Who is here to take on the task of weaving words, binding books, and circulating the publications to our future generations? This issue will focus on independent publishers opening paths for the future of publishing.

Even in the publishing industry in Japan and it’s chronic recession, the last few years has brought with it some encouraging news like the stay-at-home demand and digital comic sales driven by the corona pandemic. The paper publishing market continues to shrink however; the past 20 years has seen the number of bookstores nationwide plummeting to half, and the total number of publishers decreasing by around 40%. This is directly related to the decline in sales, and has also affected the performance of intermediaries handling the distribution of books between publishers and booksellers, which has occasionally led to bankruptcies. It is now evident that the Japanese distribution system is not viable anymore.

On the other hand, independent publishers also known sole-proprietorship publishers or small press continue to make their presence felt. Major publishers are focused on wide circulation and shackled to the idea of producing books based on thin profit margins; but unlike these companies, small press publishers produce books they truly find both interesting and deserving of being published; these small businesses work hard to reach their readership, even with the limited channels available to them. Small presses are often only supported by a single, or a few staff members at most.

With the internet and the spread of alternative distribution and sales routes through minor companies, books from small press publishers are more easily available through regular bookstores and online shops like Amazon. In recent years, encouraged with the growing number of independent bookstores and leveraging of information on social media, independent publishing businesses have established themselves as an alternative way to publish and sell books to an online audience.

This feature is focused on interviews with these publishers, the books with unique perspectives, themes, and book formats that they publish, and their attitudes toward publishing. Among the seven sole proprietorships and publishers introduced here̶ rn press, Seki Shobo, Inu no senaka-za, Shoshikankanbou, etc.books, and Minato no Hit0 some have only been around for five years, some have rejected the growth path and remain as sole proprietorships, and others have already reached their 20-year mark. Even with differences in scale and years of experience, all work towards the same goal of opening publication paths and building connections.

We have also asked three people to contribute their overlooking opinions of publishing and distribution in Japan to this feature: a long-time observer of the Japan publishing industry Akira Nagae, the bookshop Title (Ogikubo area, Tokyo) owner Yoshio Tsujiyama, and intermediary service Transview’s manager Hideyuki Kudo. In addition, we’re also including an essay from the book design historian Shoji Usuda, which attempts to connect Japan’s modern publishing history with the greater history of bookbinding. The second half contains a selection of books recommended by booksellers and publishing professionals in the hope that it will draw attention to not only the books but the publishers behind them as well.

Although, due to space reasons, we have been limited to the number of publishers we were able to interview for the feature, our initial research began with a list of over 50 to choose from. Even as you’re reading this feature, there are new publishers striking their roots in Japan. The shift trends from large publishers to small press, but publishing is still open to everyone.


IDEA Magazine
IDEA 402. Opening paths with small press publishing: Independent Publisher and Future of Distribution in Japan
Seibundo Shinkosha, 2023, IDEA402 2023.6
36,00 €