In a worrying development for bookworms across Japan, the number of bookstores in the country has dropped below 10,000 for the first time.

According to a survey released by the Japan Publishing Organization for Information Infrastructure Development (JPO) earlier this month, Japan had 9,993 bookstores as of the end of March 2026 ¡ª just over 40% of its peak in fiscal year 1998, when the nation had 24,237 stores.

During fiscal year 2025, which began in April, only 102 new bookstores were opened. Meanwhile, 499 shops closed.

This was the first time the number of bookstores fell short of 10,000 since the organization began taking count in 1994.

Since peaking in 1998, the bookstore industry has followed a downward trend. The most significant drops occurred in the 2000s, when more than 1,000 stores closed down per fiscal year, outpacing the nearly 500 new stores that would open up simultaneously.

In the last three fiscal years between 2022 and 2024, just under 100 bookstores opened while over 500 closed.

The loss of bookstores is more prevalent in certain areas. As of the end of August 2025, there were 498 municipalities that did not have a single bookstore that sold newly released books, according to recent data by the Japan Publishing Industry Foundation for Culture (JPIC). This makes up nearly 30% of cities and towns in Japan.

In five prefectures ¡ª Fukushima, Nagano, Nara, Kochi and Okinawa ¡ª the proportion of municipalities lacking a bookstore exceeded 50%.

Declining sales of physical books and magazines nationwide is fueling the trend.

Book and magazine sales peaked in 1996, bringing in around ?1.09 trillion and ?1.56 trillion, respectively. But in 2025, according to the most recent numbers by The Research Institute for Publications, sales of books and magazines brought in a much lower ?593.9 billion and ?370.8 billion, respectively.

The drop in magazine sales is particularly noteworthy. Magazines once made up more sales revenue than books, but they flipped positions in 2016, making magazines the smaller market. This may have been driven by Japan¡¯s graying society and the prevalence of the internet and smartphones.