Declan Murphy wrote:

> Why wouldn't a Japanese library prefer a Japanese translation ahead
> of a foreign language original?

People have already pointed out that there are generally more English books
in a Japanese library than Japanese ones in an English library. I'd just
add, from the book-collecting perspective, that English-speaking collectors
are more likely to collect Japanese writers in English and are willing, in
many cases, to pay higher prices for first editions of translations than for
the originals. Remember, collectors are interested in the book as an
*artefact* (if they want to read its contents they will buy a cheap reading
copy separately), so the question of whether or not they can read Japanese
is, in theory, irrelevant.

> There seem to be quite a few of these up in the big smoke -
> http://www.bondibooks.com/ etc etc nado nado. If you wanted
> to offload the book it might have been just as effective. Any of
> those bookshops would probably have a foreign language range
> equivalent to or larger than a local Japanese public library,
> and hence a greater readership.

Evelyn Leeper keeps a good record of used bookstores (Japanese and foreign)
in Tokyo (http://www.geocities.com/Athens/4824/jp-hama.htm), as well as in
other parts of Japan
(http://www.geocities.com/Athens/4824/jp-misc.htm#index). Anyone with any
stories to tell about used bookstores in Japan? I'd be interested to hear of
stores people recommend, or places they'd steer clear of, whether as
book-collectors and bibliophiles or just in search of a good read.

--
John
http://rarebooksinjapan.com