What is causing people in Japan, especially youth, to turn away from books?

TOKYO — Some 60% of Japanese people do not read even one book in a given month, the first time that has been true for a majority of the population, according to a fiscal 2023 survey by the Agency for Cultural Affairs. What are the major factors speeding up the country’s drop in book-reading?

While it has long been said that books don’t sell, in prior surveys over 50% of people had read at least one book per month. “It was quite a shocking figure,” a Cultural Affairs Agency official said of the survey results.

Why is the number of book lovers in Japan declining? By taking a close look at the survey results, we can surmise the main reasons. First, 69.1% of respondents said they were reading less than they did before, up 1.8 percentage points from the previous survey in fiscal 2018, and the highest since the question was inserted into the survey in fiscal 2008. In contrast, only 5.5% said they were reading more than they did before, the lowest figure since fiscal 2008.

The top reason given among those reading less was “spending more time on smartphones, tablets and other devices” at 43.6%, followed by “busy with work or school” at 38.9%. The latter was the top reason selected in previous years of the survey, and this was the first time the former was the most common explanation.

That trend was particularly strong among young people. Smartphones, tablets and the like were offered as the main factor for the decline in book-reading among those aged 10 to 29, while work or study was the main driver for those in their 30s and 40s. For those in their 50s and above, factors such as declining eyesight and health problems are cited more commonly, and these become the main reasons for those aged 70 and up.

Kaho Miyake, literary critic and the author of “Naze hataraiteiru to hon ga yomenakunarunoka” (Why do we become unable to read books when we work?), published by Shueisha Inc. under its shinsho label, offered deeper analysis of the trend: “I believe the reason for the decline in reading can be attributed to a phenomenon that is Japanese people’s move to distance themselves from long texts.”

Miyake speculates that the number of people who cannot read long-form writing is surging. She offered two reasons that have to do with changes in the information environment.

One is the growing popularity of short-form video sites like TikTok. There has been astronomical growth in videos around 15 seconds long over the last five years. “More people are spending more time on videos and images on their phones, even among people who were previously reading longer things on their phones” she said.

Another factor is how people have gotten used to the ways of writing commonly found on social media. Miyake asserted that, “over social media, people mainly use shorter sentences and a cut-down vocabulary with no context.” She continued by emphasizing, “Reading long texts requires reading comprehension and imagination for things detached from oneself. They also contain knowledge that may be just noise (information of no interest). I suspect many people avoid contexts that are distant from and noise to them.”

(Japanese original by Buntaro Saito, Tokyo City News Department, and Kazuko Hamada, Cultural News Department)