YONAGO, Tottori -- A bookstore with a selection committee of about 100 prominent people from various fields choosing the titles to fill its shelves has recently opened inside Tottori University Hospital in Yonago, Tottori Prefecture.
Kanijiru Bookstore bills itself as a "select bookshop" because committee members, including tanka poet Machi Tawara and nonfiction writer Hazuki Saisho, choose books based on their own preferences under themes such as nonfiction, medical care and quality of life.
Fumi Suzumura, winner of the Shosetsu Subaru new writer award last year, manages the bookstore. The 26-year-old author hails from the city of Sakaiminato in the prefecture.
Welcoming hospital staff, patients and the public, the bookshop was established after the about 50-square-meter library on the first floor was remodeled.
The bookstore was opened by venture firm Kanijiru, whose president is 53-year-old nonfiction writer Kenta Tazaki. The company's head office is located in the hospital, and employees help produce Tottori University Hospital's PR bulletin, also named Kanijiru.
Tazaki's connections yielded some significant talent: Yoshimoto Kogyo Holdings Co. Chairman Hiroshi Osaki, Kodansha Ltd. President Yoshinobu Noma and TV personality Suidobashi Hakase are also on the committee.
Each member has chosen about 30 books.
The concept is to have customers find a new favorite title among a jungle of books. As such, the books are not lined up on the shelves by genre, but in the order of the Japanese syllabary of the selector.
No mark exists on a book's spine indicating who selected it. Only when a book is removed from the shelf does this information become apparent, in the form of a seal on the back cover.
Besides corners featuring books written by committee members and texts chosen by Tazaki, one space has children's and picture books so customers can enjoy searching for titles with their kids.
The bookstore has about 5,000 titles.
Management is considering adding selection committee members in the future and swapping out books occasionally.
An opening ceremony was held Sept. 28, with hospital director Tasuku Harada and Tazaki cutting a ribbon in celebration.
"This place is a dream for a publisher. We hope people in the San-in region and Yonago come here and, together with us, create a new kind of bookstore that can't be found anywhere else in Japan," Tazaki said in his speech.
"There are many books I'm not familiar with here, which makes me excited just by browsing," Suzumura said. "I'd like customers to take a good look at the books on the bookshelves here and find their favorite one."
For this year, Kanijiru Bookstore is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays only.
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