Bookshop buys up 90% of new Haruki Murakami print run to limit web sales

Japanese retail chain Kinokuniya set to acquire most of the first print run of new essay collection in a bid to resist web retailers’ dominance

A major Japanese bookshop chain is taking a stand against the increasing dominance of online retailers such as Amazon by restricting their access to the first print run of a new essay collection by Haruki Murakami.

According to the Asahi Shimbun, the 66-store chain Kinokuniya is set to acquire 90,000 copies of the 100,000-copy first print run of Murakami’s Novelist As a Vocation, which is out in Japanese on 10 September. The chain, reported the Japanese paper, then plans to sell the title at its own stores, and distribute it to other shops around Japan through wholesalers.

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