[Feature: Encountering Books] Rokuro Yui: A Magnetic Field Created by the Gathering of "Oshi" and "Likes" — The Shared Bookstore "PASSAGE by ALL REVIEWS"

2023/08/08

In March 2022, I opened a "shared bookstore" called PASSAGE by ALL REVIEWS on Suzuran-dori in Jimbocho.

What is a shared bookstore? It is also often called a share-type bookstore. It is a format where each individual shelf in the store has its own owner, and the collection of those shelves forms a single bookstore. The shelf owners (shelf holders) can sell the books they want to sell (the books they are "pushing" or "supporting") at any price they like. Any kind of book is fine.

Most of these places operate on a monthly fee system. In the case of PASSAGE, prices vary depending on the position and size of the shelf, but a shelf can be rented starting from 5,500 yen per month. We use a "consignment sales" system where, when a book is sold, the amount minus a sales commission is returned to the shelf owner. PASSAGE has 362 shelves, and as of July 2023, it can be said to be the largest share-type bookstore in the world.

When a shelf in a good location becomes available, we recruit shelf owners and hold a lottery. The competition ratio is about 40 to 50 times. Marketing on social media serves as the foundation, and the fact that we have been featured frequently on television and in newspapers has also provided a tailwind.

The store name was taken from the Parisian shopping arcades known as "PASSAGE." Under open glass ceilings, unique individual shops such as old photo shops and stamp shops are lined up, creating an airy atmosphere where anyone can stop by. I wanted to make such a PASSAGE the model for this store.

PASSAGE opened as the physical store version of "ALL REVIEWS," a book review archive site that I have been operating since 2017 with my father, Shigeru Kashima, a scholar of French literature.

"ALL REVIEWS" is a website with the grand mission of "building a 'book review archive' that makes all book reviews published in print media since the Meiji era available for viewing." We diligently reprint and publish book reviews that my father and various other book reviewers, authors, and scholars have published in newspapers and magazines. Regardless of whether the books are old or new, the system is designed so that if a book is purchased via the site, a few percent of the purchase price is returned to the writer.

Since book reviews are rarely published in book form after appearing in newspapers or magazines, they tend to get buried even if they were written by famous reviewers or distinguished authors. By re-releasing such past book reviews to the world in digital form, the publishing industry will also be revitalized if people who read the reviews buy the books. I created it to generate such a cycle. In the meantime, a fan club for ALL REVIEWS was formed by people who love books. I had been looking for an opportunity to create a place where everyone could gather. That culminated in PASSAGE.

The age range of PASSAGE shelf owners is wide, from 18 to 90 years old. From ALL REVIEWS, a diverse range of people have opened stalls, including my father, the polymath Hiroshi Takayama, book reviewer Yumi Toyozaki, poet Machi Tawara, translator Motoyuki Shibata, and management scholar Ken Kusunoki.

What is the appeal or selling point that makes it different from other bookstores? It would be the fact that we intentionally sell books with sticky notes and handwritten notes still in them. While it might feel unpleasant if they were traces of a complete stranger, there is great value in being able to trace the thought processes of a famous shelf owner, such as what parts of the book they focused on. Since there is no point in competing on price with Amazon or Mercari, I ask the shelf owners to provide "plus-alpha" values.

PASSAGE is a "place" where individuals who "love books so much they can't help it" gather and exchange the values they believe in through the medium of "books." It is a high-density space filled with individual "likes," a collection of "oshi" (recommendations) saying, "This book is really interesting!" People are naturally drawn to it. At the center is the rare bibliomaniac Shigeru Kashima, but I believe that extreme "oshi" is exactly what will have a positive impact on the publishing industry. "Oshing" (supporting/promoting) is fun. It is also fun when the "pushed book" sells. Being with people who are enjoying themselves is also very fun.

At the new store "PASSAGE bis!" on the 3rd floor of the same building, which opened in February 2023, we also sell a variety of domestic and international craft beers and antique goods recommended by the shelf owners, creating a space that inherits the "power of oshi" from PASSAGE. I am starting to feel that my mission is to expand "places" where people can do "what they like as much as they like."

The time spent thinking about books inside PASSAGE, where many book lovers come and go, is truly enjoyable. The 362 "oshi" shelves are overwhelming. The voices from the books saying "Read me!" resonate pleasantly like a polyphony. According to those voices, the future of books is surely bright.