“Not a single book per month”: the Japanese are turning away from reading

Since 2008, a survey on the Japanese language has been conducted every five years; in 2023, a letter was sent between January and March to 6,000 Japanese over the age of 16 residing throughout the country, the survey collected 3,559 responses (59.3%).

To the question “How many Books (including digital editions) do you read per month?” », the majority of respondents (62.6%) declared “None”. The most numerous responses were then “one or two books” (27.6%), “three or four” (6.0%), “seven books or more” (1.8%) and “five or six » (1.5%).

In the previous survey, 40% of them did not read any books, the increase is considerable.

75.3% of respondents who answered that they do not read any books indicate that they “read every day” because they get their information on the Internet and spend time on social networks.

To the question “Do you read more or less or only before?” », 69.1% of respondents admit to reading less, 24.5% think that this has changed little and only 5.5% speak of an increase. To explain the decline, 43.6% of respondents blame “laptops and smartphones that are too time-consuming”, then 38.9% of those questioned say they are “too busy with work or studies to read”, 31.2% cite “health problems (declining eyesight)” and finally 19.8% think that “television is more attractive”.

Asked about their consumption of digital texts (magazines and manga included), 15.0% said they read them frequently and 25.3% occasionally, which cumulatively represents 40.3% of respondents. Furthermore, 38.2% say they only read books, magazines or manga in paper format and 20.6% explain that they do not read anything, either digitally or in printed format.

The majority of those under 40 read digitally “sometimes” or even “often”, while those in their thirties are the age group using this type of medium the most (72.4%). Users of both formats (40.3% of the total) indicate 40.5% read more in digital format than in printed format, 29.5% say they prefer paper, 21.4% mention equivalent use, and 7. 9% said they only read digitally.

(Title photo: Pixta)