We will probably revert to the old monthly BARGAIN SUNDAY routine sometime, but too busy right now. However, we do have books available at bargain rates, and we are sometimes in the office on Sunday too. Drop by or give us a call.
How to get to IMC in Iriya.
Gone but remembered books
For years we have been using this website to promote some of the books that we sell in Japan and throughout the world. Many of these books come from overseas, from authors or publishers we do not know very well. Great books that people buy, then something happens and we can no longer make contact. Searching doesn't help and so we finally delete the books from our catalogs and webpages. But we want to remember them; so now we have this page.
17th Annual
Jimbocho Book Festival, October 27 (Saturday) - October 28 (Sunday),
2007
(coming again in October 2008) This is Japan's premier book matsuri for the public. It's fun. It's FREE. It attracts over 200,000 visitors. All of the book people in Tokyo's Kanda / Jimbocho district go all out to put on a great show. Publishers and bookstores put out their newest and best books. Rare books; dust covered gems. Suzuran dori (street), starting near the Sanseido building, the center for about 200 vendors whose wagons display just about everything. We (imcbook) will have a cart in Suzuran or Sakura dori and we will be selling Lonely Planet travel guide books and more. Mostly previous editions but otherwise new. Half the original Yen price, or less, and even better if you buy many. Of course you could buy these books or at our office (Mon-Fri 10-5 and some Sundays), but the Jimbocho Book Festival is too much fun. Any negatives? Yes, you will not find many other sellers of English books. And, if it rains the street wagons close for the day. The new and used bookstores will still be open and many of them have a good selection of English if you have the patience to search. 1) Click here to get a feel for Jimbocho Book Festival, see details of Suzuran dori 2) here.The pictures are scanned from the official promotion. Larger versions of the same pics (great on some computers and browsers but not on others) are 1a) here and 2a) here.
Do you need the leaflet shown through the links above? We have some extra copies. Pick up what you need from the "FREE" box at our office, or send us fax us at 03-3876-3627.
(coming again in October 2008) This is Japan's premier book matsuri for the public. It's fun. It's FREE. It attracts over 200,000 visitors. All of the book people in Tokyo's Kanda / Jimbocho district go all out to put on a great show. Publishers and bookstores put out their newest and best books. Rare books; dust covered gems. Suzuran dori (street), starting near the Sanseido building, the center for about 200 vendors whose wagons display just about everything. We (imcbook) will have a cart in Suzuran or Sakura dori and we will be selling Lonely Planet travel guide books and more. Mostly previous editions but otherwise new. Half the original Yen price, or less, and even better if you buy many. Of course you could buy these books or at our office (Mon-Fri 10-5 and some Sundays), but the Jimbocho Book Festival is too much fun. Any negatives? Yes, you will not find many other sellers of English books. And, if it rains the street wagons close for the day. The new and used bookstores will still be open and many of them have a good selection of English if you have the patience to search. 1) Click here to get a feel for Jimbocho Book Festival, see details of Suzuran dori 2) here.The pictures are scanned from the official promotion. Larger versions of the same pics (great on some computers and browsers but not on others) are 1a) here and 2a) here.
Do you need the leaflet shown through the links above? We have some extra copies. Pick up what you need from the "FREE" box at our office, or send us fax us at 03-3876-3627.
Goodbye dear friends
In very different ways Edward Seidensticker and Takeo Suzuki, contributed greatly to writing, translating, and publishing in English in Japan and for the world during the last fifty, or so, years. Both are now gone. I wish I had known both better but I was usually too busy with my own little world of work. Except for the youngest of you, Ed will be well known as a prolific and superb translator and writer. Much of what I first learned about Tokyo was learned from his books. Suzuki-san will be less well known by name, but he founded the JAPAN YELLOW PAGES and was a force in the development and networking of yellow-page directories throughout Asia. Suzuki-san knew his time was coming to a close, but he continued to work up to the end. Both men lived through the postwar era. That era is coming to a close as the internet and instant communication change the rules under which their generation (and my own) worked and lived.
Are these people doing anything useful?
We quote, "Established 1 July 1957, U.S. Forces, Japan, with its U.S. Army, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps elements, consists of approximately 47,000 military personnel, 52,000 dependents, 5,500 DOD civilian employees and 23,500 Japanese workers. U.S. Forces are stationed in Japan pursuant to the U.S.-Japan Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security of 1960." Roughly 2-thirds are NOT military personnel. Of the 47,000 military personnel, there are lots of support personnel. I would guess that there are at most 20,000 people trained and equipped to fight if needed, and they are just spending their time training or waiting for an attack that is unlikely and for which they would be unprepared. Roughly 50 years since Korean War. Seems a long time to sit and do little if anything. The quotation is taken from http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/agency/dod/usfj.htm.
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Maruzen's
main store in Marunouchi (on Palace side of Tokyo
Station) will hold a big BARGAIN FAIR from June 20 - 25,
2008. Successful event now completed. Similar event will be held late this year or early next; so watch this space for update. |
| If you have not been to Maruzen since they moved their main store, now is a good chance to explore the new honten in Marunouchi. There is still a Nihonbashi store. It is just across the street from Takashimaya. The Nihonbashi store was formerly the honten, but closed so the old building could be rebuilt. Now back in business the Nihonbashi store is very convenient for those who travel on the Ginza or Tozai subways. | |
| Online special bargain
fair April 23-June 23, 2008 Books from dozens of Japan's leading publishers and booksellers & IMC.. 第１０回 出版社共同企画 「期間限定 謝恩価格本ネット販売フェ ア」(4/23 - 6/23) ＩＭＣ出展タイトルリスト |
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KINDLE - one more reason bookstores are dead Now you can get the book you want almost instantly and without trudging to a bookstore. Just buy Amazon's KINDLE device (it ain't cheap) and then download and read hundreds of books at far less cost than the store (any store) charges. If you never read, KINDLE is a waste. If you are not in the USA, you may be out of the area that the KINDLE presently serves ... we are in Japan and I doubt that Kindle would be of any use now here, but that is sure to change. See our Kindle start page here. And, don't forget that bookstores still have millions of books that are fun to browse. Tachi yomi.
AVAAZ.ORG - Bio
fuel or Food
Worrying about the supply of petroleum? Think bio-fuel is the answer? The rich fuel their cars and lifestyle while the poor starve. Take a look at http://avaaz.org.
Worrying about the supply of petroleum? Think bio-fuel is the answer? The rich fuel their cars and lifestyle while the poor starve. Take a look at http://avaaz.org.
See more details here. You don't have to be a worker from an LDC to be sympathetic. Here is a chance to express support for the needs and aspirations of others .... even if you are just a bystander. The march is over, but the problems of foreign workers and Japanese part-time workers remain. Keep yourself informed.
Maruzen's main store in Marunouchi (on the Palace side of Tokyo Station) will hold a big BARGAIN FAIR from January 10 - 18
If you have not been to Maruzen since they moved their main store from Nihonbashi, now is a good chance to explore the new honten in Marunouchi. There is still a Maruzen branch in Nihonbashi across from Takashimaya, but Marunouchi is bigger and better.
The event was great and surely will be repeated in future. Take the escalator up to the English book section.
Bumble Bush - Vietnam George Bush (Sep 22 2007) in a speech this day or the day before stated, to the effect that, the USA should have stayed-the-course in Vietnam. The idea being that the USA could have won with more effort and that it should thus stick out the bumps in Vietnam, and that it will then win. Actually George doesn't know history (or is stupid or a liar). I'm no historian and Vietnam was of minor importance to my life, but I do remember that there was a popular Washington DC theory that the dominoes would fall if the USA did not stay the course and protect Southeast Asia. Well, the USA lost, dominoes didn't fall. Japan got rich on the Korean War. The Vietnam War made Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand rich (among others). Today it is not hard to see who is getting rich due to the USA-in-Iraq. (comments welcomed)
Travel Phrasebooks Nothing new here but we have reorganized our travel books. We started with a list of 60+ phrasebooks covering just about every destination you are likely to visit. But if we have missed some, let us know. All books are in stock as of today, and the list will be updated frequently. We have now added Diving, Hiking and other books. Several more lists will be added.
Publisher Title Lists Now we have the beginning of pages of titles arranged by publisher. We start with the surprising prolific publisher in English of books for the Japan Communist Party. here
Women's Interests It took this new book on Princess Masako to get us to add (still under construction) a page of books of especial interest to women. Bill Hills' subtitle tells the story (as best he could without being allowed to interview any of the principals): Prisoner of the Chrysanthemum Throne. I would dispute the wording, but the problems, well known in Japanese, have never before been so public in English. Here for this book and more for women. The book is now available from the Amazons and can probably be obtained from Kinokuniya, Maruzen, and (though just published) it is available from discount and used book sources. Hardcover, but there will surely be a paperback soon.
Used, Rare & Specials We are trying to bring some order and sanity to our lists and stocks of these special books. One step is a remaking of the page here. IMC is not your ordinary furuhonya. But, we find that many excellent books are being allowed to go out of print and the only way for you to buy one is via special services that have or can get these books. Sometimes we can supply.
More on War
We now have the beginnings of a catalog page of war related books. We start with two books on the a-bombing of Nagasaki. One is old and out of print and the other has just been published.
Book Publisher Catalogs at IMC
Another under-construction page has been added to our website here. We get dozens of catalogs, hundreds really, and most never are looked at. We keep them, but nobdy knows we have them. Even we forget. This new page is intended to give a little life to the catalogs on to make it just a bit easier to find them. The page will get better as we add more and establish some rational order.
Iraq, Vietnam, Korea: commentary
Do you remember World War II. I do; I was a high school student in Los Angeles. The Korean War? I was in the army and got as far as Japan, and they decided to stop fighting and I have been (on and off, more or less) in Japan ever since. How about the Vietnam War? I had a good job then and traveled extensively throughout Asia, from Korea to New Zealand to Afghanistan and back to Japan. I covered the same travel route over and over for four years. The U.S. was fighting communism, saving freedom, supporting the newly independent and weak countries of Southeast Asia. The U.S. experts said that the dominos would fall if Vietnam fell. I saw Singapore and Hong Kong getting rich. R&R for the troops. Materials and services for both sides. I was inclined to think that the USA could win if it played less R&R and sent in more troops and bombed the hell out of the whole country. My family and I were not in harms way; we were in Japan one of the safest places in the world. And I was young enough to enjoy a little danger; after all, one reason I joined the army was to get the hell away from home and parents. I'm not sorry, I needed the freedom to become 'me'.
Today, George Bush wants to increase the number of U.S. troops in Iraq. Blame the Iraq government if the USA fails. Looking back, Korea is still a problem. The dominos in Southeast Asia never did fall. China will soon become, if not already, the leading Asian country as Japan shrinks. You do not have to be a Democrat to see the failings of George Bush (stupid?, liar?, pigheaded?). Oh! Ethanol instead of petroleum! Good, but from corn?? Already the corn price has doubled. There are better sources for ethanol. More research is needed, not grand words from an outgoing man who will not be around when the truth is known. I guess, he will then just blame whoever becomes the next President.
One good thing about Japan is that the country looks at the whole world. Every morning there is news in English, Chinese, Korean, German, French, Spanish, Arabic and perhaps more international news channels. How many Americans listen to anything other than the pallid CNN and a couple other American channels? At least watch BBC. If not available on local TV, use the internet. A list of news websites is here and we would welcome any additional suggestions.
Walking, Hiking, Trekking, Climbing - Thanks to author and serious walker New Zealander Craig McLachlan, we are now distributing two of his Japan books and will add another one or two in future. These are now listed on our (still under construction) page that lists sports and outdoor books here.
Books Bought by IMC Customers - A new list has been started here.
Adoption - The ins and outs of adopting, with special emphasis of adopting a young child from Japan. More here soon.
Two books from 1900 - You may perhaps be interested in these. If you are, please contact us. 1) VIEWS OF THE NORTH CHINA AFFAIR - 1900 (bilingual) Picture: http://jpgsonline.com/BookPict
New Novel by Hillel Wright The title is Border Town. Back cover blurb: "...the life, loves and legend of a fictional female manga artist whose controversial comix story challenges a Japanese Emperor." here
16th Jimbocho Book Festival [all finished but this is an annual event so mark your calendar for 2007] Don't forget this great book and fun event. October 28 (10:30-18:00) - October 29 (10:00-18:00). If the sun shines, we will have our usual wagon in the street exhibiting and selling English books, especially travel guides, phrasebooks, expat literature. If there is rain we (and 200 others) will not display on that day. 200,000 people will be walking the area and all bookshops will have there best and oldest stuff ready for you. More events info here.
Tokyo Hotels and Ryokan We have just started a major project to enlarge and update our listing of places where you can sleep in Tokyo. We do not sell rooms. We do not recommend any establishment. The hotels do not pay us to list them. Listing is by area (ku, shi). We give some indication of price, and in almost all cases we give you a link to an English webpage of that hotel ... We don't link to travel agents or others unless that is the only alternative. We intend to visit each establishment but have not done so and we do not guarantee the info shown. You are on your own. Have fun.
MARUZEN .... BARGAIN ENGLISH BOOK FAIR JUNE 20 - 26 (Wed.-Tue.), Tokyo
It was a great event and will be repeated. Watch this page for announcement.
This is a great event and a chance for you to buy fine books at bargain prices including many travel guide books. This display and sale will be on the 4th floor of the main Maruzen store on the Marunouchi-Otemachi side of Tokyo Station. I think of this as the giant English book event of the year. Don't miss it.
EUROMARKET DAY FINDER published by CoppClark is now represented exclusively in Japan by IMC - For two decades CoppClark was ably represented by Eastern Book Service. Due to a retirement and reorganization EBS gave up the representation. Other book importers wanted this business, but IMC turned out to be the most compatible fit. IMC now exclusively represent's CoppClark in Japan for sales of the annual Euromarket Day Finder, the only calendar specifically designed for Forward FX and Derivatives Markets, and the G7econotracker. IMC will be happy to answer questions from both renewal and new customers in Japan. More detail & easy-to-print PDF order form HERE. Email EDF@imcbook.net. For more info on CoppClark publications see their website. Now also available from CoppClark is the: G7 econotracker 2007. Handy, fits in briefcase; see here.
Japan gets a new PM and Cabinet If you would like to see who is now leading Japan (from Sep 26, 2006) click on the Japan's Zombie Politics over on the right and click on the link near the bottom of that page. New faces from the same old gang. Can they cut it in Asia and the World?
Local Event Calendar Here is a chance to promote your local (Tokyo, Japan, books and related) events in our new online calendar. It is free and you can add your information yourself. We have added just one event (Jimbocho Book Festival) to give you an idea of what it looks like. You will probably have to email us to get a password before you can add an event. Anybody can look at the calendar. The link is near the top of this page (under The Single Tone cover pic.)
Haruki Murakami See all his books and more. This new list makes it easy to find what he has published and where to get it. IMC does not stock these books but may be able to help if you are in Japan and want to order from us. Murakami has been hugely popular. We found one of his early books published by Kodansha selling for several thousand dollars in the rare book world.
New book blog If you want to say something (almost anything) about a book that you read, wrote, edited, bought, sold, hate, love, etc, if it is in English (for better or worse) and was published in Japan, by a Japanese, by an expat (living or dead), or if the book at least relates in some real way to Japan (East Asia perhaps), then click on the link just to the right and say what you want. We will be liberal, but we will moderate the blog. As space available is limited, we will surely favor the better and relevant comments over others. At the moment, there are no posts except our starting test, so please give the blog a try and leave your mark.
Books to Consider. See the link on the left very near the bottom of this long page. The link will take you to a selection of "Japan" related books and more. Some of these books have been selected by us at IMC, others are automatic selections by Amazon, all buying is from Amazon.com. This is a trial but I think this "store" is something we will be able to develop much further in future. The books we have selected for the list are not found elsewhere on our site and we consider them to be important. The automatic selections by Amazon are very broad.
North Korea Directory (English/Korean) and the China Directory (English/Chinese/Japanese) The new edition of each of these two important directories is now available. Not expensive, these are not travel guides, but they are essential information resources for those who deal in any way with these two countries. The DPRK directory is especially important as there are so few current and reliable sources for information on that country. We expect to have photo and details online sometime next week. If you think you want either or both send an email to IMC and we will reply with details
JAPAN'S ZOMBIE POLITICS: A Tragedy in Four Parts Do you get the feeling that Japan has lost its way, that the politicians are more interested in themselves than in the people? Author and critic Hajime Fujiwara has just published an English edition of his controversial "Koizumi's Zombie Politics". Fittingly this book is made available in August during the Obon season, and when P.M. Koizumi is about to be replaced by another from Liberal Democratic Party. More details here. The book may now be ordered via Kinokuniya, Maruzen, Tower Records, Yaesu Book Center and it is available at IMC. Supply of this book is limited but copies are available in USA and Japan.
List of Books on Japan We have just uploaded a list of books that you should look at if you are interested in Japan. (a) These are good books, mostly published between 2001 and 2006; (b) These books are in stock in Tokyo. You can buy them from us, perhaps from your local bookstore, and we give you an Amazon link for each book for each title. See list here.
SELF-PUBLISHING IN JAPAN: What you need to know to get started - Kathleen Morikawa learned the hard way. She succeeded and now shares her knowledge with those who want to publish in English in Japan. Despite my decades in this business in Tokyo, I learned much from Kathleen's book. See more here.
Events - Autumn 2006 & into 2007 We have taken advantage of the summer break to plan our schedule for the remainder of 2006 and into 2007. These are all book related events, and we expect to attend or exhibit at most of them. Some are in Japan. Others are in the USA or Europe. The list is not comprehensive but is up-to-date. Do you have any suggestions? If you are in or near Tokyo and would like IMC to participate in your event, send us info.
Event Feedback - TOKYO INTERNATIONAL BOOK FAIR, June 6-9, 2006 Did you go to TIBF? Was it a good fair worth the time and travel? Tell us your thoughts. We are not just boosters or detractors of TIBF. We would like to know how English-reading people react to TIBF, what it does well, what it could do better. Reply.
Japan Yellow Pages The new SPRING 2007 edition is now available. See details here.
Japan Business Contact Information and Resources - This is a new project at IMC, the purpose being to provide business information. There used to be several paper directories that provided good (if not excellent info). For various reasons, the only remaining paper directory that is regularly published is the Japan Yellow Pages. We like it, we use it, and we sell it, but the JYP is not what everybody wants and needs. Recently we have been building some lists for our own promotion and we looked at several sources. Frankly, though published online by top class commercial and government organizations, the info they supply (especially in English) is old, incomplete, and poorly organized. So, we have decided to build a new directory-like section of our website. Password needed. We will assemble the best info in English that we can find that will be helpful to you . We will try to point to the most relevant pages of the websites we suggest. We will say frankly what we think is wrong with the info provided by the resources we recommend ... some may be awful but still be the best that there is available in English. If you are fluent in Japanese, you don't need us. But, if you are looking and looking and not yet finding what you need, then we offer you the benefit of our sweat and experience. Today we start. Tomorrow we make a link so that you can sign up and pay. Then we will start adding content. Content will be added as we go. The initial sign-up fee is US$100.00 (Yen 12,000 including tax) and that gives you 1-year of access. We make no promises. We think we can help many people; we hope so, but maybe you already know all there is to know. If you are in business; if you are new to Japan; if you need to find a lot of things quickly; then, I am pretty sure that we can save you time ... surely enough to cover the small cost. [This paragraph should change rapidly over the coming weeks. If there is still no link but you are in a hurry, email us.]
JDPA - TheJapan Directory of Professional Associations is now online and in improved format. Subscription is required. JDPA is the directory of Japan's associations, societies, institutes, etc. that IMC has published for many years. The online JDPA is much improved over the former paper edition which is now out of print. Check out JDPA on the jpgsonline.com website.
International Petroleum Encyclopedia 2006 Every year in early summer, the IPE is published and we are the representatives for IPE in this region. IMC also sells over 200 petroleum and energy publications, but we give them little space on this website as they are highly specialized professional books, maps, reports, CDs and more. The annual IPE is an exception. IPE is used (and needed) by bankers, investors, and thousands of suppliers and customers of the petroleum and energy industries. Check it out here. The linked page is largely in Japanese for our Japan customers but you will also find the complete contents in English and more. Thanks to war and political stumbling the world is today worrying about energy (and petroleum is a big chunk of that) more than it might otherwise. The new IPE is now available but quantity is limited. -- IPE 2006 will be published on schedule (June 2006), totally updated. May be purchased together with a useful CD. The CD should be available in July. IMC can also supply many back editions of IPE for those who need historical perspective. NOW IN STOCK
CONTROVERSY Life is sometimes too tepid. This section as intended may be too hot or too cold, or odd or repulsive, but never bland. This is not a blog. We will make comments and give you book links. We will welcome your suggestions too. See here.
If you are in the USA and have not yet tried the software in the free GOOGLE PACK, we suggest you try it. There is no charge. You can pick and choose exactly what to install, or you can take all of the programs. I would suggest picking the programs that may be most helpful to you. Free GOOGLE PACK software.
AMERICANS VOTE It is unusual for this website to get into a political debate, but the world, not just U.S. registered voters, has to be concerned. In November 2006 there will be important Congressional elections. We have one voting information link now and will add more. See here. Tell us if you can suggest more links, factual or partisan.
Booth #191 at the LA Times Festival of Books, April 29-30, 2006 (The event is over, but our book lists remain online. These books will also be exhibited at the ASCJ conference in Japan in June. See the Events list near the end of the left column for date/details.) IMC exhibited over 130 Japan - China - East Asia books and periodicals at the FOB on the UCLA Campus in Los Angeles. The list of display titles is online: alphabetical list, category list, author list, publisher list. Many of these books are available from your local bookseller or through our links to Amazon.com and Amazon.co.jp. All are available from IMC. Books can be seen at our office in Tokyo. We also ship worldwide. For a short list of new or suggested titles that IMC has in stock in Tokyo and in the USA, see here.
Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, April 29-30, 2006, on the UCLA campus To late for us to add more books now, but we hope to exhibit here again next year. See the latest info on exhibiting your bookwithin the imcbook booth at this giant event in Los Angeles. Over 120,000 book lovers expected to attend. Our booth location is Booth #191 which is located in Zone A (Wilson Plaza) on the UCLA campus. There is parking (not free) for those who come by car, but we recommend public transport.
Petroleum & Energy Books Take a look at our new list of PennWell and other technical books in this field.
JEPP - The Japan English Publications in Print data on http://jpgsonline.com has just been updated, expanded and generally improved. Now provides easy access to info on an additional 25,000 titles. Take a look. Costs nothing and might be very helpful.
Our first DVD listing and a couple new books you may want to see They are listed in the column on the left. If a DVD interests you, please take care to make sure you are buying something that will work on your DVD player and in your country. If we list DVDs, it is most likely they will be for Region 1 (USA), they will be in English, relate directly to Japan, and we will link only to Amazon (at least for now). I don't think this website will ever be big in DVD, but we have to recognize the huge popularity of DVD even in bookstores.
Books on/from Japan by the top Japan publishers Thanks to cooperation with JPGS, we now have added several "Publisher Lists" (see down in left column) to major sources for Japan, East Asia, and Southeast Asia books. Try the links. In most cases we neither stock nor distribute the listed books. However, we may be able to assist if you find other contacts unproductive.
Leza Lowitz See our new page listing all (almost) of the books written or edited by Leza, here.
Search "imcbook" with Google We think Google is great and recommend it for searching. Now we have added a Google search box at the bottom of this page that gives you the choice of searching this "imcbook" website or doing a wide Google search. Try it.
Wikipedia We wanted to know more about Samuel Alito; so we did a Google search on that name. Among the top results was a link to the Wikipedia. We knew of this free online encyclopedia that anybody can edit, but we had never looked at it. We immediately found what we wanted to know about the man who is at this moment about to become a justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. We tried a few searches relating to Japan including a couple author searches and historical searches. We found articles on John Manjiro, Donald Richie and shakuhachi, but did not find info on several other people, travel in Japan, etc. We were impressed and decided to perhaps add an article of two to the Wikipedia ourselves. In any case, take a look. There are nearly a million articles in English, over 100,000 in Japanese, and many many more in major and minor languages. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, April 29-30, 2006, on the UCLA campus IMC will exhibit. If you are the publisher / author / distributor of English (or bilingual) books/publications that are published in/on/for Japan (or East Asia), and if you would like to have your titles seen at the Festival of Books, then probably IMC and JPGS (see paragraph below) can help. First you should take a look at the Festival of Books website, perhaps take a look at where UCLA is in LA, and then see what IMC has to offer (see above). (newer info appears further up on this page)
Search JPGS online data There is now a new "JPGS Site Search" link near the top of the Japan Publications Guide Service homepage. Go to that page and then click on the "JPGS Site Search" link. Site search is usually the fastest way to find any publication listed by JPGS or any organization (publishers, associations, etc). Search takes only 5-seconds and returns a complete list of relevant pages. Over 70,000 publications and organizations are included. Search by title, author, ISBN, or keyword(s).
Seasons Greetings A bit too personal perhaps, not business, but we thought you might be interested in a few of our yearend thoughts here.
JPGS lite There are over 50,000 Japan and Asia related English book and periodical titles in the JPGS (Japan Publications Guide Service) database. The JPGSlite version of the database lets you see all of the titles in (rather long) alphabetical lists. Access to these lists is free. Title links then help you find a source for the books you want. We have just updated the links to Amazon.com so that you can see a small and fast pop-up style box giving info on each title. This makes checking titles much much faster and fun. Not everybody will be able to see the quick-info boxes, but you will still be able to take advantage of the basic links. For more info on the JPGS information products go here.
LET'S GO 2006 "On A Budget" Travel Guide Books Now available at IMC the new 2006 editions of Let's Go's very popular travel guide books on EUROPE, WESTERN EUROPE, FRANCE, ITALY, SPAIN & PORTUGAL, BRITAIN, and USA. You can buy by sending us an email or by coming to our office in Iriya (near Ueno, Tokyo), or go to the Maruzen main store, Tower Records, or Yurindo (Yokohama). Visit http://imcbook.net/address.htm for all address details. We stock these Let's Go books to customers in Japan. You can also get them through the Amazon.com and Amazon.co.jp links on this page and on this Let's Go page.
Contact a Human at .... I hate to pass this on but it is just too good. You telephone an American company and are forced into a computerized answer system. The system takes you through a series of options and eventually you reach a human if lucky, if unlucky you are cut off. Paul English got frustrated and has published a cheat sheet ... how to get through to a human immediately. Interviewed on ABC and NBC News. I copied the cheat sheet. You may want to do the same. Take a look at paulenglish.com/ivr/.
SEARCH WITH GOOGLE Having trouble finding the book you want. Use the Google box below to search using any of the following (a) ISBN, or (b) title (all or part) and/or author.
MacArthur:
General Douglas MacArthur & The Occupation That Changed Japan Well researched and
written, this is a textbook for Japanese students learning English. It
also introduces them to the Occupation after World War II and General
MacArthur ... subjects that are not well taught in most Japanese
schools ... subjects that Japanese university students are themselves
interested in. See here.
Christianity & USA This website is unpolitical and nonreligious, but we don't like to see people killed or tortured. We have added a link (below right column with red background) to a website that appears to be on the right track.
MANGA in English Japanese manga have become hugely popular. Not our thing but we have just added a link to one new book. See lower down this page in the right column. Should we link to more manga? Any comments will be welcomed.
IMC seeks new investor/buyer/merger or white knight as founder retires It's true, Warren Ball, due to health and age, is cutting back. IMC is thus seeking new youth, support, collaboration that fits the current and emerging internet-enabled no-boundaries information and book world. More here.
JAPAN ENGLISH PUBLICATIONS IN PRINT New JEPP Standard. JEPP Standard is the best place to start looking for books and periodicals published in Japan in English or partly in English. Alphabertical list of over 25,000 titles. Also listing by Category. JEPP Standard is FREE. It provides title, author, ISBN information on most titles. In addition there are links for searching via Amazon, Google, and other recommended resources that may provide current availability and market price information. (Authors and editors should also send info on their new titles to JEPP.)
Christianity & USA This website is unpolitical and nonreligious, but we don't like to see people killed or tortured. We have added a link (below right column with red background) to a website that appears to be on the right track.
MANGA in English Japanese manga have become hugely popular. Not our thing but we have just added a link to one new book. See lower down this page in the right column. Should we link to more manga? Any comments will be welcomed.
IMC seeks new investor/buyer/merger or white knight as founder retires It's true, Warren Ball, due to health and age, is cutting back. IMC is thus seeking new youth, support, collaboration that fits the current and emerging internet-enabled no-boundaries information and book world. More here.
JAPAN ENGLISH PUBLICATIONS IN PRINT New JEPP Standard. JEPP Standard is the best place to start looking for books and periodicals published in Japan in English or partly in English. Alphabertical list of over 25,000 titles. Also listing by Category. JEPP Standard is FREE. It provides title, author, ISBN information on most titles. In addition there are links for searching via Amazon, Google, and other recommended resources that may provide current availability and market price information. (Authors and editors should also send info on their new titles to JEPP.)
JAPAN 9th Edition, and many other great travel guide books Now available from us at IMC, Tower Records, Maruzen, Kinokuniya, Amazon.com, Amazon.co.jp, etc. See here. And available at our office along with most other travel guides and maps from Lonely Planet, Bradt, Let's Go, etc.
PRESCHOOL - K12 INTERNATIONAL SCHOOLS IN JAPAN We have just updated our list, added more info. If you are looking for a school in Japan for a high school student or younger, take a look here. There is also a link in the index on the left.
BOOK REVIEWS This website will review a limited number of books in the future. Books must be in English and relate to Japan or the wider East/Southeast Asia region. Factual books will be given preference. Review Page. Books that are in our catalog pages will NOT be reviewed in the Review Page. Reviews for those books will be (sometimes) linked to the catalog page and, of course, brief reviews can often be found on Amazon.
PERIODICAL BACK ISSUES Here at IMC we receive hundreds of periodicals, magazines, annuals, papers, reports and other miscellaneous publications that we normally do not stock or sell. We could trash most of these and must trash some, but we prefer not to do that. So, we have decided to make a list (not a catalog) of some of what we receive in the thought that there may be some demand for these, often unusual, publications. If you find something that you want, if we can supply, we will charge you a P&H fee to cover our time and costs. You are free to look here and there will be no charge unless we can supply and you agree to our fee (and prepay). We can accept many types of payment and can ship by slow-cheaper means or by fastest-expensive-safest means to almost anywhere in the world. We will not reply to queries when we cannot assist.
APO & FPO ORDERS APO = Army Post Office. FPO = Fleet Post Office. These are U.S. Military postal addresses. In theory they hide the location of the receiver and thus protect the location of the military installation. In fact they are a, not so sweet, pain if you are mailing from an address in Japan. Non-military persons have no direct access to a military PO. If one does talk to a military PO person, he has no experience dealing with non-military and will give wrong information. When it comes to mailing to anAPO/FPO address, the usual Japanese PO is hopeless. Small Japanese post offices find international mail a challenge anyway; so they just send such mail to major POs which are fine if you happen to be located near a major PO. Otherwise you just put on some postage and pray. The percentage of undeliverable APO/FPO mail has always been high because of the high turnover in military personnel. What to do??? We recommend that, if possible, you use a civilian address when ordering rather than your APO/FPO address. If that is not possible, we will probably decide that you must be in the USA, and we will then send any books you order to the USA by airmail (usually SAL). If you are actually in Japan, such procedure will raise the price and will delay delivery from several days to perhaps one month or more. If you are in Europe, guess one or two months or ?? In this case we cannot help at all. We may refuse inquiries from people with APO/FPO addresses due to the uncertainties. Once again: Use a civilian address if possible.
JAPAN INTERNATIONAL ENGLISH BOOK FAIR There is no such thing, but we think there should be. In the distant past there was a book fair that attracted about 10,000 people and that focused on English and other non-Japanese languages. We intend to try to solicit support or at least to search for people and organizations that might be interested in such an event. Our thought is simple: (a) The event should be held for three days at a location in central/downtown Tokyo. (b) Exhibitors should be able to meet the trade to negotiate translation, distribution, etc. (c) Ordinary people should be able to attend the event with little or no admission charge (less than the cost of a movie) and they should be able to buy books at the fair. (d) A foreign-language book fair is not going to attract huge numbers of people; so the costs for exhibitors must be much lower than those charged to exhibit at the Tokyo International Book Fair. TIBF (annual in July) attracts well over 100,000 Japanese and is held at the trendy but distant Tokyo Big Site. The JIEBF would not replace TIBF. Instead JIEBF would expand the limited opportunity that Japanese people now have for seeing English and other foreign-language books. If you have any thoughts on this, send and email to jiebf@jpgsonline.com. Our thought at IMC is that this is a good idea but has no chance of success unless it finds major acceptance, support, and organization among the major government and commercial players in the information and publishing field in Japan. We can only spread some seed and hope that something grows.
Dying in IRAQ While surfing for a poetry book, we stumbled upon a website that gives detailed info on the number of Americans and others dying/injured in Iraq. A link appears in the righthand column lower down in this page. Not poetry. I draw no conclusions, except, for many of the injured there will be no total recovery.
Small Address Change When the International Post Office opened in Otemachi decades ago, we were among those who rushed to get a box. The IPO has now closed and will move to a new facility somewhat out of the center of Tokyo and closer to the airports. We decided to discontinue our two IPO boxes and transfer them to the Ueno Post Office which is within easy bicycle distance from our office. If you mail anything to our IPO Box 5056 (or to 5106), please change to Ueno immediately. Mail will be forwarded from the old IPO for one year but forwarded mail is always slow and subject to error. There will also be an address change for imcbook LLC in the USA. Contact us if you need that information.
New Updated Catalog Go here. There should be three files for each catalog. The three files hold essentially the same content. The "pdf" file will print a nice clean catalog. The "html" file is a webpage and will print easily but less cleanly. The "doc" file is a Microsoft Word file. Just click on the file name and it will open your Word program. If you use some other program instead of Word, that program will probably open the "doc". The doc file expects printing to be on A4 paper with 1.0cm margins.We update this catalog whenever we have something new. Prices are not included as it is difficult to quote a single price in any currency for the whole world. Contact us at IMC whenever you have questions or need a specific quotation.
a1books.com Recently we happened upon A1BOOKS. I guess they could be considered a small Amazon. Our first impressions have been good. Give A1BOOKS a try. Then let us know what you think They push books that they want to sell (a lot of the Dummies series), We have listed many books that we sell with them. There are now easy-to-use links for book searching at the bottom of this page. Try A1BOOKS, Abebooks, Amazon.com. Use Fetchbooks to compare prices and shipping charges. If that is not enough, we also included a link to another pages that includes Powells and other fine book sources.
Authors only We needed a page that would focus on info for authors; and, so we made one. Just a start but it is here. If you are not an author, it should not interest you, unless perhaps you want to be an author, to publish with Printed Matter Press, or similar
New List of Expat Books A new list of books is now available. These are books written by expatriates living and working in Japan. We have also included books by expats who have now moved elsewhere, and there are a couple others that we distribute and think they deserve a place in the list. Click here to see the list. There is also an easy-to-print PDF version, also available through the link.
ISBN check The ISBN system began in 1968. In general Japanese publishers of English publications were several years late in starting to use ISBNs, and many small publishers still ignore the system. The ISBN number is becoming more and more important in finding and organizing books, but what if the publisher or printer made a mistake and created an invalid ISBN number? That actually happened to us at IMC. The result can exclude the book from consideration by distributors, result in never finding the book with online searching, generally make life difficult, and more. Here is a good place to verify an ISBN that seems doubtful. Just type the ISBN into the box and click test.
A detailed explanation of how the ISBN (and Bookland EAN) should be printed on the back cover of a book will be found here. Important if you are an author/publisher in Japan who plans to sell through bookstores in the USA. USA distributors won't touch a book that is not properly barcoded. At the moment barcoding of English books is Japan is not very important. Most booksellers here selling English books still do not use barcodes or use their own system, but we expect that situation to change soon. A conversion tool here.
Get an ISBN for your book. Are you planning to publish a book? Need a printer/publisher in Tokyo who knows what to do and who communicates in English? Try Printed Matter Press; look here. If you need a U.S. ISBN, we at imcbook can help. Our ISBN service will give you a proper ISBN registered with the U.S. ISBN agency and details of your title will be in the American ISBN database. Essentially this means that all booksellers in the USA will be able to find your book if they want it. This will also get your book into the database of the largest bookstore chain in Japan. There is a charge for this service. Getting an ISBN in the USA is important if you want to sell a book in the USA, but this in itself does not sell your books.
Getting a Library of Congress Number, getting the National Diet Library database, getting a Japanese ISBN number ... these are all separate. You may want to do all, but you will find that each takes time and money, and it may not benefit you in any material way.
"The Single Tone", by Christopher Yohmei Blasdel New and bestseller on the shakuhachi. We hope to add his THE SHAKUHACHI: A Manual for Learning soon.
ISE - JAPAN'S ISE SHRINES: Ancient Yet New One of the very few books on the Ise Jingu. Only limited copies available. Be sure to also look at the website.
"The Coat that Covers Him" By Michael Hoffman, six stories and a novel. New by this Japan expat journalist and author. NOW AVAILABLE.
Japan in English This new page will eventually include info from every Prefecture. At the moment we have made a very small start and want suggestions. See here.
LIVING IN JAPAN The 14th edition is NOW available. 466 pages, 149x209mm, 819 grams, many many color pictures. Sponsored by the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan, edited by the people at Carter Witt Media (well known for Japanzine) with the help of writers (and advertisers) throughout Japan. An absolute must for anybody coming to live/work in Japan. You don't have to be American to benefit from this book; and in fact most of the contributing writers are not from the USA. "Living in Japan" (this is the 14th edition) has long been a bible for the foreign business community in Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya. Even if you are a student or a missionary in some lonely hamlet, this book contains the basic info needed to cope with the ever present problems of life in Japan. See webpage with more info here or, if you are in a hurry to buy, visit our office or email/fax/telephone us here.
New Books from Japan in English I think this page will prove to be popular and I hope you will take a look at the small beginning.
Recent changes! Many and more coming. Aside from changing the background color for the frame on the left, we have moved things around and added a couple links. Nothing has been taken out. This page keeps getting longer and we are reluctant to delete any valid item, so we started a new page. If you have the endurance to get to the bottom on this page, you can then click on the link on the right to go on to the extension. This is a season for "EVENTS' and we try to participate in as many as we have time and endurance for. The "events" link has been moved near the top of the left frame where it will be easier to find. Click on it to see where we may be in coming weeks and months.
Authors,
Editors, Publishers, Distributors, Designers, Printers, Photographers,
Reviewers, Publicists, etc. If you are in Japan or
relate to Japan, and work with English, and are working with
specialized or little known books and publications that are not
immediately visible online, you might be interested in our new mailing
list. This list is going to relate most directly to our efforts to
publish and promote books in English in Japan for distribution here and
worldwide, but the more general purpose is to promote publications and
authors (gaijin or Japanese) who publish in English in Japan. Often
ignored by the big distributors, undervalued in general, we hope to
spread news, info, and to otherwise help. Email us
to get into the list. Please do not change the Subject line.
Remember to include your email address in your email to us. We also
need some info as to who you are, where, and why you would like to be
in the list.
Donald Richie Donald Richie's new book A View from the Chuo Line is now available at Tower Records, Kinokuniya, Maruzen or any bookseller in Japan that is supplied by Yohan, and you can get it from us by mail or at our office in Iriya (near Ueno). We have also put up a list of nearly 40 Donald Richie books and editions here. Included are titles that are now scarce. Also see the links on the left to books by other expat writers and small presses in and related to Japan.
Advertise your Book Here
This website gets real traffic. The people who come here are looking
for books/information. They are readers, researchers, teachers. They
are probably interested in Japan/Asia. They are serious people from all
parts of the world. We are now accepting advertising and the price is
just $10.00 for 6 months on an inside page, or $100.00 (6 months) for
an advt. on this page.Ads must be either small banners (like one block
in the Google ads) or text links. Many books and magazines, if on
Japan/East Asia and in English, will get into our database and onto our
online lists even if you do not advertise, but you can give your
publication a boost with a paid link.
Books by Small Press Publishers in Japan
We have made a start with the list here. Can you
suggest more books? Tell us.
Be sure you give us as much info as possible: title, publisher contact
info, etc. No special requirements except that the book (or similar)
must have been published in Japan and be in English and be available.
We have already expanded the list and included several titles published
outside Japan that are especially relevant to Japan. We are on the
lookout for more titles. We have also started a list (just two books as
yet) from East/Southeast Asia. We want to be helpful, but doubt this
list will ever make money for us or the publishers, but I will be
satisfied if the list helps someone searching this website.
The Russian Far East, 2ed, by
Josh Newell This is a must-have book for
anyone involved with Northeast Asia. We have stock of both hard and
softcover editions at our office in Tokyo. We
distribute to bookstores throughout Japan. See details here.
Fed up with SPAM? We decided to try SpamArrest. You might want to try it too. See advt. at bottom of page.
JET - Japan Education and Teaching Programme Getting Both Feet Wet, Experiences Inside the JET Program, the book that every future JET needs, is on the shelf at Good Day Books (Ebisu), Bondi Books (Kichijoji). These stores mainly sell used books and are a great place to pick up great books at low prices. Each has a good map and directions on the website. Not only for participants in the Japanese government's JET program, GETTING BOTH FEET WET is an instructive and interesting read for any person concerned with the dynamics of the Gaijin/Nihonjin relationship. Do you know what the JET program is all about? Here are some JET links. See the book here.JIMBOCHO BOOK FESTIVAL, OCTOBER 29-30 (Finished for 2005 and it was great fun. Next will be in Oct 2006.) This is a huge and fun and FREE festival held annually in the Kanda-Jimbocho (Book Town) area of Tokyo. There will be at least 100,000 people visiting the bookshops and outdoor wagons. Mostly Japanese books but we exhibit English (mostly Lonely Planet travel guides, Bradt travel guides, language phrasebooks, art books by Taschen, books by Donald Richie and other expat writers). We will have two wagons (unless there is rain) and I understand there will be eight other wagons of English imported books next to us.
Read the Advertising Several of our pages are now carrying advertising supplied by Google. Click on the ads if you see something interesting. I personally like the way Google presents the ads and their selection of ads for our webpages. I have found several Google ads (on this website and others) that lead me to something I really wanted. So I like them and hope you will click too. If you are searching for books, try FetchBooks (bottom of this page). Costs you nothing to search, finds almost all books, compares prices. Better than Amazon for pure searching.
Amazons are not all equal You probably have found that not all books are listed by Amazon but did you know that some books found on amazon.com will not be found on the other Amazons. For those of us in Japan it may be cheap and useful to buy from amazon.co.jp, but co.jp does not include everything that is on .com. When searching amazon.co.jp for books in English, try searching for subete no shohin the default option. This searches for toys and other stuff too, but I have so far found it good for searching for English books. Another alternative is to search yosho (western books) and if that doesn't work for you, search again using the washo (japanese books) option. This works because some English publications are treated by Amazon as being Japanese. If you know the ISBN, search for the ISBN. This is the fastest and most sure way of searching any Amazon.
"Being A Broad In Japan" Women!!. This perennial bestseller is now in its third printing, and you may want a copy too. We have it here. (Temporarily OUP)
JIMBOCHO BOOK FESTIVAL October 29-30 (Saturday-Sunday). Japan's biggest annual free book event. Tens of thousands of people will look at tens of thousands of books in hundreds of street stalls and in bookshops in the Jimbocho Kanda area. More info HERE. If you are an author or small press publisher in Japan, we might be able to help you by promotion at the Jimbocho event, other events, and online. If interested, contact us at jiebf@jpgsonline.com or at the address in http://imcbook.net/address.htm.
Japan's popular English magazines, newspapers There is more on this new page that was mainly created to help us remember some links. Might help you too.
Japan English Publications in Print JEPP is no longer on paper but it is online. The last print edition is now over six years old. We have been working on the online version for a long time and finally have a version that we can manage and that should be helpful. See JEPP Standard. Access is currently unlimited; so take a look while the material is freely available. Your comments and suggestions will be welcomed. You can also see more on Japan Publications Guide Service here.
Asian Studies Conference Japan ASCJ is a group in Japan associated with the Association for Asian Studies (AAS) in the USA. Though smaller, the ASCJ meetings are well worth the time. The ninth annual Asian Studies Conference Japan was held on June 18-19, 2005, at the Ichigaya Campus of Sophia University, Tokyo. For more info see: http://www.meijigakuin.ac.jp/~ascj/ This annual conference will be held again in 2006 but the location will change. IMC will list details on the Events page.
10th Los Angeles Times FESTIVAL OF BOOKS (April 23-24, 2005) The 10th FOB organized by the LA Times and UCLA is now history. Attendance FREE. 120,000 +/- visitors. The "imcbook" (that's us) booth was #160 in Area A. Other exhibitors relating to Japan, Kinokuniya and Kofuku no Kagaku. IMC attracted a lot of Japan-interest traffic. Most popular with young women, COSPLAY. Most controversial, a group of books published by the Japan Press Service (Japanese Communist Party). Most books exhibited were new or were titles that seldom find space on bookstore shelves. Fine books and journals of many types, our enhanced title list will remain online until 2006 when we make a new list for the 11th FOB. IMC's book and journal exhibit list for the 10th FOB.
Problems with email! .......... Have you tried to email us recently and received no response? Due to the current terrible problems with spam and viruses, our hosts and we have restricted our most popular email addresses. Several have been discontinued. Others no longer accept incoming mail. Others accept mail but strictly filter good from bad. Very strict filtering may also send good mail to trash. If you have had problems, please go to our address page and use the current new and clean email address. On the same page you will also find our telephone, fax, mailing, and office info and map.
Used Book Net Click here to find the main book stores around Tokyo that specialize in used books in English. They all buy and sell books. Each is unique. Each store has an owner and staff who can communicate in English. We found books for Yen 100 to Yen 100,000. There were LP records, magazines, free mags, a cafe, and more. Much more friendly than the big chain stores and much cheaper too if they have what you want. Know of more such shops. Have praise, comment or a beef, tell us.
Association for Asian Studies If you liked the old slide show of publications exhibited by us at the 2004 annual conference of the Association for Asian Studies and want to see it again, click here. (this link does not work now, sorry)Publish your book in Japan We sell books and do other things to make books and magazines available to the people who want them, but we at IMC do not publish. We don't write, design, layout, print or do any of the other tasks that result in a book, but we do have friends and associates who do. Take a look at the bloggy website of Printed Matter Press http://printedmatterpress.com. You can buy PMP books from IMC, from Amazon, and from Maruzen, Kinokuniya and other major bookdealers, distributors and exporters. Talk to Joe Zanghi at PMP if you have a manuscript that wants publishing and participate in the blog..
Bookstores in the USA This list should be of interest to travelers for pleasure or business, students, and those planning to live in the USA. The list places emphasis on independent stores and college/university bookstores in all 50 states plus a few in Canada. Nearly 400 shops and the list is growing.
Jimbocho Book Festival - October 30-31 Its over for this year but will come again next year in October, 2005. Click the black box for more info on this year's event. It's huge, it's free, it's fun, and you can find all sorts of bargains and good books and stuff. Almost all books are Japanese, but we exhibit English and this year there were other exhibitors near us who exhibited English publications. See here. See the TASCHEN books that were on special sale (only limited quantity available; may still be ordered by visiting our office or contacting us by email)
| Wherever
you are. Wherever
you are headed. These travel book lists can be helpful. Africa Arctic & Antarctica Asia - Japan Central America - Latin America - North America Europe Middle East & Mediteranean Oceania - New Zealand & Australia Women & Children and a collection of Travel Literature, History, Language, etc |
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| . . . . . |
| Japan
& East Asia JPGSstandard 1,000s of English publications from or on |
