15th Tokyo International Book Fair 2008

Last July, my office sent me to the Tokyo international Book Fair held, as usual, at Tokyo Big Sight (see my previous blogs and photos from the International Graphic Arts Show below). It was pretty much a Japan-centric fair although I did make some interesting book trade people from Spain, Iran (I first met Lily in the Abu Dhabi Book Fair) and, of course, Japan. There were also many well-made Japanese books, most printed on their beautiful yellow/cream offset paper but since, I can’t read Japanese, I had to be satisfied with admiring their physical appearance.

My main interest in going there was to learn more about digital and Print-on-Demand publishing. I was disappointed though: although the Tokyo Book Fair site promoted a Digital Publishing Exhibit, this was basically made up of hardware and software vendors pushing all types of printers, scanners and so on. The typical hard-sell one sees in Graphic Arts Shows. What I was looking for were discussions and fora about how publishers today can make a business out of these products, including the protection of copyright for digital documents. I remember that the great Frankfurt Bookfair hosted such a forum a few years ago but unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend.

Also, It was high summer it seemed and either the Tokyo Big Sight administration were trying to cut energy consumption or something was wrong with the air-conditioning. At any rate, entering the Book Fair (it’s run by Reed Expositions) brought no relief from the steamy weather outside. Still, I was in Tokyo and my stay in Shibuya more than offset the shortcomings of the fair.

Click here for photos of the TIBF.