The Taiwan Cultural Center (TCC) in Tokyo collaborated with Books Kinokuniya (紀伊國屋), one of the biggest bookstore chains in Japan, to launch the "Taiwan Book Fair" in six flagship stores across Japan this September. Taking place in Tokyo, Shinjuku, Yokohama, Umeda, Fukuoka, and Sapporo, the book fair introduces books from Taiwan in translation to Japanese readers.
Published by TCC, "A Book Guide to Taiwan," a 180-page guidebook designed by Japan's 100KG Design Office and supervised by SNET Taiwan, features 400 books about Taiwan. With forewords from 29 experts and scholars in various fields, the guidebook includes selected Taiwanese books on seven main themes in literature, humanities, politics, food, travel, education, and Taiwan-Japan relations.
The TCC in Tokyo hopes that "A Book Guide to Taiwan" would become a primer of Taiwanese books for readers of all ages in Japan. The guidebook will be available at the "Taiwan Book Fair," and bookmarks of the online version of "A Book Guide to Taiwan" will be handed out at Books Kinokuniya's 64 branches in Japan. The booklet will be introduced to about 200 universities, high schools, and public libraries in the future to promote Taiwanese books.
Hikaru Lee (李屏瑤), the author of "Phototropism: A Novel," and Yu Pei-yun (游珮芸) and Chou Chien-hsin (周見信), the author and illustrator of the comic series "Son of Formosa," are invited to the book fair event and will be sharing their creative process with the Japanese readers on Sep. 2 and Sep. 8, respectively.
Taiwan's representative to Japan Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) stated that bookstores are the best display window to showcase Taiwan in Japan, hoping that people could gain a deeper understanding of the close ties between the two nations in the past century and that Taiwan-Japan friendship will continue to grow in the future.