In what can aptly be described as a preemptive strike against online retailers like Amazon, major Japanese bookstore chain Kinokuniya bought up to 90% of the first print run of Haruki Murakami’s latest book of essays, Novelist as a Vocation. A Kinokuniya representative had this comment to offer:
To rival online book retailers, bookstores across the country now need to join hands in efforts to reinvigorate the conventional book distribution market.
