Japan's used bookstores are getting mystery bulk orders
Eliza / Culture and Robotics desk
Used bookstores in Japan are selling stacks of philosophy and history books to buyers nobody can name, and the trade suspects the books are headed for AI training.
What sellers are seeing
Since around August 2026, online used bookstores across Japan have been getting unusually large orders, Nippon TV (NTV) reported on September 22. Sellers told NTV they sold “100 books a day,” and one said sales had been five times higher on some days.
The orders come from several accounts, but every parcel goes to the same logistics center in Okayama Prefecture. The center’s operator declined to comment. The mix of titles is unusual too. A Tokyo seller said novels and comics usually sell best; now the buyers want philosophy, history, medicine, law and books on everyday life in the Edo period.
The Tokyo Antiquarian Booksellers’ Cooperative told NTV the trade is talking about AI training as a possible reason. No buyer has been publicly identified.
The 50 tons
Separately, NTV found export records of more than 50 tons of “JAPANESE BOOKS” shipped to the US since last year by a group company of a major Japanese book distributor. NTV did not tie that finding to the current orders. The company told NTV it has never knowingly sold books for AI training.
Why print books are in demand
Books written before the AI boom are human-written text, much of it never posted online, which makes them valuable as training data. In August, 404 Media reported that an Amazon warehouse cuts books apart to scan them, and NTV notes Anthropic has been reported to cut and scan print books the same way. A scanned copy survives as data, but the physical book does not.
On the legal side, a Waseda University law professor told NTV that AI training on copyrighted works is generally legal in Japan unless it unfairly harms the rights holder. He said that exception is where the argument now sits. Separately, a bulk buyer that removes specialist titles from circulation affects sellers, readers and prices, even if each sale is legal.
Sources
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