The book was on a shelf in the library, and I don't remember why I chose it.

On the pages there was the sea. There was the earth. There was the joy of writing, the pain of having what was written taken away, the love for one's hometown, and the sadness of losing one's hometown.

The author's name was Reinaldo Arenas. The book was "Before Night Falls." I think I was in middle school.
I could only find three of his books in local libraries and bookstores out of the four that had been translated into Japanese at the time. I thought I had no choice but to read them in the original. So I decided to study Spanish and move from the countryside of Tohoku to a university in Osaka.

Osaka has an incredibly large bookstore where I was able to find the last of the Arenas translations that I had been unable to find locally.

At university, I studied Spanish, read Arenas's book, and wrote a thesis. After graduating from university and graduate school, I didn't know what to do. I got a job, but I didn't feel like I could continue working forever. Then, by chance, I was flipping through the newspaper when I came across a job advertisement for a bookstore called UMEDA TSUTAYA BOOKS.

So books have really messed with my life, and I'm glad they have.

 

 

 

Five years is a long time. In five years, a baby can run and an elementary school student can become a high school student.

And yet, why does it feel like more time has passed?

At first, I was in charge of foreign books, but then I was put in charge of world literature and magazines, and then literature became my main focus. During that time, I met a lot of different people.

 

I started talking and exchanging emails with people whose names I only knew from their book covers, and visited various publishers and held events. I encountered many books. There were books I wanted to sell and did, books I wanted to sell but didn't, and books I made POPs and wrote comments about but didn't sell a single book, not knowing what I had done wrong.

 

What I've come to understand is that books are not something that can be simply put on display. If you were to make a poster, what kind of design would be effective for this book? Can you get the publisher's cooperation? Can you expand to other stores? Can you hold an event? I'm only just now learning things that I wish I had realized sooner.

 

I want to train myself to broaden my horizons so that I can see things I couldn't see before and have a breakthrough moment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Book title: "Call Me by Your Name"
Author: André Aciman Publisher: Okura Publishing

 

This was the first book I put out after I became responsible for world literature. It sold so well that, thanks to the generosity of Okura Publishing, I was able to include it in as soon as a reprint was released, and while walking a tightrope, I managed to keep the stock up. It's still selling well, almost two years after its release.

 

 

 

 

 

Book title: "Before Night Falls"
Author: Reinaldo Arenas Publisher: Kokusho Kankokai

 

For me, the books I've read so much that I don't need to reread them are "The Lord of the Rings" and this book. I don't know if I'll ever learn another language just to read one author again. But now, I've come across another language that I wish I could read books in.

 

 

I grew up in Tohoku and moved to Osaka. I've lived there for quite a long time, but I can't speak Kansai dialect. I've loved foreign literature since I was a child. I'm best at Japanese, English, Spanish, and French, in that order, but I'm not good at speaking any of them. Besides books, I also love movies, and I've made original covers for the original movie books UMEDA TSUTAYA BOOKS, and held a panel exhibition for "Parasite" and sold Korean literature. I would love to collaborate with them in the future if there are any movies that I like. "The Three Braids," "Central Station," "Summer Outside," "Bel Canto," "Hidden Scream"...I've written reviews for many wonderful books so far. I'm going to continue to be bold and ask "Can I write for you?" What I'm interested in now is the reprinting of out-of-print books. There are so many books I want to see resurrected, such as "Leaving Las Vegas" and "To the Friend Who Didn't Save My Life." I love mysteries, and I irregularly hold the BOOK&COMMUNITY "Mystery Study Group" to introduce recommended mysteries.