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Message of the President
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news and topics
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2006/12/28
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I am pleased to report Yushodo Group's activities in the latter half of 2006.
Yushodo ran a booth at the Exhibition which was co-hosted with World Library and Information Congress in Seoul in August 2006, sponsored by the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA). Japanese institutions such as National Diet Library and Japanese Library Association also made presentations, but Yushodo was the only Japanese publisher to have participated as exhibitor.
Each company employed active public relations strategy toward more than 3000 librarians from all over the world. During this Exhibition, we aimed to appeal Yushodo brand to Chinese and Korean participants, whose presence were conspicuous at the site, and to present the value of printed books in the age of digital media by displaying our printed products.
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The Library Fair
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The Exhibition was organized by Korean Library Association, and is in similar position with Library Fair in Tokyo, which is organized by our group company, Japan Culture Corporation (JCC). JCC arranged a visiting tour to this Exhibition in Seoul, and many Japanese people concerned with library business participated in it. Through this Exhibition, we keenly felt the necessity to develop close relationship with Chinese market in the future, both through distribution and publication of books.
During October and November every year, Yushodo Group holds variety of events and projects with the aim of public relations.
The Library Fair & Forum in Tokyo attracted more than 20,000 visitors this year and has become a widely accepted exhibition with professional focus on library business. Especially, "Forum" part was very successful, with many related associations, universities, publishers and library equipment suppliers holding nearly 60 seminars in total. There has been rush registrations for the Forum of next year (November 7-9, 2007, at Pacifico Yokohama) and has already neared capacity. This Library Fair should be most appropriate for new projects and publicity of companies.
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Yushodo Forum
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Yushodo has held "Yushodo Forum", seminars or lectures with the theme we have the strongest focus for that year, in autumn for a long time.
American big publishers, of which Yushodo is either the sole agent in Japan or the partner in publishing Japanese version of their titles, have begun to change their strategies for Japanese market this year; they seem to have difficulties in drafting a full-scale strategy toward Japanese speaking world. Eventually, their strategies depend on the cooperation with Japanese publishers.
It is true that almost every information is available via the Internet in these days. Especially in the field of academic information, there will be further developments. All the same, many people agree that it is a kind of human nature to regard literary culture and printed books as important cultural heritage, and the importance of interaction with great books in the past will remain in the future. The budget for university libraries has been generally declining, and on-line media and IT related equipments have come to account for larger ratio within the limited budget. However, we believe that the importance of foreign rare books with excellent quality and value, which we have long experience and have been "Best in Japan", will continue to be required.
2007 falls on the 75th anniversary of Yushodo since a Japanese antiquarian bookshop was launched in Kanda Jinbocho. We are determined to get innovation forward with our own will, and will cooperate closely with related companies to make high-quality achievements in several professional fields.
Dec.2006
Mitsuo Nitta
CEO, Yushodo Group of Companies
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