The Japanese publishing industry is facing a historic crisis, with total sales now only two-thirds of that in 1997 and hundreds of bookstores nationwide shutting down every year.
The English-language market appears to have been particularly affected by this negative trend: Not only a number of magazines have recently ceased publication or have migrated online, but in March Kodansha folded up Kodansha International, dealing a death blow to what was arguably the best English-language publisher of mainstream Japanese fiction.
Luckily there are still a few brave people who keep championing quality reading. One of them is Edward Lipsett, a Fukuoka-based American who since 2002 has been running Kurodahan Press, a small publishing house specializing in translated Japanese literature, particularly genre fiction such as mystery, horror, fantasy and science fiction.