If you are the kind of person that judges a book (and he who’s reading) by its cover, well, you might have a hard time doing so in Japan. Japanese people read a lot while commuting in subways and trains (that is if they are not playing with a PSP, fiddling with the mobile phone or listening to their iPods using HUGE headphones). I do a lot of people-watching and I noticed that most of them have the book’s cover protected by either paper, cloth or even leather. In the first case, when paper is used, it is almost always provided and folded by the bookshop where it was bought. In this way they offer the service of protecting the book cover and the reader’s privacy. As a counterpart they obtain brand visibility, because the shop’s logo or some other easily recognizable sign is printed on that paper.
I’m not sure whether the egg or the chicken came first and that is the shop wanting to make a subtle branding campaign or the book user wanting to hide what she’s reading (be it hard philosophy or dirty hentai manga). The point is that you can hardly tell what someone is reading on the metro but you can accurately state where it was acquired.
Simple, huh?
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I discussed the issue with a Japanese friend. She says:
“…I also used to wonder why they always cover my books when I buy them… but you’re right, it’s a matter of privacy, I believe.
Many people read books on trains and you prefer not to show what you are reading in public.
When you are reading at home, however, the paper cover often becomes annoying.
Most Japanese books (both hardcover and paperback) already have an additional original paper cover (very nice one, and the real face of books is so plain), so I usually get rid of both of the covers (original and book-store’s) at home.
Your point that the covers promote bookshops is also correct, as the second reason!
Oh yeah, and (not me, really) many Japanese feel like to keep the books as new/neat as possible for long, that is another reason to cover the book even twice.
So interesting to hear what foreigners find strange in Japan.
Don’t you hesitate to show what you are reading in public in Italy?? …”