Enpon (“one-yen books”) was a boom in low-priced collected editions launched by Kaizosha in 1926.
Enpon (“one-yen books”) was a boom in low-priced collected editions launched by Kaizosha in 1926. Through pre-orders, monthly installments, and a low-margin/high-volume model, it rapidly democratized reading in Japan.
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1926: Kaizosha’s Gendai Nihon Bungaku Zenshū sparked the craze; Shinchosha, Shunyōdō, and others followed.
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Context: post–Great Kantō Earthquake slump. Planned by president Yamamoto Sanehiko, financed with reservation deposits; the name echoed flat-fare “yen taxis.”
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Impact: scaled printing, binding, and distribution. In response, Iwanami Bunko launched in 1927, paving the way for later paperback culture.
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Price point: ¥1 was about 2% of a new college graduate’s starting monthly salary—strikingly cheap.
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By around 1930 the market saturated and the boom cooled (price competition later resurfaced).
In short, these affordable “one-yen series” broadened the reading public and laid the groundwork for Japan’s modern paperback culture.
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