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The concept for the new main store, “ENTRANCE TO THE WORLD” (a bookstore is a door to the world), was born from the voices of the staff. Takao Kamei, who moved from systems engineering into bookselling, talks about how the project was run and about the “multiplication” that could open up a future for bookstores. (From “The People Who Weave Book Town,” interview with the president of Sanseido Bookstore, part 2, Hon no Machi, April 2026 issue)
In the second part of our interview with president Takao Kamei, we asked how he drew employees into the project for the new Jimbocho main store and shared its philosophy and aspirations with them, and how, as a business leader, he sees the future of bookstores.
The project got fully under way when the store temporarily closed in 2022. It goes without saying that the project members made a huge contribution. But this project was by no means driven by just a handful of people. “We brought together people from all kinds of departments across the company and held workshops again and again,” Kamei recalls. “It started with questions that made us reexamine the very essence of our work, like, ‘What is a bookstore, anyway?’”
A Concept for the New Store, Born from the Staff
The project members visited stores and sales offices around the country, in Hokkaido, Nagoya and elsewhere, explaining the plan and gathering opinions. New initiatives such as “Mekuru Juku” (the “Page-Turning School”) and the “Tsunagaru Hondana” (Connecting Bookshelf) grew out of this process. Kamei himself also spoke to employees whenever he had the chance. “Because this was a company-wide project, I made a conscious effort to communicate its significance at every opportunity, in messages from the president, at morning meetings and so on.”
The aspirations of Kamei and the project members spread to other employees, and at some point it became everyone’s project. “ENTRANCE TO THE WORLD” (a bookstore is a door to the world), which became the concept of the new store, emerged from the voices of employees in the course of these efforts.
“I’d like to think that through these exchanges, everyone on the staff has come to think about the essence of books and bookstores,” he said, with a clear sense that it was working.
From the Digital World to the Analog One
The conversation turns back to the time when he took over the bookstore.
The turning point came quite suddenly. “Until then, my parents hadn’t really talked to me about taking over. If they hadn’t asked, part of me wanted to just carry on as a systems engineer, but one day, when I went home to visit, they brought it up, and I made up my mind.”
When he joined the company, Kamei was surprised at how primitive the work on the shop floor was. “Back then, it was still an era when books sold and sold as soon as they came out, so huge quantities of new releases arrived practically every day. New books have to go out on the floor right away, but there’s no empty space waiting for them, so every single day I was deciding which books to pull and which to put out,” he began, as if tracing his memories of those days.
He had expected time to pass slowly in a bookstore, but he was far off the mark; in reality, his days were a chase against time, sheer volume and people. “As a systems engineer, you plan your own schedule and work steadily through the tasks assigned to you. But once I joined the bookstore, it was like juggling not two or three but about ten tasks at once, all the time. Everything, starting with the way you work, was completely different, so it was one culture shock after another.” The reality of the bookstore floor was very different from what he had imagined.
His Theme as a Business Leader
Eventually he became president, and his perspective shifted further. “Once I became the one running the company, I saw that if we carried on as we were, we would just keep shrinking to stay in balance, so all I thought about was how to balance income and expenses. What could we multiply with books, books plus what, to create a new kind of multiplication? That was the mission given to me.”
But reality is never that simple. “The possible combinations are infinite. But there are so many options that it’s hard to find the one combination that will turn things around. Simply adding something doesn’t necessarily make it a plus. You can find partners in all sorts of ways, but plenty of things never bore fruit.”
Even so, the trial and error continues. “We’ve been groping in the dark the whole time. Whenever we find even a small seed of success, we scatter it around the store, but there’s so much where you can’t tell what kind of sprout it will produce until you actually try it.”
At 1-1 Jimbocho, that challenge goes on today. (To be continued)
Takao Kamei
President and CEO of Sanseido Bookstore. On March 19, 2026, he reopened the Kanda-Jimbocho Main Store.
Interview and text: Rin Mizuki
Hon no Machi editorial team. In charge of the series “The People Who Weave Book Town.”
Interview with Takao Kamei, President of Sanseido Bookstore (3 parts)
Part 1 A Bookstore Is a Door to the World: What It Means to “Keep Going” as a Bookstore in the Heart of Jimbocho
Part 2 The Future of Bookstores Lies in “Multiplication”
Part 3 “A Bookstore Is the Town’s Entrance”: Protecting Japanese Culture Through a Jimbocho Bookstore
This article was published in the April 2026 issue (Vol. 12) of Hon no Machi, the community salon magazine of Kanda, Ochanomizu and Jimbocho. You can read the full text, along with the other articles, in the PDF.
▶Read the April 2026 issue of Hon no Machi (PDF, in Japanese)
Founded in 1980, Hon no Machi brings you the latest from Book Town every month, together with Jimbocho’s bookstores, publishers, cafés and galleries.
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日本語で読む — Read this article in Japanese