Publishers Weekly – July 29, 2019

24 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ JULY 29, 2019

T

ravel to Japan has soared in the past five years,

according to JTB Tourism Research &

Consulting,with the number of visits tripling to

31 million in 2018. Prime Minister Shinzo ̄ Abe

has taken steps to boost that number to 40 mil-

lion in 2020 by easing visa requirements and increasing inland

flights ahead of the Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Publishers are

hoping to capitalize on the growing interest, bringing forth a

slew of titles celebrating everything from the island nation’s

centuries-old temples to contemporary cosplay culture—with

plenty of stops for ramen and tonkatsu in between.

“Our travel publishing program has definitely been ramped up

for the Olympics,” says Christopher Johns, sales and marketing

director at Tuttle, which specializes in Asia-focused titles. “It’s

not just us; authors are also coming to us and saying, ‘We want

our books out for the Olympics.’ ”

The publisher, with offices in North Clarendon, Vt., and

Tokyo, releases books on a variety of topics including cooking,

language, and history, but through spring 2020, Johns says,

Tuttle expects to “vastly” expand travel titles that are geared

specifically for the Olympics. “We have three coming out and

by next spring expect to have eight more.”

The recently released second edition of A Geek in Japan by

Tokyo blogger Hector Garcia includes 30% more content than

the 2011 first edition, such as a new chapter on Kyoto. Much

of the book is devoted to explaining Japanese popular culture

to first-time visitors, with the final chapters suggesting places

to visit lists and sample itineraries. It’s Tuttle’s most popular

travel guide, Johns says, and, according to BookScan, nearly

27,000 print copies of the first edition have sold.

Manga artist and comic book author Evangeline Neo

approached Tuttle with her first foray into travel publishing, A

Manga Lover’s Tokyo Travel Guide (Aug.). In it, an illustrated Neo

(with Kopi the dog and Matcha the cat at her side) leads manga

fans to memorabilia shops, anime museums, cosplay studios,

and drawing classes. Both books, Johns says, contain the kind

of idiosyncratic information that might otherwise elude trip

planners: “I don’t believe you can recreate them through a

Google search.”

An Olympian Effort

Ahead of the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo, publishers are setting their sights on Japan

BY JASMINA KELEMEN

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