Second-hand bookstores across Japan have experienced an unusual "big buying spree" since August this year. Not only did some stores sell thousands of used books in a single day, but their sales surged several times in a single day, shocking the industry. However, behind this wave of "making a fortune", it was revealed that overseas AI companies were secretly "buying up" physical books. More than 50 tons of Japanese books were even exported across the sea to the United States, where they were feared to be cut, scanned, destroyed and fed to AI for training. After the truth was revealed, many netizens were horrified to see it.
According to a report by Nippon TV, a second-hand bookstore revealed that the types of books ordered by buyers are completely "uncontextual" and cover philosophy, history, law, medicine, and even unpopular specialized books such as "Political Topics from 30 Years Ago" and "Edo Period Culture." Since the order frequency was equally spaced and very regular, the ancient bookseller speculated that the other party placed the order mechanically through an automated system. Strangely, the shipping addresses of all foreign buyers ended up pointing to the same logistics center in Okayama Prefecture, Japan. It was suspected that the buyers placed orders with various bookstores through multiple accounts.
Faced with an explosion of orders, the Japanese company that operates the logistics center only responded in a low-key manner that "it is inappropriate to comment on individual transactions." It remained silent on the purpose of the purchase and the partners it cooperated with. Even an ancient bookstore in Western Japan revealed that it had received a mysterious email from an overseas company directly asking "if it is possible to place an order for tens of thousands of copies at once." This shocked the industry that this was not a simple collection demand, but an organized large-scale operation.
"Nippon TV" used the import and export data analysis tool "Sayari" to track and found that since last year, a group company owned by a large Japanese publishing distributor has exported more than 50 tons of goods labeled "JAPANESE BOOKS" to the United States. If converted into a hardcover book of about 500 grams each, this is equivalent to as many as 100,000 Japanese books being collectively exported overseas.
This discovery coincides with the actions of the American AI giant. Previously, it was revealed that Anthropic, a new American AI startup, had implemented a "destructive scanning" plan in order to train its generative AI, cutting out millions of collected paper books, scanning them into digital data, and then throwing them into shredders for destruction. US media also pointed out that even Amazon warehouses have dismantled and scanned paper books and then discarded them, including a large number of Japanese books. However, the Japanese company involved clarified that the books were never sold on the premise that they were known to be "for AI learning."
"It's fun to sell books, but it's really complicated to see precious physical knowledge turned into fuel for AI or even destroyed by shredded paper." Many Japanese ancient booksellers admitted that they were quite uneasy. This issue is also arousing heated discussions among Japanese netizens. Some netizens said that they were horrified after learning the truth. Some netizens said that second-hand bookstores may seem like a blessing in disguise in the short term, but in the long term, it is simply a "self-destructive" behavior of the publishing industry, and they hope that relevant units will legislate and regulate it.
