Dinosaur of the future?

In the Tokyo neighborhood of Diakanyama I visited a fascinating new store.

The name of the store is Tsutaya Honya.  Honya means bookstore.  Tsutaya is the name of a man who made his money in transportation and wanted to build his fantasy bookstore.

The bookstore is three buildings with elegant architecture and the most exquisite interior decor anyone can imagine. Something of beauty that can only exist in Japan. There is a large and comfortable Starbucks, a small convenience store and on one floor of one store is an elegant restaurant. The store is divided into many sections such as automobiles and technology and architecture. In each section are products and magazines related to the subject.

There is one entire floor dedicated to DVDs including thousands of classics in video, TV and film.

Throughout the buildings there are comfortable chairs and reading areas. When I was there at noon on a weekday the store was crowded.

The question for everyone in the book and publishing business is whether this is a dinosaur or the future of some part of the publishing world. It is also possible that this readers' paradise is only possible in Japan that has more readers per capita than most of the world put together.