About

History

Digest

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Founded

1942

The founder of our company, Seiji Mochizuki, came to the United States in 1906 and joined a Japanese trading company, Sakurafu (Sacramento) Shokai, which traded foodstuffs and miscellaneous goods in Sacramento, California, U.S.A. The company was later reorganized as Yorozu Shoten Co. Later, the company was reorganized as Yorozu Shoten Co., Ltd. and he was promoted to manager of the company, adding the wholesaling and retailing of Japanese publications to its line of business. This was the beginning of his involvement in the publishing trade. Imported Japanese publications were greatly welcomed by the North American immigrant community of the time. After returning to Japan in 1918, Seiji Mochizuki established Yokohama Shoji Co., Ltd. in March 1920 at 1-19 Kitanaka-dori, Naka-ku, Yokohama City, aiming to establish a trading business connecting Japan with the United States and other foreign countries as a market. Ltd. was established on January 28, 1942 to succeed most of the business of Yokohama Shoji Co., Ltd. and to engage in the integrated export of books and magazines as well as the incidental export of newspapers, other publications, and miscellaneous goods.

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Trade resumed

1947

"In July 1947, we were finally able to resume trade, which had been closed shortly after our founding due to the suspension of trade following the July 25, 1941 U.S. order freezing U.S. funds to Japan.
The photo is from the book "THE HISTORY OF PUBULICATION EXPORT TRADE OF JAPAN (published on April 20, 1971)," in which Seiji Mochizuki himself later recalled the situation at that time.

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Full-scale operations begin; company building completed

1949

After building a new company building, the company moved to a new location on November 21, 1949, and both the land and the house were owned by the company. Full-scale operations began, including the importation of foreign books and magazines.

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First Tokyo International Book Fair held

1957

As our import division is mainly engaged in the sale of foreign books, we felt it necessary to deepen the public's interest in the best books and magazines from around the world, so the first Tokyo International Book Fair was held in Tokyo under the joint sponsorship of The A.P. Wales Organization of the United Kingdom and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. The exhibition was held at the main branch of Mitsukoshi Department Store in Nihonbashi, Tokyo, under the auspices of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. The exhibition attracted tens of thousands of participants throughout the six-day period, making it the most successful of its kind.

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Completion of new company building

1958

Nichimou Building (5 floors above ground, 1 floor below ground, total floor space 2,055m2)

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New head office building completed

1964

Shin-Nichimao Building (7 floors above ground, 2 floors below ground, total floor space 5,437m2)

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Established JP TRADING, INC. (now JPT AMERICA, INC.) in S.F., U.S.A.

1979

JP TRADING, INC. (now JPT AMERICA, INC.) was established in California, U.S.A., on September 6, 1979, as a new sales base in the U.S. JP TRADING, INC. JP TRADING, INC. (now JPT AMERICA, INC.) was established in Rutland, Vermont in 1962 with the cooperation of local business partners as a concrete measure to expand and strengthen the company. Since then, the company has relocated to New York and San Francisco, and has exhibited at the Book Expo America (BEA), a book fair held in the U.S. since 1956, every year since the first exhibition, in an effort to promote the wide distribution of English-language publications from Japan in the U.S., and has earned a high reputation in the United States.

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CD import sales take off.

1995

"In 1986, when CD exports showed rapid growth and contributed significantly to sales, we started our CD import and sales business in the same year, aggressively developing new customers, establishing our own label, and creating CDs. Since then, the business has developed into one of our core businesses through strategic sales promotion, leading to today's strong sales of K-pop music.
*JPT Classics, a division dedicated to classical music, celebrates the 30th anniversary of the division's founding in 2022."

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Opened the present JPT EUROPE LTD in London

2000

JP-BOOKS LIMITED (currently JPT EUROPE LTD., a consolidated subsidiary), was established in Mitsukoshi Department Store in London, and opened NIPPON SHOTEN in September and started operations.

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Western Books Online New Book Briefing

2020

Our new book briefing, which is usually held in November and introduces our books to be published in the next year, has been attended by many people in the past, but in order to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus, we have decided to hold the briefing online in 2020. We were able to prepare a number of our own video contents on our special website by having the participating publishers introduce the attractiveness of their products and filming and publishing their presentations.

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80th anniversary of the company's founding

2021

Ltd. celebrated its 80th anniversary on January 28, 2022, and with the cooperation of many people, we have created a digital and bound version of our company history, "80 Years of History.

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Relocation of distribution center

2022

2022, the logistics department of the head office and the Yashio Product Center were merged and "JPT Nagareyama" started operation as our new logistics base.

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Relocation of head office

2023

In January 2023, the head office was relocated to the Sarugakucho SS Building in Kanda Sarugakucho, Chiyoda-ku and operations started at the new office.

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Becoming a Subsidiary of TOHAN Corporation

2024

We have maintained a business alliance with TOHAN Corporation since 1971 and share strong synergy in our business operations. Moving forward, we aim to further strengthen our partnership and contribute to the growth of both businesses.

2032～

90th and 100th anniversaries

In order to further refine our logistics expertise, our logistics department moved to a new warehouse, GLP ALFALINK Nagareyama 8, located in Nagareyama City, Chiba Prefecture, and started operations in August 2022 under the name "JPT Nagareyama". In January 2023, we will also relocate our head office to create a business environment for the next generation and pursue a new growth strategy for the future. Based on our management philosophy, "We will contribute to international society through our cultural business," we will fulfill our mission for the new era as a company that can contribute to international society, while keeping the spirit of our founder, Seiji Mochizuki, who built our history even in the difficult times of the founding era, at our side.