TOKYO – A street sign points to a flight of stairs off the main road in the western ward of Nakano. It leads to a small hallway with a plain, white door and another sign posted off to the side: Nowhere Books.
Inside is a colorful array of books in Chinese, Japanese and even English, and a bulletin board with handmade zines on display. One has a stormy gray cover and a title that reads “A letter from a Tehran prison,” with the silhouette of a person with two fingers brought to their lips.
But the narrative isn’t really from a Tehran prison, but rather a Chinese one. The bookstore’s manager, Hakusai – who isn’t using her real name due to fears for her safety – said the author’s name, location and other details were changed so that it could be published on Chinese websites and avoid censorship from the Chinese government.
“Some Chinese people, when they’re in China, it’s hard to talk to others about political problems,” Hakusai said. “When people come to other countries, they need a place where they feel safe and we can talk about China.”
As of June 2025, the number of people from China who live in Japan has grown to 915,499 residents, according to Japanese government data, making them the largest foreign population in the country.
And with their presence in Japan, Chinese bookstores are flourishing. At least three Chinese-owned bookstores opened in 2023 alone, and another opened in 2025.
These Chinese-founded and -owned bookstores in Japan have become not only literary hubs for the Chinese population, but also spaces that provide a sense of community despite overarching political unrest between the two countries.
Those tensions intensified in November, when Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said her country would consider using military force if China attacked Taiwan. Frictions have remained since then, and some Chinese citizens are moving away from their country as its economy slows.
More than books and bookstores
The practice of using bookshops and reading groups to exchange information and learn from one another has been a commonplace habit in Japanese history, said Young Oh, an associate professor at Arizona State University’s School of International Letters and Cultures. His research focuses on how books and language travel across countries and transmit culture, specifically within East Asia.
From a Japanese standpoint, these bookshops provide locals with an opportunity to engage in Chinese culture and history. As the native population decreases in Japan, locals have to actively accept and welcome immigrants, Oh said.
“In that sense, the task is obvious; we have to do something about them,” Oh said. “What is the best way to, one, learn about them, and two, somehow (make) a peaceful gesture with? Through books, that’s pretty ideal.”
Oh said Korean, Vietnamese and Japanese diplomats used to present poetry to Chinese officials at negotiation tables from the Tang Dynasty through the Qing Dynasty. The goal was to prove their qualifications for international relations, Oh said. This historical tidbit, the professor said, shows that using books to develop relations is a “very natural thing” for East Asian countries.
Beyond just the books, the spaces themselves also serve as a safe environment for the Chinese community to read and engage in discussion with one another, activities that have been hindered by censorship back home.
Expansion of Chinese-founded bookstores
Nowhere Books opened its Tokyo doors in April 2025. The owner has opened numerous locations across the globe, starting in Taiwan in 2022 after she moved there from China.
Hakusai said the name of the bookstore refers to the sentiment many of these immigrants face as they start new lives in another country.
“It’s kind of like you live here, but you (do) not belong here, not really belong here yet,” Hakusai said.
Hakusai said many of the people who move to Tokyo from China are seeking better education or opportunities for their families. She said customers are usually college students or visitors from Hong Kong, Taiwan and China. From a customer’s perspective, it’s a place to make friends with those who share similar interests, and sometimes indulge in books banned in the motherland, she added.
“I notice that people who come from China, actually they’re very more focused on (forbidden books),” Hakusai said. “They will notice them, and maybe they will talk, or say ‘I want to buy this, I want to see this, but I’m very afraid.’”
“It’s hard to take (those books) back to China. They will care about the security problem,” she added.
Hakusai said she also wants the discussions to transcend books and politics. The store holds events and lectures that foster community within the Chinese immigrants or with the local Japanese population, with conversations ranging from films to dating to jobs and familial relationships.
New among the old
In Tokyo’s designated bookstore district, Jimbocho, there are other Chinese-founded bookshops with similar missions.
Chou Kokkun founded Outsider Bookstore in October 2023. He moved to Japan from Beijing, and his passion for books propelled him to open the store.
The banned aspect of some literature isn’t part of the selling point for the books here, Kokkun explained.
“(We) actually don’t distinguish if it’s a ban in China or not,” Kokkun said. “Japan is more like a free press country, so any book could be sold here, and of course, probably a lot of them are not sold in China.”
Besides selling books in both Chinese and Japanese, the shop also hosts events about fostering culture, along with weekly Japanese language classes for nonnative speakers.
Kokkun said there’s been lots of discussion about current events, specifically the relationship between China and Japan, and that the space fosters more connection than online chat groups.
“People (are) coming here to exchange different opinions or ideas,” Kokkun said. “It’s more intimate than those online ones.”
Uchiyama Bookstore is another Chinese-owned bookshop in Jimbocho. The first shop was founded in 1917 in Shanghai to cater to the Japanese population in China. It has remained family-owned, with the Tokyo shop opening in 1935 using the “reverse model” – now catering to a Chinese population in Japan – said Shin Uchiyama, president of the bookstore.
Uchiyama said that Chinese Tokyo bookshops opening in recent years respond to a growing interest in these spaces, with the increase of the Chinese population in Tokyo as one of the reasons. He said that there are some customers who want to learn more about different topics, while others are interested in browsing content that isn’t available in their home country.
Uchiyama also said he has heard from others that censorship is becoming stricter in China.
As of 2024, China accounted for nearly a third of the world’s jailed writers, according to Pen America, a nonprofit focused on the intersection between literature, free expression and human rights. In February, Hongkogner media mogul Jimmy Lai was sentenced to 20 years in prison for reasons widely viewed as politically motivated.
However, censorship doesn’t always stem directly from the government.
“If there’s someone who wrote a book and he wants to publish it, he goes to the publisher and the publisher, before the government even can see the book, says: ‘This is a topic maybe we cannot publish here in China,’” Uchiyama said. “So even before they try to publish, it is some kind of indirect censorship.”
Uchiyama said most of the books that are banned in China revolve around Chinese history from the 20th century onwards, which include figures not perceived well in public opinion. The store intentionally sells a variety of books with diverse viewpoints.
“They have books which describe the good parts of China, but (we) also have books on the rather not so good sides of China,” Uchiyama said.
‘In Tokyo, we have (these) opportunities’
On March 9, the University of Tokyo’s Komaba Campus partnered with Nowhere Books on a lecture from Perry Link, a professor from the University of California, Riverside.
Link spoke about a book he co-wrote about Chinese figure Liu Xiaobo, a literary critic and human rights activist the Chinese government banned from conversation.
Wang, who is using only his last name due to safety concerns for himself and his family, was in the audience. He is from China, where he used to work as a lawyer, and moved to Tokyo two years ago.
“In China, we have no chance to see people like him face-to-face, to listen to their lectures,” Wang said. “We don’t have alternatives. But now, in Tokyo, we have (these) opportunities.”
The online messaging platform Line, which people use to connect, is among the tools used for finding events and lectures like this one. Wang said it’s safer to use the app in Japan than in China, but that the Chinese community’s sentiment is “different attitude, different choice,” meaning that some users still fear talking about certain things online, while others believe it’s secure.
Events like Link’s lecture are important for the Chinese community to participate in political discussions and engage in personal interests, Wang said. But fear can sometimes translate to in-person spaces. He said sometimes he’ll refrain from participating in the lectures, with the uncertainty of who is in the audience.
“We need to talk (about) something, we need to discuss, maybe it’s a kind of party, maybe it looks like a party,” Wang said.
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