Honya Taisho is Japan's unique and popular book award.

The sales of books and magazines are going down year by year, which affects related industries like publishers, distributers, and bookstore as well. To solve this issue, Honya Taisho, or booksellers' award was established by booksellers. Books are products to sell, and there are consumers buying them. We booksellers know their commercial relations and we can forecast what books will become popular among readers. That's why we can give a new twist to the publishing industry. We hope to cheer up the publishing industry in Japan from the storefront.
Honya Taisho has been the catalyst for many bestselling books. And most of award-wining pieces in the past 20years were made into movies. Hoya Taisho is Japan's unique and one of the most popular book awards.

Our organization

NPO Honya Taisho is a volunteer-based organization mainly made up of bookstore clerks. The headquarter is located in Hon No Zasshi-Sha, the publishing company in Jimbocho town in Tokyo.

Prizes are chosen solely by the votes from booksellers.

Only bookstore clerks have the right to vote for this award. Bookstore clerks pick out their favorites from all the books they have actually read in the past year. They chose the ones that they find most interesting or impressive, the ones they would recommend to their customers, and the ones they would like to sell the most in their own stores.

The20th Honya Taisho, award -selection process

Any booksellers at the bookstores selling new books were eligible to vote.

Foreign fiction category

Each bookseller voted for 3books by12 February 2023.
"We begin at the end"　by Chris Whitaker won the prize. Its Japanese title is "Warera Ten Yori Yami Wo Miru" translated by Megumi Suzuki and published by Hayakawa-shobo.

Rediscovered-books category.

Each bookseller voted for 1 of their favorite books published before November 2021. The most enthusiastically recommended book became Rediscovered book of this year.
"Ochikubo-Hime"written by Seiko Tanabe and published by Kadokawa. was nominated as this year's rediscovered book.