In our age of shortening attention spans, reading books is a hobby many have abandoned. That’s forcing libraries to reinvent themselves as third spaces to draw in users.
One library in Japan has proven especially adept at bringing in users. For the third year in a row, the Ishikawa Prefectural Library has brought in more users than any other library in the country. Here’s what makes the location such a draw among both residents and tourists.
Ishikawa’s “cultural tourist pavilion” brings in more visitors than prefectural residents
In 2025, according to News.JP, the Ishikawa Prefectural Library in Kodatsuno, Kanazawa, drew in 1,371,223 visitors. That’s an increase of 178,391 visitors over the previous year. It makes the library the most popular public prefectural library in Japan for the third year in a row.
Those are stunning numbers, especially when you consider that Ishikawa Prefecture is home to a total of 1.08 million residents. By contrast, 2024’s second most popular prefectural library was Okayama’s. It saw a mere 790,000 visitors, despite having a prefectural population of 1.81 million.
The library has dominated Japan’s visitor rankings ever since it re-opened in its new location in 2022. The old location, near the popular tourist destination Kanroku-en, was built in 1912 and was falling apart. The new amphitheater design was the result of a design contest held in 2017. The winning design is the vision of Senda Mitsuuru and the Architectural Design Institute.
The library is home to a stunning 1.1 million books and manuscripts. It lent out a total of 647,650 titles in 2025 and held 340 events, ranging from author presentations to orchestra recitals and even collaborations with popular anime titles such as Love Live!.
A space to learn, meet, or just be
One look at photos of the space and it’s no wonder that the reopened library draws so many visitors. The beautiful, inviting space is so impressive that it won multiple design awards, including the prestigious iF Design Award in 2024.
“The central circular slope of 50 meters in diameter connecting 1st to 3rd levels provides users with barrier-free circulation that excites their intellectual curiosity,” the award committee wrote. “People enjoy staying in this space for an overwhelmingly long time having the pleasure of sharing the time with other people talking, resting and learning.”
Besides just being a beautiful space, the library has gone out of its way to let visitors know they can use the facilities for a wide range of purposes. Its “This is 図書館” (This is Library) page lists 21 separate uses for the space. People are invited to read, talk in groups, make art, pursue their hobbies, and even enjoy food and drinks. Users are also invited to do nothing at all and take some “me” time for themselves after work.
Japan’s libraries are repositioning themselves
Japan’s libraries face the same issue as libraries worldwide. Countries like the US have seen a sharp decline in reading for pleasure, with daily reading for pleasure dropping by 40% over 20 years. Only 0.3% of Americans, according to one survey, reported reading in a library over the past year.
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Japan isn’t much different. According to data from Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs from a 2024 survey, 62.6% of respondents said they read zero books per month (including e-books). Only 27.6% read 1-2 books. A mere 1.8% read 7 or more. Nearly 70% reported that their reading had decreased compared to earlier in their lives.
Notably, 75.3% of non-readers said they still engage with written content daily – but through social media, news apps, and online articles. So it’s not that people stopped reading; they stopped reading books.
It’s getting worse over time, too. A 2025 Cross Marketing survey found that ~51.6% of respondents read fewer than one book every six months, up from 47.9% in 2023. About 68.8% considered themselves below-average readers.
That’s leading Japanese libraries to reposition themselves more as third spaces and community centers. This is especially important as the country’s population continues to decline.
A longitudinal survey by Kyoto University found that in areas with 10 additional books per capita, the rate of functional impairment among the elderly was about 34% lower than in other areas. Each additional library a community adds, the same study found, leads to a 48% lower risk of functional disability.
Yet another reason to visit Kanazawa
Obviously, with its huge visitor numbers, the Ishikawa Prefectural Library is more than just a community hub. It’s a bona fide tourist attraction. In an era where it’s getting harder to find free third spaces, spots like this are a breath of fresh air.
For the culturally minded, the library is also one more reason to visit historic Kanazawa and the larger Noto Peninsula region. Tourists to the region can enjoy historic castles and Japanese arts, indulge themselves at Ishikawa’s popular regional sake breweries, and bathe in splendid onsens in Noto, Wakura, and other hot springs hot spots on Japan’s West coast.
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Sources
石川県立図書館、金沢観光の「顔」に 来館最多137万人、3年連続日本一へ. News.JP
図書館は増え、利用者は減る…いびつな「図書館離れ」 非正規職員は低賃金、課題山積み（鷲尾香一）. J-Cast
Ishikawa Prefectural Library. Wikipedia
The decline in reading for pleasure over 20 years of the American Time Use Survey. iScience
How libraries in Japan are being reimagined as pillars of community life. World Economic Forum
「月に1冊も本読まない」が6割超：進む読書離れ―文化庁調査. Nippon.com
日本人の半数が“半年に1冊も本を読まない”！？ 読書離れが止まらない衝撃データ. Hon-Hikidashi
