Japan's Used Book Boom Linked to AI Training Data Purchases
In Japan, independent secondhand bookstores are witnessing a notable increase in bulk purchases of non-fiction works, presumably from AI firms. One bookstore in Tokyo reported selling more than 1,000 books to a single location, which has raised eyebrows due to the frequency of these orders. A bookseller in western Japan received a request for tens of thousands of titles, focusing on subjects like history, medicine, and philosophy, from an international buyer. Many of these deliveries are sent to a logistics center in Okayama Prefecture, yet the purchaser's identity remains unknown. Last year, a prominent Japanese distributor shipped over 50 tons of books to the U.S., paralleling Anthropic's extensive acquisitions for its Claude AI models, which often leads to book destruction and stirs concerns about copyright and the preservation of information.
Key facts
- A Tokyo bookstore sold over 1,000 books to a single shipping address, with orders placed at remarkably quick intervals.
- A bookseller in western Japan received an order for tens of thousands of books from an overseas company.
- Orders are predominantly for non-fiction titles covering history, medicine, and philosophy.
- Many orders are sent to a logistics facility in Okayama Prefecture, but the company declined to reveal the buyer's identity or location.
- A major Japanese book distributor sold more than 50 tons of books to the U.S. over the past year.
- AI firm Anthropic purchased millions of books in bulk from the U.S., UK, and Europe via a secret initiative called Project Panama to train its Claude AI models.
- In most cases, books purchased by Anthropic are destroyed during the scanning process.
- Online commentators expressed concerns about copyright, information preservation, and the potential loss of history if data centers fail.
Entities
Institutions
- Anthropic
- Project Panama
- Claude
- Depositphotos
- My Modern Met
- SoraNews24
- The Washington Post
Locations
- Japan
- Tokyo
- Okayama Prefecture
- United States
- United Kingdom
- Europe