Tokyo · Akihabara and Kanda
Jimbocho: the district of 130 bookshops
The book district began in 1877, when the institution that preceded the University of Tokyo was founded in Kanda. More universities opened nearby after it, among them Meiji, and the demand for textbooks and books from abroad gave rise to secondhand bookshops. In 1913 a large fire in the neighboring area damaged the district, and in the same year the publisher Iwanami was founded here.
Today Jimbocho has about 130 bookshops, most of them secondhand, along Yasukuni-dori heading west from the Surugadai-shita intersection. The district's official website, run with the Kanda booksellers' association, calls it 'the number one book town in the world'. Each shop specializes in its own subject: Edo-period books and woodblocks, ukiyo-e prints, old maps, film scripts, English books, children's books and old manga magazines.
Around the shops a district of curry and long-established cafes grew up. According to the local story, curry suited people who ate with one hand and read with the other.
Good to know
- Do not come on Sunday: many of the old shops are closed that day, and many also on holidays.
- The Kanda Used Book Festival runs from 23 October to 1 November 2026, 10:00-18:00 (until 17:00 on the last day). More than 100 book carts stand along about half a kilometer of Yasukuni-dori.
- The district's official website, jimbou.info, searches the stock of about 50 shops and has a downloadable map of the shops. Worth checking before you come looking for something specific.
What is nearby
Approximate walking minutes from the entrance of Jimbocho: the district of 130 bookshops.
- HereJimbocho: the district of 130 bookshops
- 1 min
Kitazawa Shoten Shopping
A shop from 1902 on the 2nd floor, with about 12,000 used books in English, mainly literature and humanities. They also sell books for decoration.
- 1 min
Bondy Jimbocho Food
European-style curry on the 2nd floor of the Kanda Kosho Center building, since 1973. Before the curry they serve boiled potatoes with butter. Spicy chicken curry ¥1,480. Cash only, no reservations, and a line at lunch.
- ~2 min
Sabouru Jimbocho Cafe
A long-established cafe with a basement floor and a mezzanine. Order pizza toast for ¥950 or coffee for ¥650. Cash only, no reservations.
- ~4 min
Sumatra Curry Kyoeido Food
Dark curry, almost black, in the basement of a building near the station, since 1924. It has no other branches. It is crowded at lunch, and on weekdays between 15:00 and 18:00 it is quieter.
- ~4 min
Isseido Booksellers Shopping
An old-book shop on Yasukuni-dori, with Japanese books, books from abroad and antique Japanese books.
- ~6 min
Ohya Shobo Shopping
A shop of Edo-period books, ukiyo-e prints and maps, across from the Surugadai-shita intersection. They hold prints by Hokusai, Hiroshige, Kuniyoshi and Yoshitoshi, and you can hold them in your hands.
- ~6 min
Sanseido Kanda Jimbocho Honten Shopping
The district's new-book store reopened on 19 March 2026 in a new 13-story building, after the old building closed in 2022. Four floors of books and a cafe on the 3rd floor, and THE JUMP SHOP opened on the 4th floor.
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