HP casts spell on Japan

[hollygolightly95]

Hi,
Greetings from London, England. 

The Very Serious UK weekly 'The Economist' has an interesting piece 
on HP in Japan this week. 
Apparently the Japanese are not only reading large numbers of JKR's 
books in translation - they're also devouring them in English. 
Bestsellers in Europe and the US often do well in Japan too, but 
usually in translation. Kinokunya, Japan's largest bookstore chain, 
says that 20% of the 220,000 HP books it sold were in English. 
Maruzen, another big bookstore, says that sales of most English-
language books tail off after the first couple of months, but demand 
for English HP books is still rising steadily. 
Educationalists are particularly pleased that thousands of Japanese 
who let their English slide are now brushing up their vocabulary 
reading HP. They also buy the audio cassettes to help them pronounce 
difficult words. Bookshop managers now believe HP is persuading the 
Japanese to summon up their courage and sample other foreign books. 
Sounds like magic to me....

Holly.