NHK's documentary program "Document 72 Hours" (General) will broadcast "Tokyo's Sleepless Bookstore" from 10:00 pm on December 19th. On this day, the "Sleepless Bookstore" in front of Otsuka Station in Tokyo will be featured. What kind of people will visit this quiet bookstore in the middle of the night...?
In Otsuka, Tokyo, there is a bookstore that is open 24 hours a day, something that is rare these days. Even after the last train has left, people trickle in, drawn by the bright lights.
Over the past 10 years, while 30% of bookstores nationwide have closed, this one has remained open 24 hours a day. We hear from a woman who stops by on her way home from a part-time job at an izakaya and says, "A book is the perfect way to end the day," a pair of people who suddenly decided to come looking for a calligraphy book at 2am, and a man who came after a night shift at a construction site and claims to have a collection of 10,000 books. We hear about the reasons for their persistent desire for paper books in this age of increasing digitalization.
This documentary program focuses on a single location each time, observing the various human dramas that occur there over a period of 72 hours. It listens to the stories of people who meet by chance, capturing the current era.
