From Kyodo News Service (via The Japan Times):
The number of books checked out by elementary school children from libraries nationwide reached a record average of 26 per child in fiscal 2010, the education ministry said.
The increase from 18.8 per child in the previous survey in fiscal 2007 apparently reflects the trend of refraining from buying new publications amid the economic downturn and libraries raising the maximum number of books that can be checked out at one time.
The article also includes a few updated public library statistics from Japan:
+ 663.6 million books were checked out from public libraries in Japan (FY 2010)
+ 3,274 libraries in Japan as of October 2011, up 3.4% from previous survey
+ 36,246 workers in Japan’s libraries, up 11.3% from fiscal 2007
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