The surge in business is driven by suspicious bulk orders directed to a logistics centre in Okayama Prefecture, according to NTV Japan. One Western Japanese store received an inquiry for tens of thousands of books, and a 50-ton shipment of Japanese books was sent to the US. The logistics centre operator declined to comment on the nature of the operations.

Bookstore owners report that the genre of bulk purchases has shifted from novels and comics to philosophy, history, medicine, law, and Edo-period culture. This pattern aligns with the types of texts AI models are often trained on. The owners express mixed feelings about the boom, fearing it will deplete stock and remove important cultural works from circulation.

The legality of this activity in Japan is complex. While copyright law generally permits the use of works for AI learning, the current bulk operations appear to operate without the consent of the copyright holders. This raises ethical questions about the use of underhand bulk operations to train AI models on cultural heritage.

Why It Matters: This trend highlights the global race for data to train AI models, which is increasingly turning to physical archives. The removal of used books from circulation could have long-term cultural and economic impacts on the second-hand market.