ABSTRACT
The outbreak of the First World War had a severe impact on world trade and existing trade routes, which also affected the global book market, causing production numbers to drop and book exchanges being closely observed or shut down completely. For Japan, the major upheaval in world trade - in this case, the trade of books - was fundamental to how the country experienced the war and accordingly brought about many consequences.
This paper examines the impact of the war on the Japanese book trade. It reveals the efforts made by several individual Japanese publishers who used their established networks to actively influence policies to keep the transnational networks and communication intact during the course of the war. The cooperation between publishers as well as other private experts and ministerial bureaucrats in adhering to the first international copyright treaty, the Berne Convention of 1886, and their mutual struggle for the continuance of the import of publications demonstrate the growing role that publishers as non-governmental experts played in cooperating with the state, functioning as advisors and actively contributing towards the post-war trend of an increasingly globally orientated politics.
