The signature project Dokusho Hyakkei Reportage comprises reportage by Oya Soichi Nonfiction Award-winning writer Ren Inaizumi. It covers the reading situations and experiences of various people, including people with disabilities who couldn’t read physical books, or those who experienced something that suddenly gave them the ability to read a book.

The launch of Shogakukan’s online media platform, Dokusho Hyakkei, was inspired by an encounter with Saou Ichikawa, author of Hunchback and winner of the 169th Akutagawa Prize. In her acceptance speech, Ichikawa said that her anger at the “publishing world that ignored my written entreaties,” was what inspired her to write the book. She referred to her past efforts to directly request the creation of e-books for novels that were only available in physical form and appealed for greater accessibility.

As publishers, there is an understanding that we could bring more joy to people by broadening our scope. On the other hand, we are worried that we are not fully responding to the voices of those who really need to read. This is where the concept of Dokusho Hyakkei came from.

The media platform was created to show how people with disabilities read in their daily lives, and this culminated in the signature project, Dokusho Hyakkei Reportage. The project comprises reportage by Oya Soichi Nonfiction Award-winning writer Ren Inaizumi, covering the reading situations and experiences of various people, including people with disabilities who couldn’t read physical books, or those who experienced something that suddenly gave them the ability to read a book.

Dokusho Hyakkei is not a media platform that shares reviews introducing books, but a place to learn about diverse reading experiences from various people. The main aim is to leverage the knowledge gained through this media platform to develop new accessibility measures. Shogakukan also hopes that this platform will encourage more people with disabilities to embrace writing in the near future.

For the time being, we plan to enhance introductions about our books and other information as media owned by Shogakukan’s arts and cultural publishing team, while focusing on providing information related to accessible reading. We hope that you will join us in thinking broadly, deeply, and freely about the future of reading. We aim to provide as many means of reading to as many people as possible, so that they can enjoy the pleasure of books.