Books Kinokuniya Australia offers the experience of a true booklover’s haven in the city. Our spacious and tranquil environment, abundance of natural light and friendly, informative staff make Kinokuniya a unique bookstore.

Kinokuniya offers the largest range of books in Australia, with over 300,000 titles in English, Japanese and Chinese. Kinokuniya also stocks an extensive collection of manga, graphic novels, art and design books, cookbooks, travel books and children’s literature. Our Japanese Books and Stationaries are sourced from Jaoan and our Chinese books are sourced from Taiwan, Hong Kong and mainland China.

We also have a sales office located in the bookstore to service business and academic institutions.

Come and visit us today and discover largest range in Australia – real bookstores do still exist!

History

The first Kinokuniya bookstore was opened in Tokyo, in January 1927 by former president Moichi Tanabe. It had 5 employees and was located in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo, in a two-story wooden building with a floor space of 125m2 (1,349sq.ft.) and an art gallery on the second floor.

The store burnt down in May 1945 during an air raid, but later re-opened in December 1945 and was incorporated in 1946. Over the next few years, sale offices opened around Japan, in locations such as Osaka, Kyoto
and Sapporo.

In 1964, the bookstore’s headquarters was established in Shinjuku (the current Shinjuku Main Store Building), consisting of nine stories and two underground floors. Kinokuniya continued to develop large-scale bookstores in major Japanese cities based on the corporate philosophy of providing customers with a wide variety of books and magazines.

Kinokuniya believe bookstores should be more than simply places to buy books. They should also serve as cultural hubs that promote culture and the arts. With this philosophy in mind, we incorporate spaces such as theatres and art galleries
into our bookstores wherever possible.

The Shinjuku store boasts two theatres that aspire to promote the spirit of the dramatic arts (much like that of New York’s Broadway), and the Kinokuniya Theatre Awards were established in 1966 to promote the development of the dramatic arts.

The first Kinokuniya bookstore outside of Japan opened in San Francisco in 1969 with the twin goals of providing Japanese people living abroad with up-to-date information, and introducing Japanese tradition and culture to the local community. Now we have been operating more than 20 stores in the United States, including major stores in Los Angeles and New York.

Kinokuniya ventured into the Asia-Pacific market when it opened its first store in Singapore (Liang Court Store) in 1983. This would serve as a base for developing additional Asia-Pacific markets, and store openings soon followed in Taiwan and gradually expanded in other countries: Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, UAE and Thailand. Kinokuniya Bangladesh was opened in Dhaka in 2026.

In 1996, Kinokuniya launched its first bookstore in Australia, located in the Sydney suburb of Neutral Bay. This was later re-located to its present-day location in The Galeries shopping centre on George Street.

In 2026, Books Kinokuniya Australia opened Chatswood Store and Melbourne Store. The Melbourne store is the first step towards Kinokuniya’s flagship Melbourne bookstore, which is scheduled to open in 2028 as part of
Melbourne Central’s expansion and redevelopment.

As of today, Kinokuniya is the largest bookstore chain in Japan, with over 120 stores worldwide.