AKASHI, Hyogo — A city library here is now a busy place for local people. It opened in April 2025. It does not ask all people to be quiet all the time. People can talk, play smartphone games and meet other people there.
Read the original Japanese article
One morning in early August, music for “Radio calisthenics No. 1” played in Futami Library. This is a well-known Japanese exercise with music. The library is also called Futamin. It is on the third floor of the Ito Yokado Akashi shopping center.
A staff member said, “Everyone, please join us,” and visitors looked surprised. Then they did the exercise. The library made this surprise event.
Futami Library is about 500 square meters. It is Akashi’s third municipal library. In its first year, 204,983 people came. The library says this is a good number for a public library in a core city in Japan. People borrowed 174,240 books. The library calls itself “a library where more people come to spend time than borrow books.”
The library is not like many quiet libraries. People can hear children laugh. Before it opened, the city held three meetings with local people. The city asked how the library could be a place for people to gather and talk. People wanted “a comfortable, relaxed space.” They did not want many rules. So the library was made as a place where “people can relax as if they are in their own living room.” The library tells people that “conversations are allowed.” People can also play smartphone games, sleep a little and make short phone calls.
The shopping center often has audio announcements. So visitors are used to sound. The library says no one has complained about talking. But the library also has a quiet reading day. On that day, people must not talk loudly.
The library has more than 100 events each year. They include book clubs, story time and magic shows. It has also had music events with ukulele music and Okinawan songs.
There is a community message board. Visitors can write questions or worries. Other visitors can answer. People write about study, raising children and relationships.
Older people, parents and young people come to the library.
Library director Yoko Obata said, “We want to make this a library where there is more interaction among residents through books.”
(Japanese original by Yukiharu Sakurai, Kobe Bureau)
Vocabulary
chatty: likes to talk a lot
municipal: run by a city or town
visitors: people who come to a place
calisthenics: simple body exercise
shopping center: a big place with many shops
borrow: take something that will be given back later
announcements: spoken messages
complained: said something was not good
community: people in one area
relationships: how people feel and act with each other
director: a leader of a place
interaction: people talking or doing things together
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