Kinokuniya is the largest bookstore chain in Japan, with 70 shops around the country, in cities such as Tokyo, Osaka and Fukuoka. There are 43 Kinokuniya shops outside Japan. Its first overseas store opened in San Francisco in 1969. Several other bookstores have since opened in the
United States, in cities including Los Angeles and New York. It then ventured into the Asia-Pacific market, opening its first store in Singapore (Liang Court Store) in 1983. Shops in Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand followed suit. In 1996, Kinokuniya opened its first outlet in
Australia, located in
Sydney's
Neutral Bay. It later moved to its present location in
George Street in the Central Business District. Since 2000, Kinokuniya in the US has capitalized on the growing popularity of Japanese popular culture by stocking both English- and Japanese-language books and
manga, as well as other Japanese TV, film and gaming-related merchandise. The New York City branch in
Rockefeller Center was the best-known, encompassing, lengthwise, an entire city block. A new store has recently opened on
Avenue of the Americas, near
Bryant Park, replacing the old store, which closed at the end of 2007. The bookstore located at 1073 Sixth Ave includes three floors. The top floor has an in-store café with products from nearby Cafe Zaiya, where customers are offered a range of fresh sandwiches, cakes,
bento boxes and bubble tea. The middle floor concentrates on English books of all types, while the basement level houses Japanese books and magazines, as well as a wide variety of
stationery. Books Kinokuniya is known for the immense size of its bookshops. For more than 10 years, its store in
Ngee Ann City, Singapore, was the largest bookshop in
South East Asia, until the opening of the new
Gramedia flagship store in Jakarta in 2007. On January 13, 2010, Kinokuniya opened its first branch in
Hong Kong. Fellow international bookstore chain
Page One (headquartered in Singapore) began as the magazine agent for Kinokuniya, but later became independent. On September 22, 2017, Kinokuniya opened its first branch in
Vietnam. In March 2019, Kinokuniya's Singaporean branch announced that the Liang Court store was to close on April 21, 2019. The Plaza Senayan outlet of Kinokuniya's Indonesian branch closed on April 1, 2021; earlier, Kinokuniya
Pondok Indah Mall was closed in 2018. On November 18, 2022, Kinokuniya opened its first Philippine branch at Mitsukoshi BGC Mall in cooperation with Fully Booked. In April 2023, Kinokuniya's Indonesian branch opened an outlet on Central Market, PIK 2. On December 15, 2024, the Plaza Senayan outlet was reopened. On February 18, 2025, Kinokuniya announced that its Ngee Ann City store in Singapore was to be downsized, with some of the vacated space being reserved for a café. ==Overseas stores==