Kashi-hon

Kashi-hon (貸本) is a Japanese phrase for books and magazines that are rented out.

Some "librarians" would travel around in order to increase their clientele and make more money.

People of both genders and all ages rented books, manga, and monthly magazines.

However, when libraries were built nationwide and publishers started to print more copies of their books and magazines so they could be sold for lower prices in the mid-1950s, the number of kashi-hon decreased dramatically.

In Taiwan, it is a store that buys the books and rents them to customers to get the profit.

An example of a post-war kashi-hon ya . This business opened in 1957 and closed in 2008.