Foreigner Bibliobattle “Why did you choose that book?”

Although events at the lounge continued to be cancelled throughout 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, a combined online/on-site event was held on February 27th, 2021 (Sat).

It was a bibliobattle using Japanese books for foreign residents living in Japan.

Foreign residents from 5 different countries including Russia, China, Iran, Indonesia, Senegal introduced their favorite Japanese books and explained their reasons for choosing them.

The 5 books chosen included “Totto-chan: The Little Girl at the Window” by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, “How Do You Live?” by Yoshino Genzaburo, Fuji TV’s “Tokyo Magnitude 8.0”, “Kitchen” by Banana Yoshimoto, and “Message to you ‘For you who will live this future world’”by Oussouby Sacko.

Japanese people are familiar with some of the works, but are not familiar with others. The 5 participants were able to show their interest in the books they chose by presenting details and their thoughts in fluent Japanese. Their presentations attracted participants both on-site and online to participate in a lively question and answer session.

Nowadays, time flies and there is little time to read for leisure. Elementary school students all the way up to university and even working adults read books for “function” (motivation from necessity), but find it difficult to make time to read their favorite books.

This bibliobattle was a good opportunity to think about “what to read” and “how to read” in a way that satisfies a “joy of reading” that is both cultural and for purposes other than function.

The champion was Ba Abu from Senegal. Congratulations!

There were 11 participants on-site and 17 online for a total of 28. Thank you all for participating.