The Frankfurt Book Fair was held at Messe Frankfurt from Wednesday, October 15 to Sunday, October 19, 2025. I attended the fair for two days, on October 15 and 16, and would like to share a brief report below.
The main entrance of the Frankfurt Book Fair. It’s much cooler than Japan (Maximum temperature: around 17°C).
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🔻Guest of Honor_ Philippines🔻
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This year’s Guest of Honor was the Philippines, and as expected, the booth was exceptionally large and well-presented. The displays were clearly organized by theme and by publisher, making them very easy to navigate.
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🔻Japan Pavilion🔻
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The Japan Pavilion was located in Hall 6.1. Eight publishers from Japan exhibited with individual booths, alongside a joint booth and a dedicated manga exhibition area. The pavilion attracted many visitors and was lively throughout the event.
The companies exhibiting with individual booths were SHUEISHA INC., KODANSHA Ltd., SHOGAKUKAN Inc., KADOKAWA Corp., Gakken Inc., TO BOOKS, inc., Drecom Co., Ltd, and Tohan Corporation. Among them, Tohan Corporation participated as a licensing agent, while the others are publishers. All of these companies were actively engaged in business meetings to promote publishing licenses for the European market.
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🔻Agent Center(LitAg)🔻
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On the floor above Hall 6.1, which hosts the Japan Pavilion, Hall 6.2 is home to LitAg, the literary agents’ center.Here, Japanese agencies had their own tables and conducted business meetings.
Last year, the Agents’ Centre received criticism for being overcrowded with too many people and tables, making it difficult to hear business partners during meetings. This year, when I visited early in the morning, the situation was relatively calm. However, it reportedly became noisy later in the day, and it seems that the same issue of poor audibility occurred again this year.
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🔻Other Booth🔻
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When we refer to “other booths,” it is worth noting just how vast the Frankfurt Book Fair venue is. The fair uses Halls 3, 4, 5, and 6, and each hall occupies at least two floors—Levels 0 and 1 (Hall 6 spans from Level 0 to Level 2). Even by a simple count, this amounts to nine floors in total, clearly illustrating the enormous number of booths on display.
Of course, there were many country pavilions not mentioned here, including China, Taiwan, Korea, India, Turkey, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and the Nordic countries. There simply was not enough time to visit all of them in detail. There were also plenty of charming picture books to discover.
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🔻Events🔻
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In addition to visiting publishers’ and other exhibitors’ booths, a wide variety of events such as lectures, seminars, and talk shows were also held. Below are a few highlights.
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✳︎ Frankfurt Studio ✳︎
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At the “Frankfurt Studio” in Hall 4, a variety of talks and presentations on different themes were held.
I attended a session titled “International Book Market Uncovered: Key Trends in 2025 from Around the World.” The presentation focused on global publishing trends across different countries, examining how the market has changed since the COVID-19 pandemic and highlighting current trends in comparison with the pre-pandemic period.
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✳︎ Talk Show ✳︎
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In the area between Hall 6 and Hall 5, events such as talks were also held.
While moving between halls, I briefly listened to a session titled “CEO TALK 2025.” As an acquaintance of mine happened to be one of the speakers, I stopped by and listened for a short while. The discussion focused on the use of AI and the potential challenges it presents.
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This concludes our brief overview of this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair.
As I always feel, the Frankfurt Book Fair is a truly wonderful event where publishers and titles from around the world come together. I would like to continue attending every October, as it offers invaluable opportunities to encounter new business partners, people, and titles.
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🔻CONCLUSION🔻
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ADOOR Consulting Office travels to major international book fairs—including the Frankfurt Book Fair, Beijing International Book Fair, Seoul International Book Fair, Tokyo Rights Meeting, Shanghai International Children’s Book Fair, and the Taipei International Book Exhibition—to introduce Japanese publishing content and illustrators to the global market.
If you are interested in Japanese publishing culture, please feel free to contact ADOOR Consulting Office, which has extensive expertise in the publishing industry and translation publishing licenses.
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Opening the door to encounters with Japanese publishing content and illustrators.
ADOOR Consulting Office
