VS Iranian

Last weekend, I went to Tokyo International Book Fair in Odaiba. It is one of the biggest events for publishing companies and book lovers in Japan. It is a wonder that I've never been to the fair even though I am working for book-sales. So, I had been looking forward to joining it.
A huge numbers of publishers had their own booths to display their publications. Watching many new books itself seemed to be exciting for heavy readers. All booths were very crowded. People could buy the books on cheap prices. They could get special discounts in the fair. They looked happy.

Most booths were Japanese publishers' ones. But, new players in publishing business also joined this event. Google was the representative of them. Their booth was bigger than other old media companies, and they showed us some new ways for publishing. By chance on the day, I read an article in a newspaper that Google entered into an alliance with Keio University to digitize a large numbers of books. We don't know if they are our friend or enemy, but their project can not be ignored by all players in the publishing world.

All booths were interesting, but my purpose was to watch the booths of foreign companies. I could enjoy watching many books from other countries there.
It was surprising for me that Iranian companies' booths were the most there. I had no idea of Iranian books, so everything in thier booths were new for me. Unfortunately most Japanese including me can't read their words.
That's why the main books displayed there were art books or visual books. Pictures can be understood by anyone. The quality of each books were high, so I could enjoy watching them.

I had the chance to talk with the staff in Iranian booth. He is an Iranian student studying in Japanese university. I wanted to know the publishing world in Iran more, so I gave him some questions.

I: How many publishers are there in Iran?
He: Mmm, many. It's countless.
I: Ok. How many bookstores are there in Iran?
He: Mmm, many. It's also countless.

In Japan, there are 5000 publishers and 20000 bookstores.
I wanted to compare Japan with Iran, in order to understand the situation of publishing in Iran. But, I couldn't know anything due to his unclear answer. Maybe, he was not familier with it. So, I gave him another question.

I: The bookstore in Iran is so same as in Japan?
He: Mmm, a little diffrent. Like Akihabara for electorical equipments in Japan, we have a big town for books.

His answer made me surprised.
Certainly I know there are big towns for books in the world, like Frankfurt in German, or Kanda-Jinboucho in Tokyo. But, the book town in Iran was utterly out of my image. Why?
I thought publishing business can flourish only under the freedom of speech. That's why I couldn't imagine that Iranian have a big publishing economy in their country. Their religious thinking looks very strict, so I had thought that they couldn't express their free thinking. My image of Iranian publicing was very poor.

However, from the Iranian student's words, I knew they have a very rich publishing society. I felt the respect for the country soon. Some people see the country very dangerous. But, now I can say they are very intellectual. So, I think we can understand each other by communication, even if their government is making atomic bombs.

Unfortunately Iranian doesn't have the route to sell their books in Japan. Their great history and nature deserve to be shown here. I would get my new mission in my job.