Word: kanda
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...several years after World War II, the plain seven-story red-brick building that stands on the north bank of the Kanda River in Tokyo's Nihonbashi district housed a women's unit of General MacArthur's Occupation Army. On the outside, nothing distinguishes the building from other office blocks in the Japanese capital. Inside, employees toil elbow to elbow in open work areas illuminated by fluorescent lights, and the air is heavy with cigarette smoke. Yet the modest facade masks the nerve center of a powerful financial empire: Nomura Securities, the largest, richest and most profitable securities firm...
...national appetite cannot be satisfied at libraries: there are only 1,300 public libraries in the country, and they account for only 1% of annual book sales. Instead, most readers head for the bibliophile's paradise, Tokyo's Kanda district, which houses hundreds of shops with miles of volumes. Here almost all the classics of Japanese and Western literature are available for about a dollar. The softcover books are wallet-size and encased at the store with a protective paper wrapper. About 10% of those volumes are titles originally published in English, German, French and Italian. Tolstoy...