Kinokuniya, a renowned international
bookshop chain from Japan, placed in Suria KLCC shopping mall (part of the
Petronas Twin Towers Complex) at its top floor, Malaysia. It is Malaysia’s
largest and well-known book store for its collection of Asian books and
magazines plus DVDs and stationary.
Kinokuniya Bookstore was founded in
January 1927 at the Shinjuku district of Tokyo by former president Moichi
Tanabe. In February 1969, the first overseas store opened in San Francisco. The
goal was to provide Japanese living in the U.S. with books and magazines from
home and introduce Japanese culture to the local community. Kinokuniya ventured
into the Asia-Pasific market when it opened its first store in Singapore and
followed by Taiwan, Malaysia, Thailand, Australia and Dubai. And now there are
27 overseas stores by now all over the world.
Kinokuniya Book Store, Suria KLCC
This two floors book
store is definitely bigger than what you see from the outside, there’s even a
big Japanese books and magazines section hidden in there. Apart from the café
upstairs where you can chill and have some cakes and tea, there’s another
section by the window where you can sit down and read some books. There you
would overlook the view of the KLCC park.
The book selection here
is tough to beat. There are over 300,000 titles in the store with different
languages like Chinese, English, Japanese and Malay. If you are looking for an
important title, this would be the place I would recommend starting your
search. Besides that, they have a special section strictly cater to Japanese
books, magazines and literatures which is excellent for those Japanese
expatriates and people with strong interests in Japanese culture.