Since Iwanami Shigeo founded Iwanami Shoten in 1913, we have published over 20,000 titles. Iwanami Shoten publishes high quality books for academic and general readers.

In 1914 Iwanami Shoten published Natsume Soseki's Kokoro, widely considered to be one of Japan's greatest modern novels. Iwanami quickly established a reputation among intellectuals as one of Japan's most influential publishers by extending its publishing scope to economics, social issues and dictionaries. In 1927, Iwanami introduced its Iwanami Library of Classics (Iwanami Bunko) comprised of the great works of West and East. In 1938, a new series, Iwanami Paperbacks (Iwanami Shinsho), was launched in resistance to the tide of Japanese militarism, contributing to intellectual freedom by publishing original works in a variety of genres. These series created new standards for paperback publishing in Japan.

During World War II, Iwanami Shoten kept the torch of conscience lit in spite of official oppression including censorship, book bans and the arrest and detention of authors and editors. The house also overcame problems with censorship and publication cancellation orders during the years of the allied occupation. In the midst of this difficult environment, Iwanami launched the monthly opinion magazine World (Sekai) in 1946 to reinvigorate informed discussion in a public exhausted by the war.

Referred to as “the standard of the Japanese language,” Iwanami Shoten's Comprehensive Dictionary of the Japanese Language (Kojien) was first published in 1955, and is now in its 5th edition having sold over 10 million copies. In 1980, Iwanami took the lead in electronic publishing by releasing the dictionary in CD-ROM format.

Among Iwanami's many outstanding publications is the Catalogue Raisonné of Japanese Books (8 vols), which began in 1963 in commemoration of Iwanami Shoten's 50th anniversary. The Catalogue Raisonné lists more than 500,000 titles written in Japan from the country's beginning to the Meiji Restoration in 1868. In addition, the Iwanami Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Mathematics, first published in 1954 and now in its 3rd edition, enjoys wide use as a reference work covering the vast domain of modern mathematics in a single volume. It was also published in the United States in English.

Iwanami's groundbreaking 100 volume series, Anthology of Classical Japanese Literature, and the 67 volumes series, Anthology of Japanese Thought, and the recent New Anthology of Classical Japanese Literature (100 vols) contain comprehensive, annotated selections of major works in Japanese literature and thought. These series make an important contribution to the preservation of Japan's cultural resources, and are recognized landmarks in the history of Japanese publishing.

Bringing together leading intellectuals and literati prominent in modern Japanese thought and literature, Iwanami Shoten has played an important role in modern Japan's intellectual and cultural achievements. This is due in part to publishing methodologies that Iwanami Shoten created, and have been referred to as the “Iwanami Method”.

Iwanami Shoten has long worked to introduce foreign works to Japanese readers, translating nearly 3,000 titles into Japanese for academic and general readership, including such popular children's books as Le Petit Prince and Curious George. Iwanami Shoten's joint publishing program with foreign publishers has produced more than 100 art books for the Japanese market, including limited facsimile editions.

Nearly 500 Iwanami works have been translated into foreign languages, such as Nishida Kitaro's An Inquiry into the Good, translated into English, French, Spanish and German. Iwanami's dictionaries and academic titles in the natural sciences are especially recognized for their high academic standard. English language rights to many titles from the Development of Modern Mathematics series (12 vols) and Modern Physics series (21 vols) have been licensed to publishers in the United Kingdom and the United States. Art books by Iwanami such as Katsura Villa and Pompeian Paintings were also co-published in several foreign countries.

Building upon nearly 100 years of publishing history, Iwanami Shoten will continue to contribute to society and advance intellectual innovation.