The purpose of this article is to review publishing studies on the book distribution system in 1990's. In particular, this article deals with not only resale price maintenance but its mechanism (bookstores, book distributors) in two chapters. Through this review, while the deregulation policy was widely accepted since 1990's, these studies show why resale price maintenance has been kept after WW II.
This study points out several trends in the distribution system, “low book margin” “sales mix of books and other goods”, “mixture of capital from other industries” and “suburbanization of the bookstore” from the viewpoint of these studies. Bookstores moved to suburban areas and store size was enlarged to get more profit. But there remains the question “how the reader can meet books”.
