Bookends

On of the silly things about Japan is that they never want you to know what you are reading.
Which in some respect can be a little more detrimental for the authors if no one is publicly displaying reading your book and thereby advertising it. That's right you! No free advertisement for you! But in actuality, it doesn't hurt the authors terribly. At least Haruki Murakami seems to be doing just fine.

In Japan, every time you buy a book the cashier will either usually ask you if you want your book wrapped, which would mean to cover it in a temporary paper book cover very much like a book jacket, or they would just do it without asking you. This is one of the most bizarre things to me seeing as I am the kind of person to remove a book jacket from a hardcover immediately upon opening it. Not just to preserve the tender paper, but also because the book will slip a little if you use it. The book slowly creeps down and you will see more and more of that book jacket, until you get to a pretty intense scene. The hero has just discovered it!His old professor and ex girlfriend worked up some sort of scheme to use him in a psychological conditioning experiment in which they could profit from loads of blackmail from all sorts of important people affiliated, including the person in charge of the company who provides him sponsorship to continue with his studies with the graduate program! And now, she has caught on to his knowledge and is...SLIPPED there went your book.
And that is why I don't us a book jacket. Also I hope you enjoyed my crappy story I made up!...I didn't think to hard...
Anyways in Japan, everyone has a book cover or two to ensleeve their books. If you are like me, then perhaps you like a bunch of varieties of books and with varying sizes. Not the Japanese. There seems to be three standard sizes of book here in Japan. And really only one that most every book will appear in. But what about Harry Potter? Surely they read that right? and that is a big book. Yeah sure. But they split one book up to 3 or 4 books. Which really gets them like 3-4 times the profit from Japan. If you are familiar with Haruki Murakami, you might know 1Q84. In America, it is sold as one book, but in Japan it is split up into 4 books. All of which will fit that little books cover you have.
The reason for those book covers is that people are exceptionally paranoid in Japan. They don't want you to know what they are reading, they don't want you taking their picture, and yes, they know Big Brother is always watching them. But also it is a matter of privacy. For example, if they are reading a self help book, they don't want you knowing it. But let's be honest. That's ridiculous. The real reason is that it is porn. But then again, oddly enough, people are not so shameful about that. They sit there and read their manga smut rags on the train and you can see all the steamy scenes sitting next to them. And these rags come in those giant magazine sizes that are about 6 or more times the size of a normal american magazine with a very provocative picture on the front. And you can find all these at the local convenience store.
So why the covers? It is just another ridiculous quirky thing about Japan.