A Japanese book chain has continued its emergence in the Chinese market in Shanghai, as a local bookstore with 21 years of history stares down the barrel of impending closure.

Tsutaya Books opened its second location in Shanghai after its first Chinese store began operations in Hangzhou two months ago. The Shanghai store is at the revived Columbia Country Club built in 1924, which is now a popular location for online influencers. The store allowed a maximum of 1,200 people inside each day under strict crowd control measures.

Tsutaya plans to open 100 large stores and 1,000 smaller outlets in China. The chain also sells lifestyle products, similar to the Taiwanese bookstore chain Eslite.

Since establishing in Tokyo’s upscale Daikanyama area in 2011, Tsutaya has been successful in attracting young fashionable students and wealthy consumers, and expanded to the United States, Taiwan and China amid the trend of bookstores closing.

Tsutaya’s strategy in China was not to sell books but to sell an experience for people looking for different lifestyles, the Nikkei newspaper reported.

But as the Japanese chain thrives in China, an old bookstore near Fudan University in Shanghai was at the brink of closing.

The rental contract of the shop with 21 years of history will expire by the end of the year, and the owner said it would close if the lease is not extended within a buffer period, the city’s Xinmin Evening News reported on Wednesday.

The shop had benefited from its proximity to the university, and may not be able to survive if it moves to another location, the owner said. Readers said they were saddened that the shop may close soon.

Shanghai should not only have visually-appealing bookstores since older bookstores represented the depth of the city and had a responsibility in passing down culture, according to a commentary piece published by Xinmin. Many old bookstores in the 1980s and 1990s have been forced to close following large-scale redevelopment.

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