"The number of people learning Japanese has increased and is currently estimated to be more than 3 million worldwide," says Nobuyuki Suzuki, deputy manager of a very special store in Tokyo.

"Four years ago, 350,000 people took the Japanese-Language Proficiency Test (JLPT)," he adds. "Last year the figure was over 600,000, owing mainly to the rise in candidates from Asia."

That's a lot of students. And there's no one-size-fits-all service to help them reach their goal. Every student of language is at a different level of proficiency and has different needs. To plug the gaps in their knowledge, nothing beats having the right study materials. And when it comes to Japanese, everyone who is learning, using or teaching the language ought to know about the store where Suzuki works — Bonjinsha, a bookstore run by the eponymous publisher based in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward. Bonjin means an ordinary or mediocre person, but there's nothing mediocre about Bonjinsha's Kojimachi shop — the only retail bookshop in the Japanese capital to my knowledge that specializes almost exclusively in Japanese-language study-and-reference materials.