Bookmobiles Fading in Japan

From the Japan Times:

Thirty-nine local governments in Japan stopped providing \”mobile library\” services in the three-year period up to fiscal 2000, according to a study released by the Japan Library Association.
Their demise was caused by declining use of the mobile libraries and hard financial times at local governments, said the study, made available to Kyodo News on Saturday.

The public borrowed about 15 million books from mobile libraries across the country last year, down from 21 million books 10 years ago, it said . . .

More.