Factfulness sells over one million copies in Japan

January 6, 2021 - The Japanese version of Factfulness (originally written by Hans Rosling et al.) published by Nikkei Business Publications (President & CEO: Naoto Yoshida; Minato-ku, Tokyo) has sold a total of over one million copies in Japan.

Since its release in January 2019, the Japanese version of the book has enjoyed strong sales, with more than one million copies distributed as of January 6, 2021 (840,000 copies in print; over 130,000 copies in electronic format and over 30,000 copies in audio format). The book was originally written by the Swedish medical doctor and public health scholar Hans Rosling and co-authored by his son and daughter-in-law.

The Best-Selling Business Book of 2020

Factfulness was ranked at the top of the 2020 Annual Bestsellers in the business category (surveyed by Tohan) and the Oricon Annual Best Books 2020 in the business category, making it the most-sold business book in Japan for 2020.

The book has also received many positive reviews. It won the Business Book Award Grand Prize for 2020 (organized by Discover Twenty One) and the first spot overall in the Reader's Choice rankings of the Business Book Grand Prix 2020 (sponsored by the Graduate School of Management, Globis University and Flier). It also took the 30th TOPPOINT Award Grand Prize (granted by TOPPOINT magazine).

About the Book

Factfulness takes its title from a word the author uses for the habit of reading the correct information about the world based on data and facts. If you are freed from ten misconceptions that clever people tend to believe, you will achieve calmness and acquire the skills to see the world clearly from the correct vantagepoint. To help its readers to gain a true picture of the world, the book covers a wide range of fields such as education, poverty, the environment, energy, and population. Each section introduces the latest statistical data and guides readers in how to achieve accurate understanding. The topics explained in the book may seem difficult and unfamiliar at first glance, but author Hans Rosling's TED talk videos have been played 35 million times and enjoy a reputation of being intriguing and easy to understand. No mathematical formulas, no economic terms that are more complicated than "GDP," and no statistical terms that are more intricate than "average" are used in this book. It is written in a way that allows anyone to understand intuitively what is being discussed.

The author also visited African countries as an infectious disease expert to combat the Ebola virus. Based on this experience, he emphasizes the importance of using data to see the world as a whole. This is useful for fighting against infectious diseases and overcoming the fears and frustration felt by humans. He also singles out infectious diseases as the top risk in the world.

Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World - And Why Things Are Better Than You Think

Authored by Hans Rosling; Co-authored by Ola Rosling and Anna Rosling Röonlund

Translated to Japanese by Shusaku Uesugi and Miwa Seki

Price: JPY1,800 excluding tax

ISBN978-4-8222-8960-7

About the Author

Hans Rosling was a physician and professor of global health, and he also achieved renown as a public educator. He served as an adviser to the World Health Organization and UNICEF, and co-founded Médecins sans Frontières in Sweden, as well as the Gapminder Foundation. His TED talks have been viewed more than 35 million times in total, and he was listed as one of Time Magazine's 100 most influential people in the world. Hans passed away in 2017, after having devoted the last years of his life to writing Factfulness.

For further details, please contact:

Nikkei Business Publications, Inc.
http://www.nikkeibp.com

*This press release may contain forward-looking statements that reflect the company's current views with respect to future events and business performance. Those forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties and the company's actual results could differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, among other factors, general business and economic conditions, rapid or unexpected changes in technologies and cancellation or delay of customer orders.

About NikkeiBP

As Japan's leading business-to-business media company, Nikkei Business Publications serves the diverse needs of the business community in the three key categories of "management," "technology" and "lifestyle." While our journalists and researchers delve deep into their specialized fields for the most valuable information, our marketing team expands our service lineup to deliver stories in formats that best suit the needs of our audience. We are also dedicated to conveying our advertisers' messages to our defined audience pool and to offering the most optimized solutions.

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