Through Zhao, his family contacted Tianjin Municipal Publicity Department and achieved a shot in arm in "realizing their dream."

Zhao, now the general manger of the bookstore, said: "The new store will center on cultural exchanges and communications, succeeding its heritage and tradition."

It has a collection of 20,000 copies of books and nearly 70 percent of them are leading books written by Japanese, either written in Japanese or having been translated in Chinese, on a variety of fields, he said.

Shimizu Fumio, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary, embassy of Japan in China, said: "We are impressed by the Chinese people's enthusiasm towars the reopening of the Uchiyama Shoten. Next year marks the 50th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between China and Japan; we expect the Uchiyama Shoten will become a great link to boost ties between China and Japan."

Zhao also said he expects the Uchiyama Shoten to reopen in Shanghai soon.