than extra-essential reading of which the japanese figure I suspect is mostly porn or comics. Reading,serious non-fiction aside,mostly has to do with imprinting a cultural image. I think among my family members I'm the only one who read LOTR in its entirety. Besides leaving an impression of celtic/nordic folk lore, racialism and latent faggotry, it means little. Just like reading buddhist, christian,islamic scripture wouldn't improve your IQ but learning to play piano could(correlation confirmed)