About 70% of elementary and junior high school students in Japan say they enjoy reading, but more than 70% spend less than an hour a week reading books, according to a survey released ahead of the country’s annual Book Week, which started Tuesday and runs through Nov. 9.

The survey was conducted online on Aug. 9 by the Hakuhodo Foundation’s Child Research Institute. It collected responses from 1,200 students nationwide who are between the fourth grade in elementary school and the third year in junior high school, as well as their parents.

Manga, picture books, encyclopedias, photo books and how-to books were included as books in the survey, as well as digital books and audio books.

Of the students surveyed, 12.8% said they love reading, while 69.3% responded they like it or enjoy it to some extent.

However, 17.4% said they did not read books at all during a typical week, while 55.2% spent less than an hour reading.…