Publisher recalls new Web3 guidebook in wake of errors

A Japanese publisher ordered the recall of a newly released book on Web3 after it was found to contain factual errors.

Tokyo-based publishing house Impress halted the sales of the Japanese book entitled “The Easiest Web3 Instruction Book Taught by a Popular Lecturer: A New World Woven by NFTs, DAOs and DeFi,” on July 25 following criticism over its accuracy. 

The halt came just days after the book was released on July 20. It was written by Tomohiro Tagami, president of a blockchain company called techtec and a member of the Cabinet Secretariat’s Blockchain Expert Group. 

The book outlines Web3-related topics ranging from its characteristics and history, to technologies such as NFTs, Decentralised Autonomous Organisations (DAOs) and DeFi. The first two chapters were opened for a free trial on July 19 as part of a promotion, but readers soon discovered factual errors in the sections and then expressed their dismay on social media. 

The criticisms prompted Impress to check the book’s content with external experts while Tagami revised related sections following a review. But the publisher decided to halt the sales and recall the book, believing that it would be difficult to continue its sales even after the errors were corrected. 

“We believe that the main reason was that we failed to carry out checks with external experts during the book production process,” Impress said. “In the future, we will thoroughly verify the content and strive to improve the knowledge of our editors.”

The revised edition has not yet been released. How customers can return their books will be announced at a later time.