Abstract: Right into the early 20th century, library industries were just unfolding in both China and Japan, and they could not cover broad areas, especially the rural areas far away from the cities. Enlightened by the US experience, Sano Tomosaburo in Japan devoted himself into the circulating library during his tenure at the Akita country library. From 1903 to 1915, Sano's circulating librarianship flourished in Yamaguti country with his tenure transfer. Under his influence, some private organization began to follow suit. The circulating service of the Japanese rural library presents the outstanding characteristics, including the purpose of the library industry development, the standardized management, the establishment of a library respecting the readers’ needs, and the circulating plan with efficiency priority. At the same time around the 20th century, in China, the Capital Education Administration Bureau Circulating Library appeared and served around the capital suburbs, the Circulating Library of Boone Library appeared and served around Wuhan. In the 1920s and 1930s, the rural libraries circulating service made great progress. Based on the study of historical materials, this paper compares the different development characteristics between China and Japan, both learning from the American service, and discusses the basic attributes of the diversity and flexibility of the rural libraries circulating service.