Some time on the exact same day when Amazon Japan informed its customers Kindle coming to Japan market, Rakuten, the nation’s largest e-mall platform, is turned out to launch an information site of its e-book reader Kobo, which Rakuten bought November 2011.

The site has a single page with Kobo Touch eReader image, which has been sold in US since last year 2011. Same as Amazon Japan, the page has a button to subscribe mail newsletter.

Although CNET Japan reports [J] tonight that the site was launched June 21, no one referred the site until today on Twitter or other sites. Google Search does not show the URL indexed under the date earlier than yesterday. It seems for me that Rakuten reacted against Amazon Japan’s move. The Kobo’s product photo on the page having the original English contents displayed show that they did not have time to decorate it with more appealing Japanese mock-up.

CNET Japan also tells that Rakuten is planning to have a press conference on July 2, with Rakuten Chairman&President Hiroshi Mikitani, titled “Press conference for e-book business by Kobo”.

via @hiroumi’s tweet [J]

Tags: Japan by Akky Akimoto
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Amazon Japan’s top page is showing a new text banner that says its e-book reader Kindle will be sold in Japan soon, today on June 26. The time it was displayed seemed around 15:15, 30 minutes ago, by Twitter tweets.

Amazon periodically expressed their putting Kindle to Japan market. There have been also several leaked news reporting that some publishers had agreed with Amazon for several times, which were denied or ignored by the rumored middle-sized publishers like Kadokawa.

Ascii got a comment [J] from Amazon Japan that they would be able to announce something by the end of this year. Ketai Watch was answered [J] that Amazon Japan has no comments on which model of Kindle, price of the hardware and subscription, and the detail of the service.

Japanese e-book market had been larger than US’s until recently despite its smaller population, so it means there are already many e-book players here. Some experts say that Amazon tries to bring the same or similar conditions to Japan with what they contracted with US publishers, which might keep major Japanese publishers away from table of negotiation. Device-wise, the latest Kindle already has an ability to show texts in Japanese fonts.

via Twitter trending topics

Tags: Japan, News by Akky Akimoto
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