Business daily The Nikkei says it learned that Amazon Japan, the country's second-biggest e-commerce company, is planning to finally offer its e-book reader Kindle to Japanese customers.

According to the paper, Amazon is expected to launch Kindle devices in April this year "for less than 20,000 yen" (US$257). Apparently, the Kindle Touch will be positioned as the flagship model, while there is no word on how or if the Kindle Fire will be introduced, too.

For the 3G connection, Amazon has chosen mobile carrier NTT Docomo as its partner. Just like in other markets, Japanese Kindle owners will be able to download books over 3G for free, provided they decide to go for Kindles offering both 3G and Wi-Fi connectivity.

Rumors about Amazon Japan entering the domestic e-book market have been circulating for a long time. In November/December 2011, for example, The Nikkei speculated that the company was ready to start offering e-books by the end of 2011 (which obviously didn't happen).

In an interview with the paper from November 2011, Yoshinobu Noma, president of major publisher Kodansha, said that he estimates Japan's e-book market to be worth 65 billion yen (US$837 million). Noma also said that 90% of sales in this segment come from content distributed to cell phones - a number that will surely change when the Kindle becomes a hit in Japan, too.

In Japan, the Amazon device will go head-to-head with other e-readers and tablet hybrids like Sharp's Galapagos, Sony's E-Reader, Toshiba's BookPlace, Panasonic's Raboo, or Fujitsu's Flepia.

Tags: Japan, News by Serkan Toto
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Geekwire has been reporting (1, 2) US Amazon's locker experiment in Seven-Eleven in Seattle, USA. With the locker, US Amazon customers will be able to receive their items not at home but at store.

I noticed that this news may be big as many other popular English blogs referred it. For me it is interesting because that option is totally common in Japan.

Amazon Japan has been doing it since July 2008 at Lawson, which has 8,600 stores nationwide.

Only Lawson supports this service among 6-7 major convenience store chains, however, as Japan is slightly smaller than California, and if you see the number of California Starbucks is about 2,000, Lawson exists 4 times more than Starbucks in California. It is pretty dense. I would say you can expect Lawson on your commute path.

English blog NHK wrote this Amazon Japan's service before.

Some major Japanese online bookstores offer the service that you can pick up the ordered books at convenience store. If you have an Internet connection in Japan, this way is better.
There are a lot of convenience stores in any cities in Japan and it is very easy to find some stores near any hotel or destination. Almost stores are open for 24 hours and 365days. They provide not only foods and drinks but also various kinds of services.

There are other "receiving at store" delivery offered by following major online shopping services.

Yamato Transport - 7-11, Family Mart, Three F

Rakuten Books - Circle K, Sankusu, Family Mart, Mini Stop

Seven and Y 7-11 (they are in the same company group)

BK1 online bookstore - Newdays (in Japan Railway stations)

Yahoo! Shopping - depends on shop tenants

Tower Records Online - Family Mart, Sankusu, Circle K, Mini Stop
(Tower Records Japan has no capital connection with US Tower Records now)

Dinos - Family Mart, Lawson, Mini Stop, 3F, Circle K, Sankusu

Docomo Online Shop (cellphone) - Circle K, Sankusu, Family Mart

One big difference from Seattle's experiment I notice is that there are no lockers in Japanese store, the delivered parcels are just kept under shop clerks, most of who are part timer and often foreigners in urban area.

Tags: Japan, USA by Akky Akimoto
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We just reported that electronic chain-store Yodobashi Camera began the same day delivery around Tokyo on weekend. I saw it as the race for better service level against its competitors, including Amazon Japan.

On September 5, Amazon Japan started a new delivery option "Hatsubaibi Todoke"(= deliver on the release day) initially with selected games, Gamespot Japan reported [J].

Amazon Japan's top page is boasting this "Hatubaibi Todoke" at the top center,

The option cost 350 yen($4.5) unless you are Amazon Japan prime member. Amazon Japan reportedly will add more products for this option. It makes sense for me as gamers are the people who really want to get and play the products as earliest as they can do. By guaranteeing the release date delivery, more people who bought the newly released game at big retails (like Yodobashi Camera!) may turn to Amazon.

Then today, September 6, Yodobashi Camera puts a big banner on its site top, which says "Delivery on the release day is nothing unusual on Yodobashi for long".

It says that Yodobashi's online mall has been shipping all pre-ordered products, not only games but also CD/DVD/Blue-lay and other electronics appliances which are labeled so, for free with no strings.

They do not mention Amazon at all, which is natural in Japanese business practice, but it is clear that they set up this new informational campaign against whom. See how Yodobashi's banner uses the same color and font as Amazon Japan's, and adds their texts over it. It's funny.

Tags: Japan, Trend by Akky Akimoto
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Yodobashi Camera [J], one of the largest electronics chain store who also runs online commerce site, started and expanding the area for "the same day, free" delivery from Tokyo and around.

On Auguest 18, they announced [J] they would deliver items within the same day if ordered by 10 a.m. to Tokyo 23-wards. They also announced that nationwide shipment fee are waived "for the time being".

Only weeks later, September 1, they added more regions for the same day delivery and the deadlines for the order are improved.

By ordering before 1 p.m., Tokyo (excludes islands), Kawasaki and Yokohama residents can receive items on the same day. By 4 a.m., Miyagi pref. and Nagoya city can enjoy it.

Although Yodobashi does not offer some products Amazon Japan has, for example no food & beverage, and books are limited within PC/IT related, many categories are overlapped. (full list of categories on Amazon Japan [J] and Yodobashi Camera [J])

Amazon Japan introduced the same day delivery in autumn 2009, and offer free shipping charge in competition with Rakuten. But for the same day delivery, customers need to pay extra 500 yen (US$6.5).

About free shipping, Yodobashi's both its rival Bic Camera and the top electrics chain store Yamada Denki's online mall are offering the same free delivery for a limited, but undecided period.

Online consumers expectation for delivery in urban area in Japan has been becoming higher with these competitions.

Tags: Japan, News by Akky Akimoto
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Rakuten is still the 800-pound gorilla in Japan's e-commerce arena (70 million accounts are hard to beat), but Amazon Japan is doing pretty well, too, it seems (here's a case study comparing the two companies). According to a recent report in business daily The Nikkei, big A plans to hire Japanese graduates coming straight out of college for the first time ever in spring 2012.

In other words, Amazon Japan is becoming more of a local company that takes the long-term "risk" of trying to build up talent internally (so far, only mid-career professionals were hired). Details are scarce, but the Nikkei does say Amazon aims at recruiting "several dozen" graduates next spring and that they plan to continue to hire graduates in the years to follow, too.

Amazon Japan was established as early as November 2000, and while the current number of employees isn't disclosed, LinkedIn lists 142 people currently working for the company (obviously, the actual number should be much higher).

In the past few years, Amazon has been expanding its Japan business aggressively, for example by adding new categories (and products) to their catalog, building distribution centers all over the country to speed up delivery (the most recent ones are located in Aichi and Miyagi), or opening data centers for AWS.

Tags: Japan, News by Serkan Toto
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