New Steve Jobs Biography Manga Starts

Mari Yamazaki’s new manga series, comicalization of Walter Isacson’s Steve Jobs biography “Steve Jobs”, began today on Kodansha Kiss Magazine. (Please check my Japan Times column last week introducing three Steve Jobs manga.) Yahoo! Bookstore offers free preview of the first half, 17pages. You may read it here, though texts are all in Japanese. The… Continue reading New Steve Jobs Biography Manga Starts

Weekly Comics Shonen Jump Makes One Issue Free Online By Quake

Shoeisha made a 2011’s 15th issue of Weekly Shonen Jump, the most popular Japanese manga(comic) magazine which is sold 3 million copies every week, online for free on Yahoo! Japan [J] and Nico Nico Seiga [J]. “Seiga” means static image, opposite to “douga”(movie). Nico Nico Seiga is a service to share images run by Nico… Continue reading Weekly Comics Shonen Jump Makes One Issue Free Online By Quake

Ad Agency Giant Lets Publishers Digitize Their Business, Now More Than Ever

Dentsu, the world’s largest ad agency, announced today it would join forces with Yappa, an iPhone/iPod software developer which is strong in developing e-publication online reader, and launch a marketplace dealing with digital periodicals this summer.  Twenty publishers will put their thirty magazines on sale at the marketplace called Magastore[J]. Magastore uses an original DRM… Continue reading Ad Agency Giant Lets Publishers Digitize Their Business, Now More Than Ever

Japan’s Leading Publisher Fails To Monetize Its Main Portal

Reportedly Japan’s leading publisher Kodansha seems to have stopped updating its portal site on June 1st. The portal site, named “Moura[J]” (meaning “covering the entire world”), was launched in 2005, following the web edition of the publisher’s popular weekly magazine “Gendai[J]“.   Almost 50 web editorial staffs were notified to dismiss the  team so lately as… Continue reading Japan’s Leading Publisher Fails To Monetize Its Main Portal

Major Publishers Co-launch Non-UGC Encyclopedia Site

Asahi Newspaper, the Internet portal company EC Navi[J] and major publishers like Kodansha and Shogakukan jointly launched Thursday an online encyclopedia containing 430,000 words, which is called “Kotobank[J]“.   The service is provided for free, and the joint venture expects to earn USD1M in FY2009 from Overture[J] ads appeared on the result pages of Kotobank. The… Continue reading Major Publishers Co-launch Non-UGC Encyclopedia Site

Comic Giant Officially Allows Bloggers To Republish One Of Its Titles

Kodansha, Japan’s leading comic and novel publisher, announced today that it is allowing bloggers to republish the comic titled “Mikako-san [J]” authored by famous cartoonist and illustrator Kyo Machiko [J]. The title appeared serially in Kodansha’s weekly comic magazine “Morning”, and the same content is also on the magazine’s official website [J].    Her fans can… Continue reading Comic Giant Officially Allows Bloggers To Republish One Of Its Titles