News
Book Retailer Kinokuniya to Launch e-Book Store in Japan
posted on by Gia Manry
The Japan Today website reports that Japanese book retailer Kinokuniya is going to launch in Japan a new e-book store, Kinokuniya Shoten BookWebPlus, which is currently planning to sell 1,200 eBooks by publishers Kodansha and Kobunsha for the iPad and iPhone's iOS operating system. The company plans to increase its e-book offerings to 30,000 and make them available on additional reading devices. The site will also sell print books.
Kodansha recently announced its intent to take over its titles that had been licensed by Random House's Del Rey Manga. In Japan the publisher has reported difficulty getting its manga onto iTunes.
Publisher Square Enix has announced that it will launch an electronic manga service in North America and France, while Japanese e-Book publisher Bitway has invested in the Crunchyroll website. Yen Press and Viz Media have also announced recent movements into digital distribution.
[Via Japanator]
this article has been modified since it was originally posted; see change history