So I know ebooks aren't very popular in Japan however, I was wondering if anyone had any insight into this small market. For example: I have a lot of books scanned in as JPEGs that I could make into PDFs or any other format. I also have manga like this. All these are in Japanese, and I would like something that has good support for japanese things.

For example, I was checking out the Sony Librie (リブリエ) and it seems to be quite excellent. It even has a dictionary in it with a jump feature (monolingual only though). However, the site only talks about buying books off their partner site and transfering them to the device. The problem is, the partner site has shut down now (about a few months back). Can I still transfer without? Does anyone have one of these things?

Does anyone know the best way to view this Japanese stuff on an ebook reader? I have a lot of manga and 小説 in digital formats, but reading on the computer screen hurts my eyes and my head, plus I'd like to be able to read outside more. So any info on this kind of stuff that anyone has is MUCH appreciated!

*PS - Also, if anyone know wheres I can get the Harry Potter books in Japanese in ebook format, I will be eternally grateful!

I've looked also at the electronic stores around town with no luck. My current strategy is to wait and see if apple releases a tablet device that I can use as an eReader, since their operating system already has Japanese support.

The Amazon Kindle looks quite good (though it isn't Japanese, I'm sure you can change the language). It is a bit expensive however.

If you don't already use specialized software to read manga, etc on the computer I suggest you get something like Comix to read on a PC. It still isn't as good as a real book, but...

A certain Demonoid has the Harry Potter ebooks available (plain .txt files I think) for quite a cheap price, if you catch my drift

I actually bought the first book, but I use the ebook and the audio book to make SRSing easier. I started mining sentences from the book tonight, actually. I've been copying the text from the ebook into anki, using its hiragana generator and then capturing the relevant snippet of audio with Audio Hijack Pro (Mac). I'm only 3 sentences in, so we'll see how long this lasts. Its much harder than KO2001 haha.

Err...more on topic, if you've got an iphone/ipod you could jailbreak it and use rubooks as an ebook reader. There might be non-jailbreak apps that let you put your own ebooks on, but I don't know anything about them sorry. If you dislike reading from a computer screen you probably won't like that option either.

bombpersons Wrote:The Amazon Kindle looks quite good (though it isn't Japanese, I'm sure you can change the language). It is a bit expensive however.

If you don't already use specialized software to read manga, etc on the computer I suggest you get something like Comix to read on a PC. It still isn't as good as a real book, but...

The Kindle is only for use in the US. It's not supported anywhere else, and you can't buy books without an American address. As would be expected from that, the wireless is not available outside the US. It is not shipped outside of the US either.



So, among other things, I'm quite sure it doesn't have Japanese language support.

blackmacros Wrote:A certain Demonoid has the Harry Potter ebooks available (plain .txt files I think) for quite a cheap price, if you catch my drift

Yes, and they are in small size. There is also the original English ebooks in LIT format (MS Reader.)

3 days ago, I "bought" them + the Japanese audiobook for the first novel (sorcerer's stone.)

I vaguely remember someone posting a hack on the mobilread forums that would *potentially* allow for Japanese language support on the old Sony e-book reader, the PRS-500. (The one I still have.) It allows you to hack the BIOS and change font support in the reader.

But you'd have to hack the BIOS (which can brick it permanently), replace the fonts with JP fonts, and hope that you had enough memory to hold them all... and it was all speculation, because nobody actually tried to do it. (Or if they did, nobody reported on success/failure.) Most people just wanted to replace the standard Sony fonts with fonts that were easier to read. JP fonts carry all of those additional characters, so they're freakin' huge in comparison.

Google mobilread forums and you'll find the forums. They cover every ebook reader under the sun.

The Sony ebook readers do support PDFs and JPGs, so if you can get your target material into one of those formats, it may support them. Actually, I'm not even sure about PDF support. JPG support most definitely, since you don't need font support for that, but I have no clue about the needs of a PDF. If it needs font support from the device, then you'd be back at square one again.

I do love my PRS-500. It came in really handy in Japan when I wanted to read something in English for a change. I could carry 50 paperbacks in something thinner than a travel guide, and the battery lasts for 6-8,000 page turns, enough for a trans-Pacific flight, that's for sure. It's not as flashy (or ugly) as the Kindle, but it's very hackable, and you can create your own content for it pretty easily.

Thanks for the many replies!

First of all, thanks for the demonoid suggestion. I just went and "bought" the Japanese ebooks and the first audio book as well!

Second, I have been on mobile read, but unfortunately their community seems very uninterested in anything not in English, even manga (though they are interested in English manga). I have been considering the PRS-500, but was thinking about waiting and seeing if the new kindle would be better with the bigger screen (the Kindle DX).

rich_f, do you have any insight into viewing manga in Japanese on the PRS-500? Is it difficult to read? How's the furigana legibility? I'm sure 小説 would be fine, but what about the manga?

*PS - To throw another possible request in:

Anyone know where to pick up shows like Battlestar Galactica for cheap with Japanese dubbing tracks? Tsutaya only has season's 2 and 3, and amazon.co.jp is super expensive for them all. Any ideas?

The last time I put manga on my PRS-500 was almost 2 years ago, when I went to Japan and dumped some English-translated manga on it. (Old scanlations.) The quality was ... well, it was legible, but not enjoyable. I'd wager that Japanese would be much harder to read, though, because the scans are usually cleaned up a bit and re-typeset into English. Furigana would probably look like this: ．．． And that's being charitable.

The problem is that the PRS-500 has pretty much black, white, and a shade of gray. Maybe another shade of gray. And that's about it. It does readable text really well-- it looks like a cheap paperback, and you'll need a book light of your own, but it will run for hours on end, and it saves tons of space.

The 505 is a bit better, display-wise. The new 700 series has a backlit display (which kills the battery), and the display is much better (which kills the battery.) And being Sony, it costs 2 appendages and a major organ. I'm sure it has other features as well (which probably also kill the battery.)

The main problem is that eBook readers still don't have a killer app yet. They're very much a niche product for frequent travelers and nerds. I only use mine when I travel, and can't use my iPhone. Otherwise, I use my iPhone, because it does just about everything else better than either the PRS-500 or the Kindle can, and while it's crippled, it's not as crippled as either of the eBook readers are. DRM still gets in the way of making them useful devices. You can get around the DRM, but it's a royal pain in the butt, and it's going to come down to a cost/benefit analysis of how much time you feel like wasting on the project.

Hi Ryuujin,
I would suggest that if you are seriously considering an e-book reader you have a look at the MobileRead forums where there is a lively and active discussion on the merits of the various available devices.

I own a Sony PRS-700, and previously owned a PRS-505, and the PRS-505 in my opinion has the better display but lack's the PRS-700's backlight and touch screen which I use regularly. I use mine every day typically for at least 3 hours and have been delighted with the purchase. I bought it here in Japan and don't consider the device too expensive given how much I use it.

I have a small number of Japanese documents on the e-book, basically as PDFs (images), since I cannot be bothered to try and install extra fonts for the samll number of Japanese ebooks I own.

Finally as Rich has said DRM can be in a way and especially so for Japanese e-books since the formats used (e.g. XMDF) are not easily bypassed.

The Librie was the original Sony reader, has a light/dark grey display which is similar to the PRS-500 and cannot be bought new. I would encourage you too look at the other newer devices available.

Regards,
Marcus

Regarding ebook readers in Japan, a few months ago I went on a hunt for one in Tokyo and couldn't find one anywhere. I figured Akihabara would be my last best chance, but no stores had them there, either. Most shop clerks had no idea what I was talking about when I asked about an e-ink ebook reader. Except for one guy in Akiba who said there are NO e-ink readers sold in Japan. Sony's own product isn't sold in Japan--stupid. I imagine the publishing companies and bookstores are worried about e-ink readers and have successfully pressured the govt. into banning the sale of them. For now.

This was late 2008--things may have changed now.

Yeah, I couldn't even find an eBook reader at the Sony building in Ginza in Fall, 2007. I could find just about anything else with Sony on it... just not an eBook reader. (I was kind of hoping to find a better case for mine...)

I played with a 700 for all of about 5 minutes the other day, but I can't justify the purchase price, considering I still have a fully functional 500. You can find them at just about any Borders in the US, right next to the 505. If I need light for it, I just turn on a light. I don't read in dark rooms for the most part, so it isn't much of an issue.

Thanks for the replies again!

I think I got a little confused - I didn't know there was a 500 and a 505 model. I was looking most at the 505. I've visit the mobileread forums and found that it seems to be possible to view manga on it, using a lot of conversion software and cleaning up. I figured that the amount of 小説 I have would already take over the price of the actual device. Now if manga was easily viewable then that would make it so much more than worth it.

mbagsh55 - Could you let me know where you bought it here in Japan? I would like to perhaps go to the store and check them out if I could.

Also, has anyone checked out the Kindle DX? The screen seems quite big, so perhaps that would in fact be the best for manga viewing, though who knows until it comes out, I guess? Also it seems like you can archive images on it, thus throwing away the whole conversion step and making it that much easier.

Finally, one last point that I noticed today: the 電子辞書

Has anyone ever read txt files on them? They seem to use e-ink technology, though I'm not 100% sure, and I know mine can connect to the computer and put txt files on it. Unfortunately, my cable to do so is currently a couple of thousand miles away right now, so I can't test it. I figured that now that I have "bought" the harry potter novels in txt format, perhaps I could just read them on the 電子辞書. Plus, there is the added benefit of using the jump feature to look up words without having to change devices!

Ryuujin27 Wrote:Finally, one last point that I noticed today: the 電子辞書

Has anyone ever read txt files on them? They seem to use e-ink technology, though I'm not 100% sure, and I know mine can connect to the computer and put txt files on it. Unfortunately, my cable to do so is currently a couple of thousand miles away right now, so I can't test it. I figured that now that I have "bought" the harry potter novels in txt format, perhaps I could just read them on the 電子辞書. Plus, there is the added benefit of using the jump feature to look up words without having to change devices!

Mine just uses a standard mini-usb connector. The problem is the software. Casio makes great 電子辞書, but their software is crap. It is rickety Win9x era software that won't even function in a VM, and there is no Mac version. As such I've never tried to load a txt file onto my dictionary. Mine also has an SD slot, but I think it also requires use of the software to parse txt files or make some directory structure.

Ahh, it won't function, huh? Well, that's no fun. Maybe I'll try borrow my friends computer... Is there a place to download that casio software (I have probably the same one you do haha, or it sounds like it)? I didn't bring it with me...

Quote:The Amazon Kindle looks quite good (though it isn't Japanese, I'm sure you can change the language). It is a bit expensive however.

Gragh! I just spent 50 bucks on the hard copy! Nooo!

Not only that, I know if I was in Japan the book can probably be bought for 200 yen or so.

Ryuujin27 Wrote:mbagsh55 - Could you let me know where you bought it here in Japan? I would like to perhaps go to the store and check them out if I could.

Hi Ryuujin,
Sorry I should have mentioned that I bought it mail-order from the US.
I used B&H Photo I have no complaints with their service.
A risk with purchasing from the US is what do you do if the device breaks and this is exactly what happened
in my situation. My solution was to sell the broken reader for 'parts' to another forum user on MobileRead and
to buy a PRS-700 as a replacement. The higher cost of the PRS-700 meant I could also buy accidental
insurance should I break it. At the time I bought the reader there wasn't any accidental insurance that could
be bought for the PRS-505 internationally.

Finally, if you want a 'Japanese' ebook reader there are a couple of other options:

1) The very expensive FLEPia device -- this is a colour 'proof of concept' but at 10man isn't cheap
2) The new Toshiba biblio phone -- A logical extension to the many electronic dictionaries sold here
3) A Sharp Zaurus or similar Sharp phone (Sharp developed the XMDF book format this is common here)

For convenience, I prefer my Sony reader, but the Toshiba biblio phone is certainly interesting if small.

Cheers,
Marcus

Wow the FLEPia is expensive! Thanks for the info though!

I think I will wait another month or two until I get back to the states to purchase one. Thanks for the all the information, though!

*PS - Anyone have any leads on that tv series situation?

Going on with this discussion, does anybody know of an eBook vendor on the web? (for Japanese titles) I've been searching from the reader websites but they all seem to have a built in market place or something. Is it possible to buy ebooks and read them on your computer? Also, does anybody know if the manga companies sell digital copies or not?

Can you not put manga from sites like mangahelpers on it? Or does it need a special format?

Ryuujin27 Wrote:So I know ebooks aren't very popular in Japan ...

It sounds like you are mostly interested in finding the appropriate hardware, about which I know little, but if you haven't seen the Aozora Bunko site, that would be one to check out once you find a way to view things.

http://www.aozora.gr.jp/

I just checked out their website, and they have ads for reading books on various iPod products and the Casio ex-Word electronic dictionary. The books themselves are free.