kitakitsune Wrote:Japanese people do not like audiobooks period and there is nearly zero market for them in Japan.
Looking at the growing numbers of learners of the language all over the world, and taking into consideration that they would probably supplement their learning with audio-books if they were available to them, producing for that market could proof to be a gold-mine.
It is the same with e-books in pdf or other formats mainly used outside of Japan. Kindle might break into the Japanese market, but that doesn't necessarily follow, that the books will be purchasable outside Japan, where there is clearly a demand for Japanese books.
And in Japan the situation is not any better from what I have read about that topic. There are companies releasing ebooks, tied to certain readers and only with them the books can be read. I am not saying that this is something only Japanese companies do. But it would be so much easier to open up the market both ways, allowing foreign customers easy access, and gain a huge income from it.
Only targeting the domestic-market, allthough a huge one as far as Japan goes, is a bit short-sighted. But it is their choice, they must know what they are doing, and if they can indeed miss out on the chance of making more money - so be it.
