http://www.siliconera.com/2012/09/21/nin...-in-japan/

The 3ds doesn't seem particularly ideal for reading, in my opinion, but this service is named "Bookstore Anywhere", so I'm assuming it will also be available through other devices.

Quote:When the service kicks off, there will be over 100 manga series to begin with, that are currently being serialized in Japanese manga magazines. 3DS users will also be able to occasionally receive free magazines through the 3DS’ Wi-Fi capabilities.

Nikkei say that Librica will also add light novels and other non-manga magazines to the service at some later point. The Bookstore Anywhere service is scheduled to launch on October 20th in Japan.

Well, better the 3DS than the DS. The DS had an fairly low res screen for reading with. I don't think it would be as much of an issue with the 3DS.

That all said, most of us have smart phones, e-readers or tablets already that we could read on instead. Would certainly be more interested if the "Bookstore Anywhere" comes to iOS and Android.

[RawToast]

I hope the Kindle does well in Japan, as it is really suited for this. While you can work with PDFs, ebooks are much better on the smaller devices like the Touch.

Japanese games on the DS are region free: best example to help Japanese learners I can think of is "Kanji Sonomama Rakubiki Jiten," a full ENG-JP/JP-ENG/JP-JP dictionary with touch screen functionality. Japanese games on the 3DS are region locked, basically telling Westerners to kiss off (well, that's just my take... region locking things that have little chance of making their way into foreign markets is irritating.) That being the case I can't get myself particularly excited over 3DS e-books. As the other poster said, JP e-books on modern handheld devices can be a pretty easy setup with a little gusto.