Japanese Publishers Running Scared Of Amazon

[Mulboyne]

Asahi: 21 Japanese publishers to form group to keep Amazon.com at bay
Twenty-one publishing houses in Japan will form an organization in February to stave off potential threats to their profits from Amazon.com Inc. and other electronic-reader makers in the burgeoning e-book market. Plans for the group, tentatively named Nihon Denshi-Shoseki Shuppansha Kyokai (Japan electronic book publishers' association), were formed as Amazon intends to market a Japanese version of its Kindle e-reader in the near future. Excluding manga comic books, the 21 companies, including giants Kodansha Ltd., Shogakukan Inc. and Shinchosha Publishing Co., have a 90-percent share of the domestic market for e-books that can be read on mobile phones and personal computers. "By having a place (organization) where publishers' views can be expressed, we can operate the domestic market appropriately," said Takanobu Sato, president of Shinchosha. But a major reason for the formation of the group is the Japanese publishers' fears of Amazon, which is not only a huge online book retailer but also the operator of an e-reader. Under Japan's Copyright Law, authors have the right to decide who can publish the electronic versions of their books. "If Amazon holds direct talks with authors and obtains the rights to publish the electronic versions of their books, publishing houses that issued the print versions of those books cannot do anything," said an executive of a major publisher...more...

[Level3]

So, basically the J publishers are aligning so they can engage in price-fixing and figuring out how to draw up new contracts that will threaten Japanese authors to accept their low-pay (or no pay) e-book deal or not even get published in paper form?

And they're bragging about it?

Or am I just too cynical about how Japan does business, especially when the gaijin devils are doing business better?

Are there even any e-book readers being made in Japan? Or are we supposed to be happy reading on our tiny keitai screens?

[wuchan]

[quote="Level3"]So, basically the J publishers are aligning so they can engage in price-fixing and figuring out how to draw up new contracts that will threaten Japanese authors to accept their low-pay (or no pay) e-book deal or not even get published in paper form?

And they're bragging about it?

Or am I just too cynical about how Japan does business, especially when the gaijin devils are doing business better? ]
It is ok if it happens here but if another country tries to do this kind of thing the J-government cries "protectionism".

[Bucky]

[Mulboyne]

[2triky]

[gaijinpunch]

J-******?
http://old.news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111019/tc_nm/us_******_japanese

[Taro Toporific]

J-******?
http://old.news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111019/tc_nm/us_******_japanese

Amazons frightened bikkle's mother just before he was born and now he has banned the word.

[Ganma]

******

[American Oyaji]

I know we redact certain words from time to time, but why this one at this time or is this to prevent spider searches?

[Taro Toporific]

I know we redact certain words from time to time, but why this one at this time or is this to prevent spider searches?

As I said before, Ultra has issues with the 'Am-a-zon Tax' impact on small online businesses.


[INDENT]Am-a-zon Boycott Over Internet Sales Tax Gains Momentum
huffingtonpost.com| 8/16/11
Am-a-zon is facing a boycott from a coalition of nonprofits in California over its opposition to an internet sales tax. The group is calling for users to cancel their accounts unless the world's largest internet retailer stops its attempts to force a repeal...more...
[/INDENT]

[Typhoon]

Yashio Uemura, the head of Tokyo Denki University Press, is quoted in a Mainichi report saying the following:

Uemura is no dummy, and has written extensively on the impact of new media, but he seems to be comparing apples with oranges there. I've no doubt that reading and publishing habits are different in Japan and America but there are plenty of book lovers in the US just as a lot of Japanese also routinely throw away cheap paperbacks.

Foreign skis will not work in Japan because Japanese snow is different..

--- Some Japanese bureaucrat trying to justify the high tariffs on foreign skis.

[IparryU]

Foreign skis will not work in Japan because Japanese snow is different..

--- Some Japanese bureaucrat trying to justify the high tariffs on foreign skis.

i wonder when SNL will do a skit with all the stupid "we japanese, japanese this and that, FG stuffs/ppl cant do cause this is japanese" BS...

Might have to start making a list...

[matsuki]

Foreign skis will not work in Japan because Japanese snow is different..

--- Some Japanese bureaucrat trying to justify the high tariffs on foreign skis.

Yep, a classic taught likely in all US university business courses....unfortunately the rest goes on to praise Japanese management techniques like six sigma and kaizen....then goes on and on about Japanese car manufactures success in the U.S. because they listed to the customers and made what people wanted.....those were the days...but I'd love to be a guest speaker on the current state of "We Japanese" business.

[Mike Oxlong]

Am@zon to launch Japan e-book business

U.S. online retail giant Am@zon(dot)com Inc. will introduce an e-book service using Kin.dle readers in the Japanese market by the end of this year, it has been learned.

Am@zon(dot)com has been negotiating with multiple publishers in Japan since last year, informed sources said.

The U.S. firm aims to expand into the country's e-book market, targeting the strong customer base established through Am@zon's online shopping service.

So far, few details have been disclosed about Am@zon(dot)com's Japanese e-book business, such as the number of titles. Currently Sony Corp. and other firms sell e-book readers priced between 20,000 yen and 30,000 yen. Am@zon(dot)com is likely to offer lower prices, the sources said.

The e-book business is taking off in the nation, with traditional publishers, book store operators, printing firms and others getting involved. The Japanese market is expected to triple from its current size to 200 billion yen in 2015...

[Catoneinutica]

As I said before, Ultra has issues with the 'Am-a-zon Tax' impact on small online businesses.


[INDENT]Am-a-zon Boycott Over Internet Sales Tax Gains Momentum
huffingtonpost.com| 8/16/11
Am-a-zon is facing a boycott from a coalition of nonprofits in California over its opposition to an internet sales tax. The group is calling for users to cancel their accounts unless the world's largest internet retailer stops its attempts to force a repeal...more...
[/INDENT]

UG wants to pay state sales tax on internet transactions!?

[matsuki]

Am@zon to launch Japan e-book business

U.S. online retail giant Am@zon(dot)com Inc. will introduce an e-book service using Kin.dle readers in the Japanese market by the end of this year, it has been learned.

Am@zon(dot)com has been negotiating with multiple publishers in Japan since last year, informed sources said.

The U.S. firm aims to expand into the country's e-book market, targeting the strong customer base established through Am@zon's online shopping service.

So far, few details have been disclosed about Am@zon(dot)com's Japanese e-book business, such as the number of titles. Currently Sony Corp. and other firms sell e-book readers priced between 20,000 yen and 30,000 yen. Am@zon(dot)com is likely to offer lower prices, the sources said.

The e-book business is taking off in the nation, with traditional publishers, book store operators, printing firms and others getting involved. The Japanese market is expected to triple from its current size to 200 billion yen in 2015...

Guy I know who works for the newspaper here said it best...if the idiots in charge of all this shit catered the printed material to the computer/tablet/e-book reader illiterate old folks, and let the e-media producers cater to everyone else, they'd still have a decent sized market for quite awhile. Perfect way to "trim the fat" from their business model.

[Coligny]

Currently Sony Corp. and other firms sell e-book readers priced between 20,000 yen and 30,000 yen. Am@zon(dot)com is likely to offer lower prices, the sources said.

And as everything else made by sony it's a worthless piece of shit with a software so bad that you need third party freeware for library management and a custom firmware to make it barely usable...

At this point why bothering...

The Ipad is approxymately 300 billions times better for ebook reading anyway...

[CrankyBastard]

The Ipad is approxymately 300 billions times better for ebook reading anyway...

Yay! And I finally got Stanza to work again.

[Coligny]

Yay! And I finally got Stanza to work again.

Have to try it, until now (and still) I'm quite happy with GoodReader.

[Samurai_Jerk]

[Coligny]

Book publishing will certainly suffer a death worse than music publishing...

But a different one...

Unlike music... There's plenty of publication that would be totally worthless in digital format even given for free. Starting with any illustration book in A3/B3 size... they will never find the same appeal on tablet...

Meanwhile for anything text only... those books that were barely making sense to put on paper... (Tom Clancy, Harry Potter, Twilight)... or outrageously priced school books(*), with the printing cost down to 0 the publishers can totally eat shit and die... (*)as well as the writers for this category, since they were just badly aggregating public domain datas...

Once again... if they want to sell... they will have to put added values... not added restrictions... which was never a mindset they were prepared for...

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

Book publishing will certainly suffer a death worse than music publishing...

Deservedly so...(but neither are dead yet, by a long way. They have a lot of assets to get through before they flake it and someone may come through with the idea that will save them. I hope not, though. Publishers suck!!!!)

[matsuki]

Book publishing will certainly suffer a death worse than music publishing...

But a different one...

Unlike music... There's plenty of publication that would be totally worthless in digital format even given for free. Starting with any illustration book in A3/B3 size... they will never find the same appeal on tablet...

Meanwhile for anything text only... those books that were barely making sense to put on paper... (Tom Clancy, Harry Potter, Twilight)... or outrageously priced school books(*), with the printing cost down to 0 the publishers can totally eat shit and die... (*)as well as the writers for this category, since they were just badly aggregating public domain datas...

Once again... if they want to sell... they will have to put added values... not added restrictions... which was never a mindset they were prepared for...

THIS

University textbooks are one of the biggest scams ever...

[Dreamy_Peach]

I buy more music nowadays than when I was a wannabe DJ at 17 I reckon. Just so easy.

Don't have time to read them, or much inclination, but my K***** reader is full of half finished or skimmed-through books. Guess I'm buying more, likewise cause it's so easy.

Been a bit keen to brush up on my Japanese so have been interested in their online options for a while. Very disappointed so far. Was going to get a magazine through the ipad store - the whole payment model is shit. If you get a western magazine you can just buy the magazine or, if you really like it, take out a subscription. The Japanese magazine I looked at had no such functionality - straight to a one month payment where the price was about 1,200 yen or get a one year subscription. 1,200 yen is not much, but as I'm not really that familiar with the magazine I was deterred from buying it. No option to just get one magazine. I don't get it.

***Z** here as well is a major disappointment - e-reader books seem non-existent on the site. How long has it been in place in the US now, 2 years?

Even itunes.jp they have only just started screening pay per view films - again 2 years or so behind itunes.uk or us. Yahoo.jp have been doing it for a bit longer with Gyao but the films there have really been very poor. Can't understand the slow adoption rates for these business models. I wonder if it's IP related, or just lack of appreciation.

It's just frustrating really. After a while living here you get used to being at the cutting edge - housing quality and standards, the latest pharma drugs, advanced banking services, sophisticated and competitive airline markets, business models, education systems etc. I just don't get it why on this alone Japanese business is maybe 2-4 years behind.

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

It's just frustrating really. After a while living here you get used to being at the cutting edge - housing quality and standards, the latest pharma drugs, advanced banking services, sophisticated and competitive airline markets, business models, education systems etc. I just don't get it why on this alone Japanese business is maybe 2-4 years behind.

You are taking the piss, right?
I'm Australian and Japan's lag in technological progress in the service sector(outside of mobile phones) makes Australia appear as technologically advanced as I had imagined Japan would be. And I'd say Australia lags significantly behind the Untied States and Western Europe in most of these areas.

[matsuki]

It's just frustrating really. After a while living here you get used to being at the cutting edge - housing quality and standards, the latest pharma drugs, advanced banking services, sophisticated and competitive airline markets, business models, education systems etc. I just don't get it why on this alone Japanese business is maybe 2-4 years behind.

This is sarcasm...right?

[Catoneinutica]

You are taking the piss, right?
I'm Australian and Japan's lag in technological progress in the service sector(outside of mobile phones) makes Australia appear as technologically advanced as I had imagined Japan would be. And I'd say Australia lags significantly behind the Untied States and Western Europe in most of these areas.

Yeah, I would've thought Fukushima exploded - as it were! - the myth of Japanese technical superiority for good and all. There are some fancy-schmancy vending and pachinko machines around here, not to mention some damn fine machine tools, but ultimately Japan's core technological competency is sandbags, tarps, and ojichan.

[GomiGirl]

You are taking the piss, right?
I'm Australian and Japan's lag in technological progress in the service sector(outside of mobile phones) makes Australia appear as technologically advanced as I had imagined Japan would be. And I'd say Australia lags significantly behind the Untied States and Western Europe in most of these areas.

My biggest issue at the moment is the lack of EFT-POS... it just makes so much sense and it is so easy in Aus.

I was blown away by the technology at the local supermarket in Australia recently. Barcodes scanners that gave the checkout operators a photo of the item. Also, self serve checkouts without the need for a checkout chick at all. All DIY and done by weight so there was no pilfering by those dodgy Australians.

None of this stoopid two people at the checkout to bow and yet they still don't even bag it up you for you. Plus my local supermarket here only takes cash.

Years behind in the technology.

CSTaylor - huge business opportunity for your POS smarts dude.

[matsuki]

my local supermarket here only takes cash.

THIS