Nikkei is reporting that Apple is set to start streaming Japanese language e-book to their iPad and iPhone devices in January 2013, marking its entry into the country’s e-book market.
The report states that Apple will get content from several major Japanese publishing companies such as Kodansha Ltd., Shogakukan Inc. and Kadokawa Group Holdings Inc.
“Although it launched iBooks in Japan alongside the iPad in 2010, it hadn’t secured agreements to actually sell ebooks, which meant that the iBookstore shelves have been relatively bare,” Bohn writes for TheVerge. “Now, having reached “agreement in principle” with at least three of Japan’s major publishers, the company reportedly will offer some 80,000 titles in the country. Apple is a latecomer in Japan, having watched Sony, Rakuten’s Kobo, Amazon, and even Google successfully navigates Japan’s fragmented publishing market and offer content from local publishers in their bookstores.”
