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Amazon Brings Kindle Unlimited E-Book Service to Japan
posted on by Lynzee Loveridge
Amazon's Japan branch launched its Kindle Unlimited e-book service on Wednesday, opening up avenues for unlimited reading with a monthly subscription fee. Subscribers get access to 120,000 Japanese titles that include manga, magazines, and books and read on their smartphones, tablets, and other devices.
Subscribers pay 980 yen ($9.69) a month to read offerings from publishers Kodansha and Shogakukan and more than 1.2 million titles in other languages. Participating publishers get a cut of the revenue based on the popularity of their catalog. The reading material isn't current, however, as few books published in the last six months are available. Popular periodicals are also missing and fan favorite manga are included with introductory chapters or early volumes only.
Amazon Japan launched the Kindle Muryō Manga Zasshi (Kindle Free Manga Magazine) last year with free digital editions of Shueisha's Grand Jump magazine, as well as Futabasha's Manga Action, Leed's Comic Ran Twins, Ichijinsha's Monthly Comic Zero-Sum, DeNA's Manga Box service, and Square Enix's Hobo Gekkan Otameshi Gangan (Almost Monthly Trial Gangan).
The company also launched its Prime Instant Video service in Japan last September.
Source: Nikkei Asian Review
