Japan Publishers Association: 2012-2013 Japanese Publishing Market Research Report

Apple is trying to form an alliance with Japan's top publishers to launch e-book services in Japan. Earlier, Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other Apple's competitors in the e-book field had already regarded Japan as their important target market.

As for Japan's e-book and publishing market, we can take a look at the 2012-2013 Japan Publishing Market Research Report released by the Japan Publishers Association (we have excerpted part of the report).

Overall overview of the Japanese publishing market:

• About 70% of publications are controlled by a few domestic book publishers;
• The development crisis of bookstores in Japan has not yet appeared, mainly because of its good delivery (logistics) system;
• Readers can buy books at fixed prices anywhere in Japan, mainly due to its Resale Price Maintenance System.
• Most of Japan's medium-sized and large publishers publish both books and magazines, and of course their channels are consistent;
• Most publishers are relatively small and not listed companies, so mergers and acquisitions between Japanese publishers are rare;
• Japan's publishing market is very mature, and many foreign books are translated into Japanese. In contrast, Japan's English publishing market is very small;

Figure 1. Japanese book and magazine market size from 2001 to 2011

Although the Japanese publishing market is declining every year, the number of new publications in Japan is increasing every year. However, the average sales of each type of publication is decreasing. Publishers maintain overall sales by continuously releasing new publications.

Japanese publisher landscape:

• There are about 3,800 publishers in Japan, about 80% of which are in the capital, Tokyo. These publishers usually do not have their own very comprehensive capabilities;
• For large or medium-sized publishers, magazines have become an increasingly important source of income in recent years, especially comic magazines and weekly magazines;
• There are more than 15,000 bookstores in Japan, and about 5,000 of them belong to the Japan Book Retailers Association. It is very difficult to find a bookstore in Japan, but the area of ​​these bookstores is very small.

Figure 2. Book distribution channels in Japan

Almost all books in Japan are sold to readers without discounts, so the profits that distributors and bookstores can obtain depend on a certain percentage. However, magazines and books are different.

Japan’s e-book market:

• In 2007, the total e-book market in Japan was worth about 35.5 billion yen, of which the mobile e-book market accounted for 80%; the market size of comic reading on mobile phones was 22.9 billion yen;
• The number of websites that publish e-books on mobile phones increased from 193 in September 2006 to 574 in June 2008;
• In Japan, these websites are mainly provided by telecommunications operators, publishers, content providers or joint ventures. In addition to these websites, there are also many content websites uploaded by amateur content providers.
• Japan’s development of academic e-books lags far behind Western countries;

via: internet2share