E-books in ... Japan

       An odd little piece at Fortune, where Michael Fitzpatrick tries to explain Why Japanese readers don't like e-books, as:

Japanese consumers still seem dead set against adopting e-books, showing less interest in them than even the print-worshipping French

       Given that Japan is the country where the ケータイ小説 -- the cell-phone novel -- first took off, it doesn't seem like the issue is e-reading per se: they appear more than happy to read certain kinds of texts on certain kinds of electronic devices. Indeed, maybe the success of cell-phone novels -- which pre-date dedicated e-readers and the explosion of e-books in the US and elsewhere -- is one of the reasons development has followed a different arc in Japan.
       Fitzpatrick also suggests:

Japan has also been slow in getting the machinery of Japanese e-books whirring. There are just 40,000 titles available in most digital bookstores. "Publishers are indifferent to, or even hate, digital things. Mainly because of excessive commitment to traditional print book distribution," explains Mr. Kamata.

       But surely one of the great and amazing things about e-books is that the format allows writers (and readers) to circumvent traditional (i.e. hide- (and paper-)bound) publishing -- consider just the explosion of available-in-electronic-form texts in China, Viet Nam, the Arabic world, and elsewhere.
       I.e., I think it's a bit more complicated .....