Briefly: I have updated The List because three titles from Vertical which were originally scheduled to be published in 2011 and have been pushed back to early 2012. These titles are Koji Suzuki’s Edge (January 2012), Seicho Matsumoto’s Pro Bono (January 2012) and Kenzo Kitakata’s City of Refuge (February 2012).
Read more →There is a great editorial at Publishing Perspectives today about the demise of Sharp’s e-reader Galapagos, and by extension, of the proprietary e-book format XMDF. It is a very fascinating article, and it highlights many of the key factors of why e-books have yet to take off in Japan. The most important point of...
Read more →Iwanami Shoten, a publishing house based in Tokyo, will begin releasing e-book versions of new books starting at the end of November, reports the Mainichi. They will release four titles in e-book format every month for their main imprint and one for their “Iwanami Junior” imprint. They will be available in all the “major...
Read more →Today the Asahi newspaper obtained a draft of the contract Amazon is making with Japanese publishing companies regarding the terms to which Amazon will sell e-books on their website for the Japanese version of the Kindle. Among other stipulations, Amazon is demanding the right to make final decisions on e-book prices. This goes against...
Read more →A collection of Japanese literature centered around the recent Tohoku Earthquake will be released next March in the US, England, and France, reports the Asahi. In the US, the collection will be published by Vintage and has a tentative title of “One Year Later.” Translator David Karashima is reported to be working with Vintage...
Read more →The Asahi reports today that Tawada Yoko has won the 64th Noma Literary Prize for her novel 雪の練習生 (“Students of the Snow”). I know we cover a lot of awards around here at Junbungaku, but this is definitely one that matters. It’s been around since the 1940s, established in honor of the founder of...
Read more →This week was not a week for fiction, it seems. The bestseller list this week had no new fiction at all, and today we have an extremely short list for new fiction, completely opposite from that monster list two weeks ago. But e-hon doesn’t even have a listing of new books at all for...
Read more →The town of Aridagawa in the Wakayama Prefecture of Japan has just launched an e-library, reports the Yomiuri. The new e-library has only 1000 titles at the moment, which can be read on a computer or iPad. The service is available for either residents of the towns of Aridagawa, Yuasa or Hirokawa, and to...
Read more →The winners for the 65th Mainichi Publishing Cultural Prize was announced at the Mainichi newspaper website today. The Prize honors five works in five categories for “elevating publishing culture”: Literature and Fine Arts, Culture and Society, Natural Sciences, “Planning/Projects” (for Series, Complete Works, Dictionaries, Encyclopedias, etc.), and a “Special Prize,” awarded to a book...
Read more →Extra, extra, read all about it! There is absolutely no new fiction this week! Yup. I had a feeling this would happen, but I didn’t know it would happen so soon in Junbungaku’s run. The only other news of note relating to this week’s bestseller list from Tohan is that the Japanese, like probably...
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