eBookNewser reports based on a paywalled story on Nikkei that the Electronic Book Publishers Association of Japan has announced it will adopt EPUB 3 as its standard format. Expected to be finalized in May, EPUB version 3 will include support for displaying vertical text, which is commonly used in Japanese-language books. This will allow Japanese books to be read on overseas e-reader devices. (Though given the territorial restrictions that currently plague e-book sales, it’s anyone’s guess just how many overseas readers this will actually benefit.)
The EBPAJ is expected to finalize its specification by the end of March. (We reported on its decision to adopt a cross-publisher industry standard format back in October.)
The e-book industry has had a hard time taking off in Japan up to now (DIY scanning operations notwithstanding). If Japan adopts the same standard as English-language countries, that could be a big boost, allowing the notoriously-anglophile Japanese to read English books in addition to their native Japanese on the same readers.
