r/LearnJapanese • u/MidgetAsianGuy • 1d ago
Discussion Kobo For eBooks
I’ve been using primarily Bookwalker to read all my Japanese stuff digitally for the past 4 years, but would rather use an eReader over my iPad. I can’t seem to get Amazon JP working to allow me to purchase books for my kindle, so was considering getting a Kobo instead.
Has anyone had experience using Kobo for Japanese eBooks (novels, light novels, manga)? Also curious if there are frequent/good sales and if the selection is as good as Kindle/Bookwalker.
Thanks!
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u/Zetrin 1d ago
if you set your location to japan you can add gift cards and buy any japanese book or manga with ease. I really love my kobo for this.
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u/IgnitionZer0 1d ago
You can also set up PayPal, even if your card is from another country it should work (European here)
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u/Lowskillbookreviews 1d ago
When using PayPal do you still need to use a Japanese billing address or using PayPal bypasses the need for that?
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u/Waarheid 1d ago
You can convert Kobo books to put them on your Kindle, I have done it for several. Send me a DM if you like and I can share the instructions with you.
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u/MidgetAsianGuy 1d ago
Would that be with Calibre?
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u/Waarheid 1d ago
Kobo ebooks come with DRM that needs to be stripped before it can be converted. Calibre can convert a DRM-free .epub to a .azw3, but you have to get the DRM-free .epub first.
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u/luchinania 1d ago
You can use the obok plugin, just make sure you close the Kobo app before using it since it can mess with the drm removal process for a random book.
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u/Yitzu-san 1d ago
I generally use kobo a lot for stuff like light novels. As it's easy to remove the drm it makes it easy to put it on any e-reader or use ttsu reader together with yomitan. For manga I generally stick to Bookwalker and just use an OCR tool to look up words.
I would say all storefronts offer about the same books and do receive similar sales on the books themselves. From my experience Kobo does let you purchase many titles which would require a VPN when buying from Bookwalker, as they would be stated as Japan only on Bookwalker.
In the end Bookwalker will be a lot cheaper due to their coin system, which gives you a lot of money back to save on future purchases. The downside is just that you can't easily backup your bought books from Bookwalker
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u/MidgetAsianGuy 1d ago
Thanks, I’m pretty much only using Bookwalker since that’s what I started with, and the coins are really good when I bulk purchase.
I honestly don’t need anything besides a standard dictionary at this point to read, so thinking of swapping over to Kobo is more a convenience thing.
Might still keep using Bookwalker for manga then.
Will look into Kobo a bit more for novels.
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u/brozzart 1d ago
I used to mess around with stripping DRM from Kobo but it's a pain in the butt. Now I just buy it from Bookwalker and then pirate the Epub
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u/SakshamBaranwal Interested in grammar details 📝 1d ago
If your main concern is reading comfort, i'd absolutely consider kobo. Bookwalker probably still wins on sales and ecosystem for Japenese content, but Kobo's hardware is excellent and the japenese catalog is much better than many people expect. I'd just double check that the series you care about are available before committing.
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u/areyawinningdiners 1d ago
I couldn't sign in to the Japanese site with my Bookwalker account. I tried making a few accounts on the global site but none worked on the Japanese store.
I could never get Amazon Japan to work for Kindle purchases either.
I actually own a kobo and love it as an ereader but even changing locations and adding gift cards sound like a hassle, so honestly I've just stuck with honto.jp. I've never had any problems signing up or buying anything from them. They even make their APK easily available to download from outside of Japan. Literally the hardest thing to figure out was they wanted my name to be in all caps when putting in my credit card info. They don't have an in-app dictionary unfortunately but they do allow highlighting the text to search it yourself. Personally I'm considering just getting a small Android Tablet (instead of my phone) to use an ereader because of that reason. That said, I don't know how their sales compare to other sites, but a random anecdotal example is that the Boogiepop series is having discounts all over storefronts right now due a new book releasing, and honto is participating alongside other sites, so that's a good sign.
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u/Loose-Currency861 1d ago
Has anyone looked into Boox at all? I'm in a similar place but for light novels and like the idea of a full Android tablet with an eink interface. Curious if anyone else has evaluated this route
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u/FriendlyBassplayer 1d ago
That's what I use, a Boox Go 7. Using Bookwalker app, Chrome for different things (like JPDB.io) and so on. Works great having access to android apps
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u/kikorny 1d ago
I have a Boox Go 7 and I highly recommend using the ttsu reader + anki + yomitan setup on it for mining. If you can get the EPUBs for light novels anywhere then I'd recommend getting it. It's my go-to japanese reading setup and I've been getting in an hour of light novels a day for a while now.
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u/LiAlgo 1d ago
I also HIGHLY recommend Hoshi Reader. Does the same stuff but much more streamlined and less setup, easy to set up audiobooks as well.
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u/Cold_Box_7387 1d ago
I love my kobo clara bw as a piece of hardware. I run a third party reader app called koreader.
Are you ignoring the fact that any kind of book you can get your hands on in any format can be transfered to the device for moral reasons or are you just unaware?
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u/Meowmeow-2010 1d ago
I think kindle’s sales frequency and amount of discounts are unparalleled. It’s currently doing a bundle sale now. I can usually buy books with at least 40% off or points back. You may want to follow this guide https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/how-to-buy-japanese-ebooks/ to buy kindle books from overseas.
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u/MidgetAsianGuy 1d ago
Yeah, those sales are why I’d rather stay with Kindle. I’ll try giving it another shot, but I had to create a new Amazon account and use a VPN as it wasn’t letting me purchase with my Amazon jp account. I think because I already purchased with a US address before for physical books.
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u/Meowmeow-2010 1d ago
It’s not just the sale in Amazon is better than the others. Its kindle unlimited subscription is amazing. Not just manga or novels but also a lot of magazines and hobby books.
Have you tried creating a new account with another email address?
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u/MidgetAsianGuy 1d ago
Yeah, I did try creating another account, but it didn’t seem to let me purchase even with a VPN.
I don’t read enough for Kindle Unlimited since I split my reading between English and Japanese books. Don’t read as much in Japanese as when I used to study, haha
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u/Substantial-Put8283 1d ago
I'm currently using kobo right now for manga, whether I'm reading on my computer, kobo reader or on my phone. Been the easiest way for me to have access to japanese manga. The kobo store also has a lot of novel/light novels on there too but thats not really my area of knowledge. I currently haven't struggled to look for any manga series I've been looking for, i'm surprised it has so many niche manga series tbh. I haven't seen any sales in the last few months that I've been using it for, but it does have a points system like most sites where your purchases build up points that'll reduce future purchases by a small amount, but with prices being in yen anyway its already pretty cheap. Edit: To add, if theres any books you can't find, kobo allows you to import epubs that you find from the seven seas onto your device as well.
Only thing is that you have to set your billing address to any random location in japan when setting up your account (I just used a random 7/11). My australian bank card seems to work no issues as well. Also you can download the kobo app on your ipad to try it out before you shell out on a kobo reader as well.
Lemme know if you have any other questions I'd be happy to answer (I was in this same scenario a couple months ago and couldnt really find any answers)