There are lots of ways to learn a new language like Japanese. It all just takes time and effort. There are some smart ways to learn though: take a Japanese language course, make a friend who speaks Japanese, and, of course, go to Japan.
But there are lots of other ways. One is to study the news. There are English versions of Japanese News. Some notable examples are the Japan Times, the Mainichi Shinbun, the Asahi Shinbun all have sites in English.
On these pages we are presenting interesting tidbits of news which relate to Japan and teach Japanese language and culture.
We are also looking for reporters for EJOD who would be interested in providing interesting articles about Japan.
If you have something of interest then submit the information following the procedures described below.
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Japanese embrace cell-phone novels
Here's why futurists look to Japan: while we just got around to finding someone willing to write a book on a cell phone. In Japan people have been reading books on cell phones for years.
Keitai shousetsu (literally, "mobile novels") have been big business in Japan, to the point where two smaller publishers who only sell to the mobile market have outsold traditional, dead-tree publishers.
Given that e-books of any stripe haven't fared too well over the years and that cell-phone screens are only moderately better for text than those on the MiniDisc-based MD Books Sony was flogging in the early 1990s, you might wonder how this is possible. I think it's a number of factors:
1) An awful lot of commuters, and awfully little elbow room. Tokyo's subways system alone carries about 10 million every day, and subway cars are often crammed beyond capacity. A cell phone is a lot easier to deal with than a newspaper or a manga volume.
2) Keitai shousetsu are dirt cheap, costing only a few hundred yen (less than $10) -- which makes sense, given the lack of printing, storage and shipping costs.
3) No DRM.
4) Japan's major publishing houses got into keitai shousetsu in a big way, which I'm sure helped give the form an air of respectability.
So let's put this another way: Mobile novels meet consumer needs, are cheap and convenient, and the old guard have enthusiastically embraced the form. Translation: massive popularity and respectable amounts of money (the two publishers I mentioned earlier sold more than three million novels in the first half of this year) in fairly short order. Nope, never saw that coming.
