Japanese books on Kobo?

[bosonnoir]

Originally Posted by mrf

In my kobobooks.com account, my name is in full-width Roman letters -- I guess it rejected half-width.
For my address, 国 is set to 日本 and 都道府県/州/区 is set to 東京都, but I stuffed my actual American address into the 郵便番号 (I put zip code here), 郡市区（島） (I put my city & state here), and それ以降の住所 (I put my street address here).
The phone number box is left blank.
The credit card that's working is a Master Card.

Hello,

I followed those instructions until I realize that I could not select "Japan" from the country list for my billing address. It simply does not show up!! I looked through the entire list (just in case it would be misplaced), with no success. What's happening???

I created a brand new Kobo account, but same result: "Japan" does not appear in the country list.
Same result when setting the billing address in "account parameters" or at purchase time (when no billing address is registered yet).

I emailed Kobo support about that, still waiting for an answer...

What am I missing here? Do I need to use a 楽天ID (japanese, not global) to unlock Japan?
Could it be a bug??? Any other explanation??

If anyone has any hint, or just some spare time to check this oddity on their own account (or test account), any feedback is welcome at this point.

Thanks in advance,

Max


PS: I also tried the rakuten.co.jp procedure, but my credit card is not accepted by the system. I am going for kobo.com, hoping that I could use the credit on my Kobo account without needing a credit card.

[Cdesja5]

I'm in Canada and if I want to buy something like "gas" with my Canadian credit card but in the US, I have to enter a zip code with the same numbers (in the same order) as the numbers in my postal code (no letters like A, B, C etc entered). The rest of the billing address often does not matter so you can use a random US address. Why not try that to see if it works in your Kobo account? You could in that case select US as your country. In case you're not familiar with zip codes, they have 5 digits.

[Cootey]

Originally Posted by bosonnoir

What am I missing here? Do I need to use a 楽天ID (japanese, not global) to unlock Japan?

Could it be a bug??? Any other explanation??

I set up a Japanese account just last week to test this out.

1. You need a Japanese account with 楽天ID as you surmised.
2. You need a Japanese street address. You won’t need it when setting up the account, but when you try to download samples or purchase a book, you’ll be prompted to fill out that information when you are prompted for credit card information. I chose to use a Japanese publisher’s info.
3. Once you have the above set up, the JPanese Kobo store will take American credit and debit cards without a hitch. I don’t know how it will work in Canada. At any rate, I purchased a Japanese book with no issues feom the Japanese Kobo store.
4. I’m drawing a blank at the moment because I also set up a Japanese Kindle at the same time, but I think you need to select 日本語 as the language, but that may be optional.

Let me know if you run into problems setting it up.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Cdesja5

I'm in Canada and if I want to buy something like "gas" with my Canadian credit card but in the US, I have to enter a zip code with the same numbers (in the same order) as the numbers in my postal code (no letters like A, B, C etc entered). The rest of the billing address often does not matter so you can use a random US address. Why not try that to see if it works in your Kobo account? You could in that case select US as your country. In case you're not familiar with zip codes, they have 5 digits.

Personally, I use 20500 when I need to enter a ZIP code. Too many people use 90210.

[bosonnoir]

Thanks for all the advice.

@Chantal The problem is that kobo.com/jp redirects me to the kobo.com/fr (the country of the billing address on this account) when I click on "Checkout". And since the items selected are geo-blocked, my cart becomes empty when landing on the kobo.com/fr payment page.

I will try with a 楽天ID and let you know. Using a Japanese publisher's street address is a nice idea.

As for the language, I tried different combinations (Japanese store in French or English or Japanese, French store in Japanese etc.) but the language seems to have no impact.

Max

[bosonnoir]

I set up a 楽天ID, connected to kobo.com with it, went to the store (automagically set to kobo.com/jp, no VPN needed), checked out a book, used my French credit card, and everything worked flawlessly.

So the important thing was the 楽天ID. Now I feel kind of stupid not to have tried that earlier.

Anyway, thank you all, folks. 読みましょう！！

Max

[Cootey]

Originally Posted by bosonnoir

I set up a 楽天ID, connected to kobo.com with it, went to the store (automagically set to kobo.com/jp, no VPN needed), checked out a book, used my French credit card, and everything worked flawlessly.



So the important thing was the 楽天ID. Now I feel kind of stupid not to have tried that earlier.



Anyway, thank you all, folks. 読みましょう！！



Max

Glad you got it all worked out!! And thanks for the update. You have no idea how many people come here for help, then never let us know if we helped or not. 😅


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[mrf]

Originally Posted by bosonnoir

I could not select "Japan" from the country list for my billing address. It simply does not show up!!

It seems that the account system itself is different depending on the country icon set a the top of the kobo.com website interface, before logging in or creating an account.
It looks like setting that to the Japanese flag causes the website to use the Japanese Rakuten system (and accounts created outside of that system won't be able to log in).

[Nightflyer]

How is reading Japanese books? Dictionary ok? Or similar to English dictionary that sometimes is less than helpful.

[Komavary]

Hi,

Sorry for resurrecting this topic, but I could not find a more relevant one.

I have been using the Japanese website (from) Japan years ago, but haven't really opened it once I have left Japan.

When I have logged in now, I had to update my address, etc.

Checking My library, all my previous purchases were there.

Furthermore, I was able to buy a new book (manga).

So far so good.

But while I can download my previous purchases (either with Adobe DRM, or 'signed no drm", there is no download option for this newest puchase.

I have tried to install the desktop reader (for pc), but it is not syncing with the online library: none of my previous purchases are present.

Did you run into the same issue?

Could you point me to the right direction?

[mrf]

Up till now I've only used the kobo forma and smartphone, but I tried installing the Rakuten Kobo reader for PC, and was able to see my library and read books.
Only thing I can think of that might be relevant is that, before logging in, I set the reader's language to Japanese (from the Preferences option from the gear icon in the upper right) and then after that pushed the red 楽天Kobo button to log in.

[Cootey]

I just played around with this two weeks ago. All you need is a Rakuten.co.jp account. Set it up in Japanese, then use that login with your American device or desktop app. Then you’ll have access to all your Japanese purchases.

There is something new happening in Japan this fall. The industry is pushing manga rentals like there’s no tomorrow. Most of the free manga are actually limited rentals now. I haven’t tried renting a manga yet and accessing it from Kobo Desktop, but what you’re describing sounds like regional lockout.

[Cootey]

Originally Posted by Cootey

I just played around with this two weeks ago. All you need is a Rakuten.co.jp account. Set it up in Japanese, then use that login with your American device or desktop app. Then you’ll have access to all your Japanese purchases.

There is something new happening in Japan this fall. The industry is pushing manga rentals like there’s no tomorrow. Most of the free manga are actually limited rentals now. I haven’t tried renting a manga yet and accessing it from Kobo Desktop, but what you’re describing sounds like regional lockout.

There are a two other things to keep in mind. First, do your shopping at https://books.rakuten.co.jp/e-book/. Rakuten is like Walmart, so it helps to have the direct URL. Otherwise, the books being offered to you are likely physical. Second, after making your purchases, log into Kobo.com using your Japanese Rakuten ID (楽天ID) under “more sign-in options”. Kobo defaults to the language of your IP’s region. In my case, even though the prices are all in ¥, the signage and books being offered are mostly in English. If I want to shop in Japanese, I visit the URL above.

I hope that helps.