Quote:
Originally Posted by Lynx-lynx
Obok 3.0.7 is the latest version and any newer version will be released via that Article. Should you need obok help or want to comment generally about obok then please use the posts below the Article.
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Ah, okay. I was going only by JSWolf's comment.
Quote:
Originally Posted by tshering
Touch and newer models have Japanese fonts with more recent firmwares (starting with 2.0.0 or so). The names of the fonts are Gothic and Ryumin. Do you have an older model?
This seems to suggest that your device has at least one Japanese font installed. Or is the Japanese text of the htmls represented by images?
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Ah, I was not aware these were Japanese fonts; I haven't seen Gothic used with Japanese before, and apparently just didn't notice Ryumin. I suppose since the device didn't automatically select Japanese fonts, and nothing jumped out at me on the list, I assumed none were installed. I'm used to slightly more intelligent behaviour... my bad.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lynx-lynx
Yes, why not comment on the context of your problem here, and if necessary you can request a mod to change the title of the thread.
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Great, okay. If necessary this post or this section can be moved elsewhere.
The problem is caused by moving to Japan while already owning a Kobo and using the Kobo service. Rakuten has recently bought Kobo, and has basically made a very slapdash job of integrating the service - they've done just enough to cause problems, but not enough to solve them.
From Japan, you cannot access international Kobo accounts - a forced redirect to Rakuten is applied. This means you cannot purchase books, nor access your existing library on the website. Kobo Desktop is unaffected.
However, you cannot use your Kobo account to log into Rakuten, even to use the Kobo-Rakuten ebooks platform. You must create a new Rakuten account. Once you start using ebooks, this behaves like a Kobo account. This means that
although you can create a Rakuten account with any email address, you cannot use it to buy ebooks if it matches your Kobo email address. Problem one. This means you must, essentially, create two Kobo accounts, one just for Japan.
Unfortunately, you cannot link Kobo Desktop to multiple accounts. You must choose which to have active, and it will delete the other books from your computer and redownload the new ones, each time. You also cannot have both accounts active on a device, so it's impossible to have access to both your Japanese and (e.g.) UK books.
It's possible to ask Rakuten to merge your accounts, but this will run afoul of region restrictions. In theory you'd expect this to let you view all books, but in practice it will cut access. Essentially, you would choose one email address and assign all books to this. Depending which account (and therefore which country) the email is registered with, you will apparently lose access to any books that account is not permitted to buy. So if I merged to my Japanese account, I'd lose all my UK books. Obviously, this is not an acceptable option.
However, Rakuten (and as far as I can tell, all Japanese retailers) have very tight DRM practices. All seem to use proprietary apps exclusively, rather than standard ebook formats. This means using Calibre or similar is not an option as you cannot download even a DRMd ebook.
As such, your best bet is to retain two separate accounts, set your Kobo Desktop app to Japan, and use Obok to give you access to what you have actually bought. This should enable you to keep reading your books no matter which country you happen to be in - but backups will be essential, as there's no way to access your account from abroad. You can then read the books via a desktop epub reader, or transfer them manually to your ereader.
If you don't already have a Kobo account, you'll have no problems while in Japan, but a similar problem is likely to occur if you leave.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that my non-Japanese account will once again work when I leave Japan - if not I'll update.