Buying US iBooks in Japan

Question

Level 1

12 points

Buying US iBooks in Japan

Hello

I'm an American who lives in Japan. I have had this problem with iTunes: I HAVE to use the JAPAN iTunes store to buy music.

Okay, okay, I can see why with music, but will that happen with iBooks? *Will I be refused entry to the US iBook Store once I get my iPad?*

Please note, I can buy regular books from the US Amazon as well as the Japan Amazon with no problem, so there does not seem to be so much trouble with copy rights and selling rights for books. BUT what is the policy about iBooks? I'd like to know.

PowerBookG4, Mac OS X (10.4.11)

Posted on Apr 18, 2010 9:31 PM

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Answer 1

Apr 18, 2010 10:24 PM in response to PTakeshige

I am pretty sure that you will need to have a US based account to buy books for the short term at least. At launch, no books will be available for any non-US country (and my guess is that a Japanese ibook-store will be one of the last to finally show up).

However, I think that you should look into options for getting a US based account. It apparently isn't that hard. I think there are several ways (do a google search for creating a US based itunes account). One way is using a pre-paid credit card and any address in the US (can be bogus, but probably better to use parents / friends / etc.).

I live in the US, but my wife is Japanese, and she has a Japanese credit card with the address at her parents home. We have a Japanese and a US iTunes account. We do most of our purchasing through the US store (cheaper), but my wife often does some J-Pop shopping on the Japan store.

Ron

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Answer 2

Apr 18, 2010 10:29 PM in response to PTakeshige

One more thing ... you can definitely create a US based account to access free items. There is an article about how to do this on the Apple support pages:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2534

I also read that Paypal is a good option for purchasing in the US store. You can create a US based Paypal account (use any US address), and then you can link the Paypal account to a foreign credit card.

Ron

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Answer 3

BlogD

Level 1

70 points

May 9, 2010 6:17 AM in response to PTakeshige

I got an iPad and had it brought to Japan. The US Bookstore was available... for an hour maybe, before the iPad figured out my location, and then shut it down. You'll have to buy all your books real quick, before it clamps down on you. The Bookstore is only available via the iBooks app, so having a US account makes no difference. This was on a WiFi only model, no GPS, and I didn't tell it I was in Japan, BTW.

As to what will happen once the iPad goes on sale in Japan is anyone's guess. My guess is that there will be only limited availability and/or very high prices--the Japanese book market is pretty tightly sealed up here.

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Answer 4

mamita11

Level 1

0 points

Aug 8, 2011 3:20 AM in response to Shadow99999

I have the same problem... I want to buy English books via the iBooks app, apparently there are only free books there in the iBooks app in Japan, most of which I read in high school. I have Kobo app on my iPad, though, and now Apple has changed the rules and I won't be able to shop for books within the Kobo app. 😟 I hope they make all books available at iBooks in any part of the globe.

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Answer 5

King_Penguin

Level 10

334,324 points

Aug 8, 2011 4:23 AM in response to mamita11

Kobo books can still be purchased via their website and refreshed/downloaded to the app. In terms of ibooks, Apple can only sell in a particular country what the copyright/license holder allows them to - if they havn't given Apple permission to sell a particular book in a specific language then Apple can't sell it

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Answer 6

mamita11

Level 1

0 points

Aug 12, 2011 3:18 AM in response to King_Penguin

If only iBooks in Japan can sell books much like it does in the US! You can't really have a total iBooks experience if you are not able to buy books via the iBooks app. The ones you can download via the app ( through iBookstore) are those old books that comes free. I really don't care for books in other languages other than English. Unless Apple starts doing something about it, iPad users in Japan will never really be able to truly experience iBooks.The iBooks in Japan is total CRAP!!!

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