The Japanese are
well-known for their insatiable appetite for reading; whether it be
newspapers, manga (comic books), an infinate variety of specialist
magazines or novels. Everywhere you go, morning, day, or night,
you’ll see the Japanese reading in public. The Japanese are also
well-known for their love of technology. So, you’d think a gadget
that combines these two national passions, such as e-book readers,
would be as popular as breathing. But, remarkably, you’d be wrong.
As a frequent user of
trains into London (and around it via the underground once inside),
not a single day goes by without seeing someone using an e-reader.
Indeed, randomly get on any tube train around rush hour and you’ll
regularly see more e-books than traditional books being read.
Not so in Japan. Not even in the capital Tokyo. During our last stay
in Japan, which included time spent in Tokyo, Osaka and many, many
train journeys (including on the shinkansen bullet trains), as well
as internal flights, not once did I see someone using an
e-reader. Not once! More than two weeks spent in the country globally
recognised as one of the most technologically advanced, and not a
single e-reader to be found.
Japanese
electronics/technology giant Sony was one of the first to utilise
‘e-ink’ technology (the clever tech that means reading from an
e-reader screen is as close to reading print on paper) and creator of
one of the first readers to come to the global mass market with its
Sony Librie way back in 2004. (Though, sales of Amazon’s Kindle
e–reader have since eclipsed those of Sony – the Kindle
accounting for 45%-50% of all e-reader sales in 2010 according to
Gartner). So why didn’t I see a single e-reader in Japan?
For all their love of
high-tech, the Japanese remain a traditional race at heart. They also
manage to sustain social, cultural and economic trends at a national
level that most other countries (certainly in the West) would never
be able to pull off. So, if, because of some deeply-ingrained reason,
they prefer Yahoo!’s services over Google’s, or clamshell mobiles
over smartphones, or print over digital text, then they’ll see
nothing unusual or surprising in that. They may, in their own time
(and on their own terms) gradually decide, often over a period of
many years, that they will switch from clamshells to smartphones (as
is beginning to happen now). But it will be how and when they choose. Their equal love of
print, in the forms listed above, seems as strong as ever it was.
I’ll be keeping a
keen eye open on our next visit to see if I can spot my first
e-reader in Japan. When I do, I might just step over the usual Japanese social reserve and tell the owner that they are the very first native e-reader user I have ever seen! If, in the meantime, you have a theory as to why I
didn't see a single e-reader then please do share your thoughts...
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