The Japan Electronic Publishing Association, Chairman: Masao Sekido (President of Kenkyusha), located at 2-9-2 Misaki-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan, website: https://www.jepa.or.jp,abbreviated to JEPA, has started an ePub Study Group with the purpose to do survey research on the ePub format and promotion activities and implementation of Japanese-language handling in the ePub format, which is a standard format for e-books and e-readers in Europe and the United States.

　Excellent e-readers such as the Amazon Kindle, Barns & Noble Nook and the Sony Reader, have appeared on the scene and become available at low costs in the U.S. One of this Study Group's objectives is to speed up the creation of Japanese versions of those e-readers. The Kindle uses the Mobi format and Nook and the SONY Reader the ePub format, as a result the Study Group has included as its study objective the Mobi format, which is a sister format to the ePub format.

 

　The ePub format, based on the XML format and formulated by the U.S. International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF), enables text reflow (reflowing according to the screen size) and can display text and images on various devices from 15-inch large screen PCs to 3-inch smartphones. Japanese-specific features such as vertical writing, ruby and line boundary character checks will be addressed. The ePub Study Group like the iPhone Publishing Study Group set up in May, 2009 is a JEPA member-company-only group and an unlimited number of staff from a member company may attend group meetings. The main method of communication is through mailing lists.

■About the Japan Electronic Publishing Association (JEPA) https://www.jepa.or.jp/jepa/ JEPA was established in 1986 by publishers, printing companies, computer makers, and software houses playing a central role to promote electronic publishing. Activities over the past 23 years include the formulations of CD-ROM specifications and an XML schema for books, the popularization of Unicode fonts, to drive forward a plan of an electronic copyright deposit library, the promotion of e-readers, and dictionary data format reviews. There are currently 83 member companies.

News Media Inquiry Contact: The Japan Electronic Publishing Association Tsuruya General Building 4F 2-9-2 Misaki-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101-0061, Japan TEL: 03-3556-5224 FAX: 03-3556-5259 E-MAIL: info@jepa.or.jp

Tohru Sampei

Secretary General