Quote:
Originally Posted by Tanuki.
I once bought a digital copy if the Famitsu on bookwalker.co.jp. Buying and paying was not problem, but they require a certain reader that's available for PC and smartphones. However, and that was very annoying because I wasn't notified about it beforehand, you cannot use the PC app if you have created your Bookwalker account via Twitter or Facebook (the PC/Desktop version does not allow authentification via those credentials).
Not sure if they manga content is region-locked. The Famitsu certainly wasn't.
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Things like that, yes.
I've had and heard very similar experiences with Bookwalker which echo our experiences with LINEmanga as well. The site and app behaves differently depending on whether an account is set up and activated from a computer or if first registration is done from a mobile device.
Content shared between devices used with the same account also behaves differently. One of those who tested these accounts can purchase with their membership, the other can't. Starting the registration from a mobile phone seems to result in the smoothest operation. Small sample size but LINEmanga appears to be region-locked to anyone outside Japan.
There have been people who reported back about having access to Yahoo Japan's online Bookstore from outside Japan. People who found the site a little difficult to navigate because of language but had no trouble with getting access to the desired content once found.
Amazon Japan's Kindle Store can also be accessed overseas depending on how the account is set up on co.jp. While print books can mostly be purchased from an account on any regional Amazon store -set up with the same email and shipping address- the same isn't true for digital content. For eBooks a choice of store is required. Some but not all .jp content is available on .com and/or other "branches".
Bookwalker makes Japanese content available to users outside Japan but some of the English language content is not made available to users inside Japan - Bookwalker, like other online bookstores, can't sell these titles because the Japanese license holder of the original source material has not authorised the release of English translated digital editions of Japanese manga back into Japan, under their current contract. Hopefully that will be addressed and changed in future re-negotiations.