Kobo to Beat Amazon to Japan

Nate the greatest writes: It looks like the little guy is going to win this round. Kobo has just announced that starting next week they'll be taking pre-orders for a Japanese language version of the Kobo Touch. It's going to sell for around $100 USD and yes it will support Japanese. The new Kobo Touch will be getting a firmware update to add support for Epub3, the new ebook format which was only finalized earlier this year. Kobo will be shipping the Kobo Touch in Japan when the local Kobo store opens on 19 July, and that means they may beat Amazon to the punch. The Japanese Kindle has only been hinted at, with Amazon offering to let people sign up to be notified.