Japanese Publishers Cause Amazon To Delay Japan E-book Service [REPORT]

Back in October we told you about how Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) was supposedly winding down late-stage negotiations with Japanese publishers to launch its e-book service in Japan. We had expected to see the online retailer enter the local market sometime in 2011, but according to a Kyodo report today the negotiations have proven difficult.

Amazon does not yet have a sufficient number of publishers on board yet to launch its service, and its new target date could be next spring.

The Japanese e-book market was worth 65 billion yen ($846.9 million) in 2010, while the market for printed books and magazines which is worth about 30 times more at two trillion yen (almost $26 billion). So naturally, Japanese publishers are going to soil their respective pants at any medium that threatens to disrupt their business. According to one source, lower priced e-books from Amazon could cause “paper book prices [to] crash, triggering the collapse of the publishing industry.”

Nonetheless, it’s a bit of a bummer for Japanese geeks who prefer their books in a digitized, often more portable and convenient, format. But hopefully Amazon can find some way into the market soon.