iPad May Be ‘Black Ship’ That Shakes Up Japan’s Book Industry - BusinessWeek : The maker of the iPhone may challenge Japan’s publishing establishment in a market where e-book sales -- estimated by Nomura Holdings Inc. to be four times those of the U.S. -- come mostly from comics on mobile phones. Sony Corp. and Panasonic Corp., Japan’s two biggest consumer electronics makers, have scrapped their e-reader business in the country and Amazon.com Inc. has yet to offer its Kindle. “There’s a strong chance that a device like the iPad will allow authors to cut out the publishers as middlemen,” said Jun Hasebe, a Tokyo-based analyst at Daiwa Securities Group Inc. “Japanese printing, publishing and distribution industries are strongly interconnected and all three face that threat.” ( Brave New World ) With ubiquitous cell network coverage in Japan, every day I see many commuters on the train reading mail, watching TV on OneSeg viewers (phones and PSP support this as well as dedicated viewers), ...