The first thing that catches your eye when you open the yousho (imported books) section of Amazon Japan's home page is an advertisement for the Kindle DX Wireless Reading Device. The Kindle DX ad, which first appeared last summer, claims that a reader can perform a wireless download of any of more than 320,000 imported books within 60 seconds anytime, anywhere.

You would have to pay to buy a book from the Kindle store, but the cost would be considerably lower than buying the book in the conventional form at a bookstore. Moreover, by subscribing to it, you would be able to read not only books but also The New York Times and other dailies if you pay.

This may give you the impression that the print media are being taken over by the electronic media. Do publishers of newspapers and books stand to gain or lose with the appearance of a new device like the Kindle? In my opinion, they have more to gain than to lose.