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    Kobo Touch e-reader coming to Japan on July 19th at a budget price

    Kobo Touch e-reader coming to Japan on July 19th at a budget price

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    The Kobo Touch e-reader will be arriving in Japan on July 19th for ¥7,980, with Japanese online retailer Rakuten already accepting pre-orders.

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    Kobo Touch
    Kobo Touch

    We knew that Rakuten was going to be bringing the Kobo Touch e-reader to Japan in July, and now we have an official date and a discounted price. The device will be shipping on July 19th, priced at ¥7,980 (approximately $100) — a small but notable drop from the ¥10,000 (around $125) that had previously been suggested. It will launch alongside Kobo's Japanese online store, which is set to feature 2.4 million books, magazines, and newspapers. Japan is considered a relatively untapped market for e-readers, with Amazon planning to bring the Kindle to the country in the very near future (the ad-free version of Amazon's Kindle Touch is priced at $139 here in the US, so Kobo may already be preparing itself for a head-to-head battle with its announced pricing). Kobo's Japanese store will join several other online markets the company operates in the US, the UK, France, and elsewhere. If you live in Japan and would like to make sure you have a Kobo Touch on launch day, it's available now for pre-order through Japan's online retail giant — and Kobo parent company — Rakuten.