In 90's electronic publishing has dramatically changed from using off-line technology to on-line technology. In Japan, electronic publishing appeared with the help of digital technology in mid 80's, Its dedicated media were FD and CD-ROM.
With its high information density, CD-ROM has become the main medium of electronic publishing, with many publishers releasing their contents on CD-ROM.
However, the wide-spread of the Internet has brought a new scene to electronic publishing.
In western countries, especially among academic publishing companies, Internet publishing (web-publishing) is becoming an ordinary way of electronic publishing. In Japan web-publishing is not so popular for the publishers even today, however, this will soon change.
