An Overview of the Current Status and Issues of On-demand Publishing in Japan

Abstract

On-demand Publishing is a publishing technique that utilizes on-demand printing, which can provide books according to readers’ requests for purchase, even if their demand is for very few copies. Since 2000, many publishers have tried various on-demand publishing methods, but most of them in vain, because there are many fixed expenses, such as editing and typesetting, that do not depend on the number of copies. However, future development is expected through improvement of the quality of on-demand printing technology and the reclamation of the original market.