I do but my main recommendation is “don’t”. If I get free time I can explain it but iirc I had to jump through hoops just to get their app installed on Android because it’s not in the Play store.
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@brandon BTW if you want to populate CDJapan books.
While they might not have all, you might be able to use the ISBN instead of their weird catalog number:
ISBN 9784046321312
https://www.cdjapan.co.jp/searchuni?term.media_format=&q=9784046321312
While it doesn’t go to the item itself, it returns a search of only one item, which is close enough:
If you play with the affiliate link generator you can game it (but I’m pulling this of speculation, you would need to verify the affiliate cookie is set properly):
https://www.cdjapan.co.jp/aff/click.cgi/xxxxxxxxx/searchuni?term.media_format=&q=9784046321312
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If we add aozora bunko, maybe we should mention free sites for novels like https://syosetu.com/ or mangas like https://comic.webnewtype.com as well, as they partly provide complete and famous book series.
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For Honto.jp, specifically ebooks:
- iPad/iPhone apps are region locked, you can’t use these outside of Japan.
- Their Android app is for whatever reason not available via Google Play, you have to manually install the APK. The full instructions (Japanese only) are here.
- There is browser reading support and there are Windows and Mac apps available here. I can only speak to the Windows app as I never installed it on Mac, but it does install and work correctly.
- The Windows app does not have dictionary functionality built in - every search will redirect you to the browser. The Android app has some built in dictionary functionality via pop-up defintions from Wikipedia, but this isn’t as good as real dictionary integration.
- No VPN, Japanese address, or Japanese credit card required
The selection and pricing seems pretty comparable to other providers I’ve tried, but the sheer hassle of reading the books compared to other sites makes it an unappealing choice to me.
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It looks like it is on Google Play – this honto page has a play store button to take you to the app page – but (a) it’s region locked to Japan and (b) you can’t buy books with it, only view them (this is why they offer the sideload APK, and it’ll be because they don’t want to give Google the 30% cut of in app book purchases that Google would demand for an app on the Play store).
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I can’t remember if when I did the APK runaround they had a Play link or not (2020 or thereabouts) but it also being region locked doesn’t surprise me. The sideloaded app does have let me go to the store and add things to my cart, so it being a workaround for paying Google also tracks.
End of the day it’s far more tedious as an end consumer, and the lack of a proper dictionary and (I didn’t put it in the main post as not 100% sure anymore) limited highlights per book makes it feel like they simply don’t care about customer experience at all.
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Please do! Also, I know that honto.jp doesn’t do international shipping, but if anyone wants to write a quick blurb for honto.jp physical books, that would be great.
eBook Japan & BookLive are waiting to be filled out too … 
We actually do already have syosetu as a provider, just needing a description 
As for autopopulating syosetu, that will probably come with/after webnovels are implemented.
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I’ve used this too. My recommendation again is “don’t”.
I used it for a few books before switching to Honto so honestly can’t say much more than that. I remember they had an app for Windows but zero recollection if I needed a VPN or any other nonsense.
I guess I could do one for Google Play Books if anyone hasn’t done them yet 
Might not be soon though. All I recall is that you could read in the browser easily (&it allowed for yomichan lookups), it flakes out on my phone a lot despite being a Google app, and searching for new books was an exercise in futility.
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Yeah, i’m surprised at how few books i’m finding on google-play via my auto process. Does google play just not have a lot of books to buy?
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It’s definitely not as many as say, Bookwalker or Rakuten.
Are you able to spot check? Here are some books I bought from Google play or had wishlisted:
I’m curious if it’s just purely low numbers or they’re blocking your search/auto-discovery in some way.
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So I looked at https://learnnatively.com/book/246e1b598f/ and it seems that I can find it if I don’t filter for ebooks. Looking at the JSON, it seems this ebook isn’t available in the US? Are you able to buy it?
Unfortunately, google books requires that you specify your country of access. Hmm.
JSON response without ebook filter
{
'kind': 'books#volumes',
'totalItems': 1,
'items': [{'kind': 'books#volume',
'id': 'AeXvvgEACAAJ',
'etag': 'IO/9IMvGCI8',
'selfLink': 'https://www.googleapis.com/books/v1/volumes/AeXvvgEACAAJ',
'volumeInfo': {'title': 'ぼくたちは神様の名前を知らない',
'authors': ['五十嵐貴久'],
'publishedDate': '2018-11',
'description': '東日本大震災がきっかけで、離れ離れになった幼馴染の六人。中学三年生になったある日、セータの下に、仲間の一人が投身自殺をしたと報せが入る。当時の担任とともに現場である北海道の岬に向かった五人だが、その帰りに橋から車ごと落下してしまい、原生林を抜けて助けを呼びに行くことに...。過酷な運命に翻弄されながらも、前を向こうとする少年たちの「再生」を描いた感動の長編小説。',
'industryIdentifiers': [{'type': 'ISBN_10', 'identifier': '4569768644'},
{'type': 'ISBN_13', 'identifier': '9784569768649'}],
'readingModes': {'text': False, 'image': False},
'pageCount': 365,
'printType': 'BOOK',
'maturityRating': 'NOT_MATURE',
'allowAnonLogging': False,
'contentVersion': 'preview-1.0.0',
'panelizationSummary': {'containsEpubBubbles': False,
'containsImageBubbles': False},
'imageLinks': {'smallThumbnail': 'http://books.google.com/books/content?id=AeXvvgEACAAJ&printsec=frontcover&img=1&zoom=5&source=gbs_api',
'thumbnail': 'http://books.google.com/books/content?id=AeXvvgEACAAJ&printsec=frontcover&img=1&zoom=1&source=gbs_api'},
'language': 'ja',
'previewLink': 'http://books.google.com/books?id=AeXvvgEACAAJ&dq=isbn:9784569768649&hl=&cd=1&source=gbs_api',
'infoLink': 'http://books.google.com/books?id=AeXvvgEACAAJ&dq=isbn:9784569768649&hl=&source=gbs_api',
'canonicalVolumeLink': 'https://books.google.com/books/about/%E3%81%BC%E3%81%8F%E3%81%9F%E3%81%A1%E3%81%AF%E7%A5%9E%E6%A7%98%E3%81%AE%E5%90%8D%E5%89%8D%E3%82%92%E7%9F%A5%E3%82%89.html?hl=&id=AeXvvgEACAAJ'},
'saleInfo': {'country': 'US',
'saleability': 'NOT_FOR_SALE',
'isEbook': False},
'accessInfo': {'country': 'US',
'viewability': 'NO_PAGES',
'embeddable': False,
'publicDomain': False,
'textToSpeechPermission': 'ALLOWED',
'epub': {'isAvailable': False},
'pdf': {'isAvailable': False},
'webReaderLink': 'http://play.google.com/books/reader?id=AeXvvgEACAAJ&hl=&source=gbs_api',
'accessViewStatus': 'NONE',
'quoteSharingAllowed': False},
'searchInfo': {'textSnippet': '東日本大震災がきっかけで、離れ離れになった幼馴染の六人。中学三年生になったある日、セータの下に、仲間の一人が投身自殺をしたと報せが入る。当時の担任とともに現場で ...'}}]
}
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I purchased it, but over a year ago. Going to the book page now though I’m still able to buy it for someone else as a gift though, so it doesn’t seem region locked (though I did not go through with that purchase).
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Ugh, this is so unfortunate. I searched only by title and not isbn I did find that result… it just doesn’t have any ISBN info 
.
And just searching by title returns a ton of results. ugh. I don’t know what i’ll do here. Probably nothing for the time being.
JSON
{'kind': 'books#volume',
'id': 'ftt6DwAAQBAJ',
'etag': 'F9uOw6k979g',
'selfLink': 'https://www.googleapis.com/books/v1/volumes/ftt6DwAAQBAJ',
'volumeInfo': {'title': 'ぼくたちは神様の名前を知らない',
'authors': ['五十嵐貴久'],
'publisher': 'PHP研究所',
'publishedDate': '2018-11-08',
'description': '無意味で残酷な世界の前で、彼らが取り戻そうとしたもの。それは、つまり、希望だ——。東日本大震災がきっかけで、離れ離れになった幼馴染の六人。中学三年生になったある日、東京で暮らしていたセータの下に、仲間の一人が投身自殺をしたという知らせが入る。当時の担任とともに現場である北海道の岬に向かった五人だが、その帰りに橋から車ごと落下する事故が起きてしまい……。過酷な運命に翻弄されながらも、現実を受け止め、前を向こうとする少年たちの「再生」を描いた感動の長編小説。解説は、いきものがかり・水野良樹氏！ 『蘇生』を改題して、加筆。 【PHP研究所】',
'industryIdentifiers': [{'type': 'OTHER',
'identifier': 'PKEY:56976864210093530002'}],
'readingModes': {'text': True, 'image': True},
'pageCount': 368,
'printType': 'BOOK',
'categories': ['Fiction'],
'maturityRating': 'NOT_MATURE',
'allowAnonLogging': False,
'contentVersion': '1.1.1.0.preview.3',
'panelizationSummary': {'containsEpubBubbles': False,
'containsImageBubbles': False},
'imageLinks': {'smallThumbnail': 'http://books.google.com/books/content?id=ftt6DwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&img=1&zoom=5&edge=curl&source=gbs_api',
'thumbnail': 'http://books.google.com/books/content?id=ftt6DwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&img=1&zoom=1&edge=curl&source=gbs_api'},
'language': 'ja',
'previewLink': 'http://books.google.com/books?id=ftt6DwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=%E3%81%BC%E3%81%8F%E3%81%9F%E3%81%A1%E3%81%AF%E7%A5%9E%E6%A7%98%E3%81%AE%E5%90%8D%E5%89%8D%E3%82%92%E7%9F%A5%E3%82%89%E3%81%AA%E3%81%84&hl=&as_brr=5&cd=1&source=gbs_api',
'infoLink': 'https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=ftt6DwAAQBAJ&source=gbs_api',
'canonicalVolumeLink': 'https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=ftt6DwAAQBAJ'},
'saleInfo': {'country': 'US',
'saleability': 'FOR_SALE',
'isEbook': True,
'listPrice': {'amount': 4.66, 'currencyCode': 'USD'},
'retailPrice': {'amount': 4.66, 'currencyCode': 'USD'},
'buyLink': 'https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=ftt6DwAAQBAJ&rdid=book-ftt6DwAAQBAJ&rdot=1&source=gbs_api',
'offers': [{'finskyOfferType': 1,
'listPrice': {'amountInMicros': 4660000, 'currencyCode': 'USD'},
'retailPrice': {'amountInMicros': 4660000, 'currencyCode': 'USD'},
'giftable': True}]},
'accessInfo': {'country': 'US',
'viewability': 'PARTIAL',
'embeddable': True,
'publicDomain': False,
'textToSpeechPermission': 'ALLOWED',
'epub': {'isAvailable': True,
'acsTokenLink': 'http://books.google.com/books/download/%E3%81%BC%E3%81%8F%E3%81%9F%E3%81%A1%E3%81%AF%E7%A5%9E%E6%A7%98%E3%81%AE%E5%90%8D%E5%89%8D%E3%82%92%E7%9F%A5%E3%82%89-sample-epub.acsm?id=ftt6DwAAQBAJ&format=epub&output=acs4_fulfillment_token&dl_type=sample&source=gbs_api'},
'pdf': {'isAvailable': True,
'acsTokenLink': 'http://books.google.com/books/download/%E3%81%BC%E3%81%8F%E3%81%9F%E3%81%A1%E3%81%AF%E7%A5%9E%E6%A7%98%E3%81%AE%E5%90%8D%E5%89%8D%E3%82%92%E7%9F%A5%E3%82%89-sample-pdf.acsm?id=ftt6DwAAQBAJ&format=pdf&output=acs4_fulfillment_token&dl_type=sample&source=gbs_api'},
'webReaderLink': 'http://play.google.com/books/reader?id=ftt6DwAAQBAJ&hl=&as_brr=5&source=gbs_api',
'accessViewStatus': 'SAMPLE',
'quoteSharingAllowed': False},
'searchInfo': {'textSnippet': '無意味で残酷な世界の前で、彼らが取り戻そうとしたもの。それは、つまり、希望だ——。東日本大震災がきっかけで、離れ離れになった幼馴染の六人。中学三年生になったある ...'}}
4 Likes
If Google Play Books wanted to make money they would have built a better API 
And book search in general for that matter.
3 Likes
I’m just going to go through every Japanese book over the next few days and ping their search. I got it hooked into my automated process so you should start to see the number of CDJapan links steadily increase
And all CDJapan links on the site now help Natively! So please click the link here if available 
(if you want to generate the correct link and it’s not linked on natively yet, just add the link to the ‘where to find section’ and it’ll generate the right url for you).
9 Likes
How editable is the justwatch widget?
You could try doing a generic search when no providers are found. Or you could even list them as possible ways to find it in physical form.
1 Like
I could… although tbh I don’t think people would really buy a physical movie or tv show these days… I’m not even sure how i’d play a DVD 
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Nice! Do I need to click on multiple links if I’m buying multiple books? Or does just clicking one apply the affiliation to my whole cart?
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Should be valid for all purchases within 30 days of clicking a link, they’re quite generous it seems, provided you use the same device and don’t delete your cookies.
Q. Do customers who return after leaving CDJapan still count for the affiliate program?
The affiliate web browser cookie is effective at max for thirty days after a visitor has last clicked an affiliate link. If a visitor who has followed a link from your site does not place an order the day he or she clicks on the link, but instead returns and places an order at CDJapan at a later date, you will receive affiliate commission as long as the order was placed within 30 days of last clicking on your affiliate link.
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Yeah, the cookie stays for a long time.
Is not like Amazon, that it’s a shopping cart item specific cookie.
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