[EN] Guide to buy and rip books from Rakuten Books (Kobo)

[AthK]

A. Making an account:
1. Go to https://books.rakuten.co.jp/
2. Click on “Rakuten member registration (Free)”. It should redirect to link similar to <https://grp01.id.rakuten.co.jp/rms/nid/registfwdi>
3. Fill in all “required” fields (don’t fill in unnecessary fields)
4. Click next next until your registration is completed.
5. Now go to <https://books.rakuten.co.jp/event/e-book/free/> and buy any free book from it.
6. You’ll be asked for additional user info which includes Address and Phone number. Don’t worry you can fake it.
7. For postal code here are some examples: 1700013, 1010021, 5560015, etc. (it’s 7 digits with zeros on 4th and 5th digit.)
8. For other address details, fill any random names you can make (tick the “No Banchi” checkbox for less headache)
9. For telephone number, I don’t have any examples of valid numbers but I filled in any 12 digit number (4-4-4) and it worked.. put it in the format: 090-xxxx-xxxx
10. Click on “Next” until you’re taken to confirm order page (fill password whenever asked). Then confirm the order.
11. Now click on “My library” text. You’ll be asked for security question.
12. Chose any security question you want. This is in case you lose your password and want to reset it.
13. Click “next” couple of times again (fill password whenever asked).
14. Go to <https://kobo.com/ja/en> and click on sign in. Fill in email and password of Rakuten books. You’ll receive a message saying account already exists so click on “Sign in with your 楽天ID account”
15. Fill in you email password again and your account will be linked with kobo. You can check that if your books appear here: <https://www.kobo.com/jp/en/library>

Now that you have successfully registered the account and bought one book, you know the process. Rakuten accepts most international cards.. So, buy whichever book you want now.

B. Ripping books from Rakuten/Kobo:
*You need to refer to Amazon kindle ripping guide for detailed explanation of first few steps.
1. Download and install calibre 5.0 or above (<https://calibre-ebook.com/download>)
2. Install DeDRM 10.x.x (by noDRM) plug-in in calibre. (Download from here: <https://github.com/noDRM/DeDRM_tools/releases>)
3. Create free Adobe ID (<https://www.adobe.com/>) using email and password
4. Install DeACSM plug-in in calibre (download from here: <https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=341975>). Then restart calibre.
5. In calibre, go to “preferences -> plug-ins -> File type” then double click on DeACSM. In the pop-up window, click on “Authorise with ADE ID” and then enter your Adobe id email and password. After that select “ADE 2.x.x” or “ADE 3.x.x” version.
6. After that, follow these steps <https://help.kobo.com/hc/en-us/arti...bo-account-to-export-to-another-device-or-app> and download the book. You’ll most likely receive URLlink.acsm file.
7. Simply drop that URLlink.acsm file into calibre and after the process is completed you’ll see the book in calibre.
8. You can export the book from calibre (don’t convert but instead export) to get original epub/pdf file of the book.

(PS: There are other ways to rip from kobo but I believe that this method will work in long term.)

Feel free to ask any questions. DM me on discord for faster replies.

 

[kekesed97]

Japanese mobile phone number format is 11 digit with 3 digit prefix, for example 090-xxxx-xxxx, 070-xxxx-xxxx, 050-xxxx-xxxx. Avoid using 050, that prefix is usually assigned to IP phone services and some store do not accept them. 090 is generally a safer option because it is used in celular phone services and generally acceptable.

 

[AthK]

Japanese mobile phone number format is 11 digit with 3 digit prefix, for example 090-xxxx-xxxx, 070-xxxx-xxxx, 050-xxxx-xxxx. Avoid using 050, that prefix is usually assigned to IP phone services and some store do not accept them. 090 is generally a safer option because it is used in celular phone services and generally acceptable.

Thanks for clarification. So seems like kobo doesn’t care about phone number. But always good to be safe.

 

[kekesed97]

Thanks for clarification. So seems like kobo doesn’t care about phone number. But always good to be safe.

Learned the hard way.

Subscribed to 050 service in the past to cut cost. Guess who's rejected to sign up in various services...

 

[ssj4maiko]

I'm going to point something out, although if someone knows a way to get through it, it would be nice.

I used to have no problems buying from Rakuten (in fact, I have some books bought straight from there). But after some time (I think over 2 years ago at least), my credit card wasn't being accepted anymore (Not sure what reason, but I saw people saying that they don't accept international credit cards anymore or something when I investigated in the past).

However, Kobo.com (JP) still works fine, and they share the library, so it's not like I lost anything, and I just buy from Kobo instead.

The problem is that Kobo has pretty much very little in matters of discounts, Rakuten has much more.

TLDR: If you are having problems buying from Rakuten, and doesn't mind a possible lack of discount, you can buy from Kobo just the same.

 

[AthK]

I'm going to point something out, although if someone knows a way to get through it, it would be nice.

I used to have no problems buying from Rakuten (in fact, I have some books bought straight from there). But after some time (I think over 2 years ago at least), my credit card wasn't being accepted anymore (Not sure what reason, but I saw people saying that they don't accept international credit cards anymore or something when I investigated in the past).

However, Kobo.com (JP) still works fine, and they share the library, so it's not like I lost anything, and I just buy from Kobo instead.

The problem is that Kobo has pretty much very little in matters of discounts, Rakuten has much more.

TLDR: If you are having problems buying from Rakuten, and doesn't mind a possible lack of discount, you can buy from Kobo just the same.

I can say for sure that they accept international credit cards. As many of my friends’ cards were accepted (from various countries). So, either it’s specific to some banks which they don’t accept or your bank is blocking the payment to Rakuten.
but yeah, kobo JP is fine as well. I recommended Rakuten for discounts.