Doraemon launched in North America

The electronic edition of manga “ Doraemon ” is now available in English in North America for the first time starting Nov. 23. Shogakukan Inc., publisher of the series about a robotic cat from the future who can pull anything from his pocket, will start deliveries to readers in through the Amazon.com’s electronic bookstore. Each monthly delivery, priced at $2.99 (301 yen), will contain three episodes.
140 million copies of official editions of the series have been published in 17 countries. But the manga has not arrived in the huge U.S. market, suspecting that “Nobita’s passive attitude--he always relies on Doraemon--would not appeal to the U.S. readers,” . But senior Fujiko Pro Co. official Yoshihiko Shinoda said the time had come to change its cautious stance on advancing into the United States.