What Bookscan Co., Ltd. does

Bookscan Co., Ltd. (株式会社ブックスキャン) is a Tokyo-headquartered book digitization service founded on April 7, 2010, operating the BOOKSCAN platform under the trademark of affiliated entity 合同会社大和印刷 (Daiwa Printing LLC). The company receives customers' physical books by mail or walk-in at its Setagaya headquarters, scans them at its Oita R&D and scanning center, and delivers searchable PDFs through a cloud portal and dedicated iOS/Android reader apps. Core technology centers on a patented e-book delivery method (電子書籍の提供方法) called Tuning Lab (チューニングラボ), which optimizes scanned PDFs for approximately 130 different reading devices (Kindle, iPad/iPhone, Android, Sony Reader and others) and enables text-to-speech audio playback. Quality control includes automated and manual full-page inspection achieving roughly 2 errors per 100,000 pages, and the platform supports multilingual OCR (Japanese, English, Chinese, Korean, French, German, etc.) at up to 600dpi in the Professional tier.

The business model is a self-serve, direct-to-consumer subscription-plus-transaction hybrid. Standard scanning is priced at 165 JPY (tax-inclusive) per book up to 350 pages, with 200-page increments charged at the same unit rate; a Premium membership (reportedly ~9,980 JPY/month) provides a monthly scanning allowance, priority processing, and free access to all Tuning Lab device optimization services. Optional add-ons include OCR text extraction (165 JPY/book), file name customization (82.5 JPY/book), USB (¥4,950) and 1TB HDD (¥22,200) delivery, and an enterprise Professional tier (from 3,630 JPY/book) for high-resolution and multilingual document scanning. Customer segments span individual personal-library owners, visually impaired users (via accessibility partnerships with third-party TTS tools), enterprise/organization buyers, and authors/publishers served through dedicated portals. No external funding, M&A, or geographic expansion outside Japan is disclosed.

The product surface is rounded out by AI book summarization (text, list, and mind-map outputs), full-text keyword search across OCR'd libraries, freehand annotation and memo features in the mobile reader, and a collection statistics module. Marketing is dominated by earned media — the company has been featured by The New York Times, The Economist, Forbes, Bloomberg, WIRED, TechCrunch, the Asahi Shimbun, the Nikkei, and TV Tokyo — together with a long-running author interview program that doubles as content marketing to book-reading audiences. The company is privately held with no disclosed venture or institutional shareholders beyond the affiliated Daiwa Printing entity.

Name

Bookscan Co., Ltd.

Legal name

株式会社ブックスキャン

Website

https://bookscan.co.jp

Company type

Private

Founded year

2010

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

Bookscan Co., Ltd. operates BOOKSCAN, a Japan-only self-serve platform founded in 2010 that scans customers' physical books into searchable cloud PDFs and delivers them via web and iOS/Android reader apps. It serves individual personal-library owners, enterprise buyers via a Professional tier, and visually impaired users through patented device optimization and OCR.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Book Digitization Services

NAICS

Book Publishers (513130), Book Publishers (51313), Books Printing (323117), Software Publishers (513210)

SIC

Books: Publishing Or Publishing & Printing (2731), Book Printing (2732), Services-Computer Processing & Data Preparation (7374)

akta.pro primary industry

E-book Retail & Reading Platforms (Stores, Apps, Devices) (MPAJAMAA)

akta.pro secondary industries

eBook & Digital Reading Platforms (BPAMAJAK), Audiobook Retail & Subscription Platforms (Direct-to-Consumer) (MPAJAIAD)

Keywords

• Book digitization services
• Document scanning services
• Ebook conversion services
• Ocr text extraction
• Cloud ebook storage

Headquarters

HQ city

Setagaya

HQ country

Japan

HQ region

Asia

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Supply Chain

Revenue model

1. Book Scanning (Per-Transaction): Core revenue from scanning physical books into digital PDFs. Pricing is per book based on page count (165 JPY per book for up to 350 pages; additional 165 JPY per 200-page increment beyond 350 pages). Revenue is transaction-based, one-time per scan order. Standard membership allows per-use ordering. Premium membership provides a monthly scanning allowance at a flat rate.
2. Premium Membership Subscription: Monthly subscription membership (reportedly ~9,980 JPY/month) providing higher monthly scanning allowances and priority processing. Premium members also receive free access to all device tuning services via the Tuning Lab.
3. Optional Add-On Services: Optional paid services including OCR text extraction (165 JPY/book), file name customization (82.5 JPY/book), USB hard drive delivery (4,950 JPY per USB), and hard disk delivery (22,200 JPY per 1TB).
4. BOOKSCAN Professional Enterprise Scanning: High-volume professional scanning service for businesses and organizations requiring high resolution (up to 600dpi), non-standard formats (JPEG, TIFF), and multi-language OCR. Priced at 3,630 JPY/book minimum.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

BOOKSCAN Co., Ltd. operates a book digitization service that scans customers' physical books and converts them into digital PDFs stored in the cloud, accessible via dedicated iOS and Android reader apps. The service is priced at 165 JPY per book (up to 350 pages) and includes patented Tuning Lab device optimization for approximately 130 reading devices, OCR text search, AI-powered summarization, text-to-speech audio playback, and freehand annotation features. A separate BOOKSCAN Professional tier targets enterprise customers with high-resolution (up to 600dpi) and multi-language OCR document scanning.

Product overview

BOOKSCAN operates as a book digitization platform consisting of the core BOOKSCAN service (physical book scanning and cloud storage), the BOOKSCAN Reader app (mobile access and annotation), the Tuning Lab add-on (device optimization and text-to-speech audio), AI summarization, OCR text search, and collection statistics. The BOOKSCAN Professional tier serves enterprise scanning needs. All services integrate through a unified customer account and web/app interface.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• BOOKSCAN Professional: Professional-grade book scanning service for businesses, supporting higher resolution (up to 600dpi), additional file formats (JPEG, TIFF, PDF), multilingual OCR, and bulk document digitization at ¥3,630 per book.

Products and services

• BOOKSCAN
• BOOKSCAN Reader App (モバイルアプリ)
• Tuning Lab (チューニングラボ / 電子書籍最適化サービス)
• BOOKSCAN Professional

Quantifiable outcome

• Lens contamination rate reduced to approximately 2 pages per 100,000 scanned pages with automated lens cleaning, further reduced with manual full-page visual inspection.
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability4 records

Feature9 records

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Market position

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/bookscan-inc-

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Bookscan Co., Ltd.