The official name of this association is the “Japan Electronic Publishing Association”, abbreviated to JEPA.

The philosophy of this association, in line with the social change brought on by the information technology of Japan and the world, is to establish the expression of a new culture, namely “electronic publishing” as a lifestyle, and to contribute to the development of society. To this end, our objective is to establish the electronic publishing industry, and to work toward its advancement in the years to come.

To solve the various issues that will be faced, and for pioneering future prospects, the main activities of this association are for member companies such as publishing companies, electronic manufacturers, software houses, printing companies, and communication carriers, with the purpose to research, study, plan, propose, edit, produce, publicize, distribute, and circulate electronic publishing and the various information medium, to surpass industries and come together to hold seminars and workshops for various researches and studies, and to operate committees as the expert committee, executive board, board of directors, and the general assembly for the smooth running of the organizational operations.

This association has created specialized committees such as the Copyright Committee, National Diet Library Cooperation Committee, Committee in charge of Regular Meetings, Seminar Committee, Publicity Committee, Membership Expansion Committee, EP Exhibition Executive Committee, Electronic Publishing Distribution Committee, WORLD FONT Research Committee, Digital Information Business Research Committee, Multimedia Publishing Research Committee, Entertainment Research Committee, and the Recording Media Research Committee. And through each committee, this association has worked toward the diffusion of state-of-the-art technology and education, the promotion of enterprise of the member companies, setting technological standards and standardization of specifications. The number of sessions of these assemblies just within the last 10 years have exceeded over 340 times.

The various activities of JEPA actively promote and organize each specialized committee accordingly. Currently, the below five specialized committees are being operated.

1. The Committee in charge of Regular Meetings…
   The main purpose is to promote operations reciprocally between members.
2. Copyright Committee…
   To research the copyrights concerning electronic publishing.
3. Internet Utilization Research Committee…
   To study how electronic publishing should be utilized over the networks, mainly the internet.
4. Publicity Committee…
   The main purpose is to communicate the activities of the electronic publishing association internally and externally.
5. Digital Information Business Research Committee…
   To study the activities that will enable electronic publishing in the actual business scene through the collection and exchange of technologies and information related to the industry.
6. JEPA Activation Special Committee
   To evaluate and examine the need for reconstruction of organization and roles for the further activation of JEPA.

Each committee is organized accordingly to each year’s activity details, and has the optimum system set up for the necessary research and activities.