J-Novel is collaborating with eBookstore BOOK☆WALKER, an official retailer owned by publisher Kadokawa, to provide free reading through the month of April. This is to encourage readers to stay indoors during the coronavirus pandemic.

Light novels are short periodicals that are a popular format for aspiring authors in Japan. Many well-known anime and manga today were started as light novels. These include series like The Rising of The Shield Hero, That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, and Redo of Healer.

The free books (totaling 24 light novel series and 55 volumes) can be read online via J-Novel, or on mobile devices using BOOK☆WALKER’s mobile application, until April 30th. This applies to members, and non-members.

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic (also known as COVID-19 officially, or Chinese Flu to others) has affected many worldwide, from businesses to public gatherings and events. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]. This includes the postponement of GDC, and the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, along with the cancellation of E3 2020 (including digital events), and Comiket 98.

We also recently reported on Japanese ratings board CERO suspending operations during the state of emergency in Japan.

The Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering are mapping the virus’ spread [1, 2]. As of this time of writing, there have been over 1.496 million total confirmed cases worldwide, and over 1.069 million active cases. There have been over 89,000 deaths, however over 336,000 people have made a “total recovery.”

Japan has had a total of 4,667 cases (3,941 active cases), 94 deaths, and 632 recoveries.