During the iPad Mini event last year, Apple announced native Asian language support can be coming to iBooks. Now iOS fans in Japan can take more good thing about this native support because the iBookstore has made its far more than to the island nation.

Apple announced this morning that the iBookstore has officially launched in Japan. Very similar to the launch of the Kindle Store in Japan, Apple is touting plenty of exclusive titles in hopes that consumers will choose their store over the contest.

We’re excited to launch the iBookstore in Japan with a wide array of Japanese publishers and authors,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice chairman of Internet Software and Services. “We think customers are going to like how engaging and interactive the books are to read, and the way beautiful they give the impression of being on iPad.”

The biggest grab for the iBookstore is a suite of digital novels from Ryu Murakami. The novels contain experimental how one can tell stories in a digital format, including the addition of interactive emails in each chapter.

Children’s books, just like the charming Piyo-Chan: A Letter for Piyo, was updated at the iBookstore in addition to incorporate new interactive and visible elements.

Apple’s real win against Apple, however, is available in the shape of its exclusive choice of digital manga. The corporate announced that a whole color version of Hirohiko Araki’s JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 4 is exclusively available at the iBookstore.

With this news, expect Amazon to kick its Japanese Kindle business up a notch. There are lots of readers in Japan, and securing exclusive titles is how you can win in that specific market. After all, I’d be willing to bet that the winner may be whomever is ready to secure Murakami Haruki’s next novel, that is set to be published next month.