China Publishing Group, The China National Publication Import and Export (Group) Corporation, Japan Tohan Corporation and its sub-company signed a cooperation contract in Beijing Tuesday to set up a joint venture in Tokyo.

The new company will mainly publish and sell books and magazines about China, comics, CDs, and DVDs to bookstores, retail stores, and convenience stores in Japan, with the full use of Tohan's distribution channels in Japan, according to the agreement.

Hirotada Kotaki, director and senior adviser of Tohan Corporation, said this cooperation would further promote the copyright trade between the two countries.

However, the size of the investment and the ratio of equity allocations were not revealed Tuesday.

The cooperation has been seen as "joining hands in strength, realizing a win-win situation," said Wu Shulin, deputy director of the General Administration of Press and Publications.

Tohan Corporation, founded in 1949 in Tokyo and supplying Japanese publications to domestic and overseas bookstores, distributors, and overseas branches of Japanese bookstores, is the largest distributor of its kind.

China Publishing Group, established in April 2003, has under its umbrella 15 large enterprises including the Commercial Press, the Zhonghua Book Company, the Xinhua Bookstore and others.

Also on Tuesday, China's Phoenix Publishing and Media Group, and French Hachette Book Group, unveiled their joint venture, Hachette-Phoenix Cultural Development (Beijing) Company Ltd., in Beijing.

Phoenix Publishing and Media Group is the largest in China in terms of annual sales volume and assets. The new joint venture aims at introducing foreign publications and promoting Chinese books in international markets.