I was actually curious about the same thing but I guess while they're owned by a Japanese conglomerate, they were/are Canadian based? From their Wikipedia page:
Rakuten Kobo Inc., or simply Kobo, is a Canadian company that sells ebooks, audiobooks, e-readers and formerly tablet computers. It is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and is a subsidiary of the Japanese e-commerce conglomerate Rakuten. The name Kobo is an anagram of book.