An is a strip of paper looped around a book or other product. This extends the term obi

Obi (sash)

is a sash for traditional Japanese dress, keikogi worn for Japanese martial arts, and a part of kimono outfits.The obi for men's kimono is rather narrow, wide at most, but a woman's formal obi can be wide and more than long. Nowadays, a woman's wide and decorative obi does not keep the kimono...

used for Japanese clothing; it is written with the same kanji

Kanji

Kanji are the adopted logographic Chinese characters hanzi that are used in the modern Japanese writing system along with hiragana , katakana , Indo Arabic numerals, and the occasional use of the Latin alphabet...

. It is also referred to as a (another kimono accessory), or more narrowly as .

For books

Many books in Japan are supplied with an obi, which is normally added outside any dust jacket

Dust jacket

The dust jacket of a book is the detachable outer cover, usually made of paper and printed with text and illustrations. This outer cover has folded flaps that hold it to the front and back book covers...

. However, a book in a slipcase may have an obi around the slipcase.

Within English, the term belly-band is sometimes used instead.

For other media

The term is also used for a strip that is looped over one side (usually on the left) or folded over the top of LP albums

LP record

The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...

 released in Japan, and folded over the left side of music CDs

Compact Disc

The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...

, video games, Laserdisc

Laserdisc

LaserDisc was a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. Initially licensed, sold, and marketed as MCA DiscoVision in North America in 1978, the technology was previously referred to interally as Optical Videodisc System, Reflective Optical Videodisc, Laser Optical...

s, or DVD

DVD

A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

s. This is also called tasuki.) Obi are unique to Japan and are used to provide the title of the product, track listings (if applicable), price, catalog number and information on related releases in Japanese. It is used by the consumer to determine what is included in the album or book, and the store can use the information for ordering. Products with an obi have become popular with some collectors, can fetch premium prices, and are collectible items in their own right. A record or CD with an intact obi is worth more than the same item without.