Asahi Reports Mixi To Begin Free Call Service, Mixi Denies


Asahi Digital published an interview of new Mixi president Yusuke Asakura [J], titled “Mixi expand to free call app business beyond social network” today.

Mixi quickly released a short release that it is not a fact [J].

22 Million Yahoo! Japan ID Could Be Leaked


yahoo japan logo

Yahoo! Japan announced on May 17th night [J] that they found that their account management server got raided, a file having 22 million of their user account names left on the server.

The announcement said that they can not deny the possibility of the file transferred to outside of the company’s network. However, as the file did not include any other information such like password, secret questions for password recovery, etc., they wrote that those public account name disclosed will not cause serious trouble such like others log in your account.

[Update] Reuters report it.

Mixi Closes “Mixi Video” And “Mixi Coworker’s Network”


mixi, Inc. [J] has announced the termination of service for “mixi coworker’s network” and mixi video [J] on the SNS “mixi.”

Service for “Mixi coworker’s network” began in June of 2010, and it allows you to find coworkers who register their place of work at the same company as yourself.  Also, “Mixi video” is Mixi’s own video sharing function which opened in February of 2007, and it allowed users to upload videos and paste them onto their profile or diary entries.  However according to the company, because both services are falling short of their expectations for user numbers, they came to the conclusion that they should focus their attentions on other communication services and bring these to a close.  “Mixi coworker’s network” will close service on May 23rd (Thurs.), and “Mixi video” will halt new video posts from May 23rd and terminate service at the end of July.  Also, from June (planned), they will offer a service that allows download of posted video data.

Translation authorized by VSMedia

Facebook Japan Replaces Its Head Following To Mixi


3 days ago we reported that Mixi is to have a young new president. Now Facebook Japan announced that a new president, according to Markezine [J]. Same as Mixi, this is the first time of presidency change.

Atsuhi Iwashita, who is going to take the president seat on May 20, have served as CEO for Interbarnd’s Japan arm since 2010. Before that, he worked for McDonald Japan as a Chief Marketing Officer.

Facebook once passed Mixi by number of active users, but recently the number dropped down from its peak, at least on the number Facebook itself shows on its advertisement tool. Mixi shows gradual decrease but not such big so at this point which social network is bigger in Japan depends on which research you rely on.

Japan’s Most Annoying Website To Be Shut Down Soon


aiseikai-hospital

ITMedia reports that the notorious website of Aiseikai Hospital is planned to be closed within 2 months, a son of the hospital head revealed on his Twitter account @miya_blu_swing. The tweet [J] has been retweeted more than 2,000 times.

The screenshot above can not show you the vividness of the site. You should check it before closed. It is not a joke site or for enlightenment, a real hospital site.

The site has been there around the end of last century, frequently referred as a very bad example of web design in Japanese. Here is a version in 2000 thanks for the Internet Archive and @No_1026 [J]