Toughbook: Japan’s favorite notebook

Q: What is the favorite notebook brand with Japanese developers? MacBook? maybe. Vaio? no. It’s Toughbook. Toughbook business laptops are marketed with ‘Let’s note’ brand in Japan. This ultra-light notebook has a surprisingly large share amongst Japanese developers. If you are looking for light (940g~1.5kg. 2lbs~3.3lbs), tough (water resistant) and long battery life (>6hours) notebook,… Continue reading Toughbook: Japan’s favorite notebook

Community: Japan PHP Users Group

Nihon PHP User Kai(Japan PHP Users Group) is a community about PHP, open source script language and environment. It aims to, contribute to the development of PHP further research and share PHP related info promote communication and technical exchange amongst PHP users In order to make PHP more friendly to the Japanese Web Development community,… Continue reading Community: Japan PHP Users Group

Mobile phone companies to filter web content for minors

Mobage town, a social network and gaming site for mobile phones, is now in deep crisis. From December 10th, the Japanese government has requested mobiles phone companies to filter web content for minors. The filtering policy is very strict. It prohibits minors from accessing web sites in ‘communication’ criterion. ‘communication’ means all web sites with… Continue reading Mobile phone companies to filter web content for minors

Kin-en-style: Smoke-free restaurants directory

Kin-en-style (禁煙スタイル, smoke-free style) is a restaurant listing site which only lists smoke-free places. Japan’s smoking regulation law is not as rigid as the USA or European countries. They can smoke at almost every bar, restaurant and cafe (except Starbucks). The Japanese smoking rate is 30.9%, a very large figure. Not everyone is happy with… Continue reading Kin-en-style: Smoke-free restaurants directory

Mixi’s CTO to step down

Mixi, No.1 Social Networking Service in Japan, today announced that Batara ETO will leave his CTO job at the end of December, 2007. Eto, who is originally born in Indonesia recently naturalized (his former name was Batara Kesuma), is well know as a person to suggested Social Network Service in E-Mercury, the former name of… Continue reading Mixi’s CTO to step down

Bounen Kaigi 2007 report (2)

The first part of Bounen Kaigi report is here Hosts’ topics Co-hosts talked which net services they are interested in recently, their own project plans for 2008. Sponsor corner From all attendee’s votes for “The Kanji letter of 2007”, Yahoo! Japan guys chose a letter “Warai”(langh, smile). The 4 voters for “Warai” played “Janken” (Rock,… Continue reading Bounen Kaigi 2007 report (2)

Bounen Kaigi 2007 report (1)

The 5th annual year-end conference “Bounen Kaigi 2007” was held at Yahoo! Japan meeting room, Tokyo Midtown, Roppongi, Tokyo. This year’s sponser is Yahoo! Japan. Bounen Kaigi, which name is an original word made from “Bounenkai”(year-forgetting party in Japanese) and “Kaigi”(meeting, conference) started in December 2003, by Gen Taguchi, the owner of the most influent… Continue reading Bounen Kaigi 2007 report (1)

Asiajin launches

We’d like to announce the arrival of a weblog called ‘Asiajin’ which introduces Asian Internet startups to English speaking readers. Asiajin will provide you information about Asian Internet trends, company profiles, key people, communities, conferences and events. We provide you essential information for professionals who want to do business in Asian market. You may or… Continue reading Asiajin launches

Niconico douga

Niconico douga is a rapidly growing video sharing site in Japan. Site’s feature is not very different from Youtube, but one cool difference gained big attraction. The difference is a comment feature which enables users to write timely comments on the video screen itself. The feature allowed users to share ‘experience’ with other users. Niconico… Continue reading Niconico douga