On Monday, Livedoor Co., Ltd.[J] launched "EDGE src [J]", a new website which showcases Livedoor's software and source code which is being distributed to developers under its open-source policy.

The company set up an internal team and a project called "EDGE [J]" to develop software and services on an experimental basis. Since its inception last October, the team has released a number of free software projects including a recommendation engine, a web application framework, an RSS reader and an Apache web server module (similar to mod_auth_cookie) to manage the length of time a server remembers a user's credentials.

The company encourages developers to use these resources and to develop their own applications.  The code has also been adopted in some of its portal sites.

The company is killing two birds with one stone.   Results coming in from the experimental project contribute to both promoting the company's name and fostering developer communities.

Livedoor is well known for having attempted to take over the giant Tokyo broadcaster Fuji-TV, and also for a 2006 incident in which the company's founder and former CEO was arrested on accusations of securities fraud.

The new names "EDGE" and "EDGE src" come from the company's original name "Livin' on the edge".  These choices reflect Livedoor's employees' determination to remember their beginnings and to do business honestly in an effort to recover their users' trust and to effect a turnaround in the company's business.

From my point of view, Japanese tech ventures such as Livedoor's EDGE project, seem to set up systems allowing employees to spend a part of their time working on projects that aren't necessarily in their job descriptions, copying Google's 20-percent rule which continues to breed innovative products and services.

(Proofread by: Sean O'Hagan)

Tags: Japan, New Service, News by Masaru IKEDA
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As we go through this "great recession", some of us may find that our wallets feel a bit lighter than usual. We can no longer enjoy the pricey cuts of beef we like so much, nor can we splurge on expensive bottles of wine.

Many Japanese people are no doubt feeling the pinch as well. In these cases, a typical response may be to reluctantly downgrade from domestic beef (i.e. safe, delicious, marbled, beer-fed, and massaged) to foreign (i.e. mad-cow ridden, plain, tough, and cow-brain-fed). But, what if your wallet is so light, that even this is not an option?

This is where the Air Yakiniku website comes in. Air Yakiniku is a sizzling visual and auditory web-based substitute for real meat. (For those of you who don't know what yakiniku is, go here. Or better yet, go to a real yakiniku restaurant.)

Using the Air Yakiniku system is simple (see video on the site). When setting your table, leave enough room for a laptop computer in front of you. Place a bowl of rice and some dipping sauce on the table, get chopsticks ready, and access the website. Focus on the grilled meat on the screen. When you see the chopstick sign, click it and watch a disembodied hand pick up the meat and move it offscreen. Fill your mouth with rice. Can you taste the meat? (I couldn't. But, maybe you'll be luckier.)

Is your laptop's keyboard full of rice and sauce splashes? Dress it up with the optional paper apron. Are you an Air Yakiniku newbie? If so, then practice by chewing on meat substitutes like erasers or blue-green pixelated things (again, see video).

Air Yakiniku might not translate well in western countries. However, the idea has potential if carefully localized. Consider: Air Bacon and Eggs, Air Chicken Wings, or Air TV Dinner.

Breakfast, lunch, dinner. With your girlfriend, or with your family. Enjoy Air Yakiniku any way you like!

Air Yakiniku was produced by Recruit, a publisher of employment, housing, and travel-related books, magazines, and web sites.

(P.S. Some visitors to Japan have scoffed at yakiniku, okonomiyaki, and other such foods which require restaurant customers to more or less cook their own food. However, once the food has been cooked (which is fun), and eaten (delicious), the scoffing typically stops cold.)

Tags: Japan, New Service, Video by Sean OHagan
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Japan, the country of Nintendo, Sony and Sega, doesn't have a decent casual gaming site anymore (Hangame is big but doesn't really count in this area). That's what Timo Meyer, fellow German and founder of Tokyo-based gaming portal Wazap, told me recently (Wazap has recently launched their own casual gaming section).

The reason: On January 31, Shockwave Japan closed, a hub for casual games and a subsidiary of Shockwave, a company owned by Viacom in the US. The Japanese site was majority owned by Tokyo-based Transcosmos and established as early as July 2000. It boasted 3.1 unique visitors and 55 million page views monthly in April 2008.

No official reasons were given for the move on the Japanese site. A banner on the site simply says Shockwave Japan ceased to exist. But there are rumors about weak ad sales and an investment in a game that missed expectations.

Click on the link at the very bottom of the Shockwave Japan top page to view a short (and sad) animation on the company's history (Japanese only).

Via Wazap Blog

Tags: Company, Japan by Serkan Toto
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About Google's Marketing Activities - Google Japan Blog

Under the name of the Senior Marketing Manager Koji Baba, they announced on their official blog,

"Google Japan is running several promotional activities to let people know more about our products.

It turns out that using blogs on the part of the promotional activities violates Google's search guidelines, so we have ended the promotion. We would like to apologize to the people concerned and to our users, and are making an effort to make our communications more transparent in order to prevent the recurrence of such an incident."

As you can see, it does not link to any other blogs or news items, such as our report or TechCrunch's follow-up ( I'm guessing that TechCrunch Japan's translated article is the direct cause for this apology.) So we cannot see "which activities" were violated nor how they will be fixed. How transparent!

See Also:

Google Japan Buys Dirty Pay-Per-Post Links | Asiajin

(Proofread by Sean O'Hagan)

Tags: Japan, News by Akky Akimoto
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Google Japan seems desperate in chasing the Mighty Yahoo! (see here for example). They are now using a tainted and controversial social media optimization method called pay-per-post, provided by CyberBuzz.

Recently, Google Japan announced a top-page redesign on their official blog, in which they added a "Google Kyuujyoushou Waado (Hot Keywords)" feature. This addition displays the 5 most searched-for keywords in the previous 24 hours. Google Japan planned the new feature to help with their tough search-share fight against nemesis Yahoo! Japan.

In the screenshot above, just below the search box section, 5 keywords are listed with links to their respective Google searches.

At the same time, there are a number of blog entries on Google's blog widget (called "blog parts" in Japanese) reviewing this "Hot Keywords" feature, all of them strangely resembling each other.

When you search for "Google Hot Keywords Ranking" + "Blog Widget" + "CyberBuzz" in Japanese on Google Blog Search, you will see over 30 posts by bloggers writing about this new service, saying things like "I'm a part of the CyberBuzz campaign" or "You can earn some money by writing interesting stories provided by CyberBuzz". (e.g. 1, 2, 3, 4)

So Google Blog Search, which has been spammed for so long, is now spamming itself in Japan.

I have translated part of a random entry as an example:

The Google Hot Keywords blog widget [link to Google's page] can show you what is in fashion now, and what other people are interested in.

It's appealing that you can view buzzwords from the previous day or the previous week. I am sometimes surprised to see that such words are so popular! Personally, I like the "fortune-teller" feature from the previous week's ranking. When I click on a keyword, I am quickly taken to Google's result page and so I enjoy the feature.

I might not have noticed them by myself, but now I understand that these things are what people care about.

I am participating in CyberBuzz's campaign.

CyberBuzz is one of the biggest pay-per-post agencies in Japan and are known for their high payouts. (Some blog posts fetch $100 for a single entry.)

So they are now link-building using monetary incentives to try to crook their own search results in a malicious way. I think this is a waste of money and only tarnishes their reputation for fairness.

Google Japan also does business with notorious news-clipping site Gigazine, and has been running a few ad campaigns which include special customized banners. There are many article-like advertisements on the site.

These articles, which look almost the same as regular ones, have "ad" tags ("広告" in Japanese) at bottom, which are very subtle, and will no doubt not be noticed by many readers. You can see for yourself by clicking the screenshot below, and reading the (poor) explanation at the bottom of the article that the entry is in fact an advertisement.

[Update 2009.02.10] Google Japan Apologizes For Inappropriate Pay Per Post Use

via Netafull

(Proofread by Sean O'Hagan)

[Update 2012-01-05] US Google did the same mistake three years later when Matt Cutts penalized Google Japan.

Tags: Japan, News by Akky Akimoto
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