American Popular Game blog Kotaku licensed its brand and contents to a Japanese company Mediagene, after their first localized blog in Australia to open a new blog media [J] in, one of the most important countries for game industry and market, Japan.

Mediagene already has been running two Japanese version of popular English blogs provided by Gawker Media, Gizmodo Japan [J] and Lifehacker [Japanese version] [J].

Kotaku Japan introduces its 12 staff of editors, translators, column writers, manga drawer, etc [J].

Kotaku Japan’s direct competitor may be 4Gamer.net [J], which is not blog-originated but a successful online media around game information in Japan. On their media sheet they say 4Gamer.net’s page views is 40 million per month. The border between blog-based and non-blog-based professional media is not clear now.

hat tip to Kirikomi-Taicho

Tags: Japan, News, USA by Akky Akimoto
No Comments »

“Bakuon Sentai Sumpu Ranger[J]“, or the roaring squadron Sumpu ranger, is a popular local rock band originating in Hamamatsu City which is well-known as the birthplace of Honda Motor, Suzuki Motor, Yamaha and Kawai Musical Instruments.

The band composed a song to call the local people’s attention to the dangers of phishing scams, and the song was published on crime-prevention and police-related information portal site “Police Channel[J]“.

Hamamatsu is also known for eel farming and their locals’ honesty, so they rarely question strangers.   Police say this local characteristic is reflected in the high number of scam victims — the prefecture that Hamamatsu City belongs to recorded the highest number of phishing scam crimes among all prefectures in Japan.

The local heroes lend the people a helping hand to rehabilitate themselves.

• Download an MP3 music file (6.7MB  5 mins. 39 secs.)
• Download a PDF file of the song’s lyrics (110KB)

Via Impress BB Watch[J] and IT Media News[J]

(edited by Michael Yoshitaka Erlewine)

Tags: Community, Japan, Joke, News by Masaru IKEDA
No Comments »