Asiajin

If you ever lived in Japan, you know that Japanese address system is uneasy for people who get used to the western system on which all streets have a name and name+number identify the single location.
In Japan, addresses are rather area name.

Two Giants Yahoo! Japan and Google have been working well with this different system and providing pretty good service to Japanese web users. Out of 4 nationwide map companies (Zenrin, Shoubunsha, Increment P and Alps-sha), Yahoo! Japan helped bankrupted Alps-sha and merged it in April 2008. Google Maps is supported by Zenrin’s data.

However, Kyoto, the thousand-years-old former capital, has yet another different method of address notation besides the official postal address, and that casual ones are used daily and on travel guidebooks.

The newly released Geodosu (“-dosu” is a typical Kyoto dialect suffix) Kyoto Traditional Address Search, now supports both Japanese and English, offers what Yahoo/Google Maps cannot do, search by the addresses which Kyoto people are really using. Kyoto geocoder API is also provided.

The Geodosu project is run by Locazing Inc. and Annai LLC.

Tags: Japan, New Service by Akky Akimoto
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Japanese pop singer and song-writer Kohmi Hirose[J] (@kohmi), who has released a number of popular songs in ’90s and been singing winter dating stuffs for young couples, is also one of the celebrity twitterers.   Kohmi exchanged many tweets with Kazuyo Katsuma[J] (@kazuyo_k), a friend of her, economist and the best-selling business book author in Japan, and found out what Twitter is and how it can contribute especially in giving her a good opportunity for the better interactive communication with her fans.

Kohmi calls Twitter a nickname “he-we-he-heey” (an onomatopoeia) as she pleases, and today she released an original theme song[J] titled “Viva! he-we-he-heey!”.

As far as we’ve learned from several news sources, Kohmi composed the song on her voluntary basis, and she didn’t seem to be asked to do so by Twitter’s management or its Japanese business partner Digital Garage.   In the future, Twitter might have several aliases especially in non-English speaking countries, but this could be also an essential combination of ultimate translation and well-localized marketing strategy to be required when a new service goes into a different country from where the service originates.

Meanwhile, Digital Garage announced it would co-develop a localized mobile interface for Japanese Twitterers this fall, which caused its share price to mark limit-up on Thursday.

Tags: Community, Japan, News, Person by Masaru IKEDA
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When we purchase something to wear on the Internet, what the most unsatisfied thing is that we cannot try it on before making an order.   Japanese major clothing e-retailers usually accept returning item even after the item has been tried on.   This helps to minimize the disadvantage of e-commerce services, and to make up a difference with convenience that face-to-face retailers may give you.    Sure, I agree that it could be well work for ready-made items retailers, but…is that all?   Anything else?

Odawara-headquartered nationwide optical retail chain Megane Super[J] added a virtual fitting feature on the company’s e-commerce site, which allows you to feel as though you could try your choice of glasses on with a 3D animation overlapped with your portrait.   You can experience the feature at the chain’s real store in Akihabara as well, and it makes you possible to take your favorite pair of glasses from the variety of 200 different lens frames and 15 colors of lens, and to purchase it on the web.

The virtual fitting feature uses a brand new technology developed by Tokyo-based tech start-up Motion Portrait.  In order to tell the power of your glasses to the optician, you’ll be requested to take either one from the following options:

• sending the optician a prescription prepared by your ocular.
• ordering glasses having the same lens power with that you’ve previously purchased at any store of the chain
• entering your contact lens power on the web, and the optician will calculate your glasses lens power from it.

If you have no way to find how strong your glasses power is, the optician’s chain highly recommends you to drop by any of its 430 stores located nationwide for a consultation.

The following video shows you a presentation made by Motion Portrait at Infinity Ventures Summit 2009 Spring.   The company won the top prize at the event. (See also Serkan Toto’s story on this for TechCrunch.)

Via Impress Internet Watch[J]

Tags: Company, Japan, New Service, Technology by Masaru IKEDA
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