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Real PM Hatoyama Finally Speaks On Twitter


Following the confusion that his spoofing account has caused, the real prime minister Hatoyama finally appeared on Twitter[J] on the New Year's Day of 2010.

He posted a message as follows:

A happy new year to all citizens.   I hope you keep in touch with us this year as well.   Today I just started Twitter and launched a blog titled Hatocafe[J]. Please drop me a tweet with @hatoyamayukio as a recipient if any comment.   I try to post at least a message a day until I get used to do.

As of noon on January 1st, 2010, he follows 983 users and is followed by 6,780 users.

Hatocafe is his official blog and maintained by the cabinet office.   Its first post shows you a snap shot of the blue sunny sky taken in front of the cabinet office building in this year's first morning.

Meanwhile, as Akky reported here on Asiajin, Hatoyama Administration is planning to set up a website called ハトミミ(hatomimi).com for collecting the citizen's requests and opinions directly, but they learned that the domain name had been taken away by the third party, and the blogosphere points out such a ill-prepared arrangement.

According to Japan's National Information Security Center, governmental entities are ordered to use .go.jp domains for setting up their websites, for preventing users from possible phishing access to spoofing government-related websites.   Now when we look at ハトミミ(hatomimi).com, it shows us anti-administration messages that someone has posted.

Japan’s Index Corp. To Launch (Apparently Gigantic) Virtual Mall In China


Tokyo-based (and JASDAQ-listed) Index Corp. has decided to shake hands with Chinese retail giant Hualian to launch and run a large virtual shopping mall. Somehow surprisingly, Index, a leading mobile contents provider, will develop the site for China's fixed web and not the country's rapidly growing mobile web.

The main idea is to offer an online portal through which Chinese web users can buy products from local and foreign companies that wish to reach Chinese consumers. Index and Hualian announced the portal will be ready sometime next year.

Index says they'll use the experience they gained from running an electronic points program in Japan for the Chinese site (shoppers will be able to collect points through buying products online or in the real world and redeem those points later for cash and other things).

So nothing really that interesting there. But Index and Hualian have big plans: The yet to be named virtual mall is expected to generate 500 billion yen ($5.37 billion) in sales per year in 2013. This means Index wants the joint venture to double Rakuten's sales numbers within three years, coming from zero (Japan's No. 1 virtual mall generated "just" $2.6 billion in sales, mostly in Japan, in fiscal 2008). Call me dubious.

Via Nikkei [registration required, paid subscription]