(photo by airgap)

This may not be really web/IT for regular Asiajin, but fuel saving is supported by IT, and car and software may be hot topic around US Toyota incident, too (thanks for link Paul).

More than 10 foreign car brands including Hummer H3 V8 were added to the government's "Eco Car" tax reduction program which encourages people to replace their current cars with more environmental friendly ones.

Japan Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry announced that they expand their tax reduction program for eco-friendly cars to more foreign brands [J, pdf].

Foreign car vendors and importers have been protested that governmental stimulus packages mostly help Japanese cars.

We are very happy about how we appreciate that the Japanese government announced yesterday that they have, I guess after listening to our arguments, amended those regulations to the extent that foreign cars can more easily prove compliance with those requirements, as far as fuel efficiency requirements are concerned.

comment by Chairman of JAIA, Japan Automobile Importers Association

via Sankei Shimbun [J]

Tags: Japan, News by Akky Akimoto
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Suddenly in Japan, small shop owners start thinking Twitter as a guerilla marketing tool. Ashton Kutcher could have eaten over $40,000 worth sushi in Tokyo if he knew it.

The first one was a board game shop Sugorokuya(@sugorokuya) [J] at Koenji of west Tokyo, which offered "discount by number of your Twitter followers" campaign [J] from January 25th.

That was rapidly spread among Japanese Twitter users. Within a week, at least three popular blogger/Twitter users, who are followed by over 100,000, visited the shop, @akiyan (report), @taguchi of 100shiki and @kotoripiyopiyo of Gizmodo Japan.

All of those big names, however, used very small chunk of their massive followers power. On their report, all of them got one inexpensive game for free, and purchased another. Instead they wrote a report on their blog and all of them were in hot topics.

They could have bought $2000 boardgames, but the shop's condition is to tweet about the purchase. So person who already took fame may not want to dump their reputations. It seems working so far.

Their discount will last until February 7th, unless their campaign budget exhausts (this condition was added by advises on reply tweets).

The second follower is a sushi restaurant Saisho in Shinagawa, Tokyo.

On their twitter, "discount by number of your followers" day was announced, which was today February 4th.

There are some really popular Twitter users appeared,

• ksorano - Japanese Amanda Congdon (not recorded but live streaming) (10,943 followers)
• Hamachiya2 - individual web security enlightener (9,579)
• otsune - well known "web watcher" (8,201)
• yteppei - tech blogger (116,810)
• gothedistance - blogger (3,123). his report
• kansai_takako - Retweeter (4,176)

and more.

Inside of the sushi restaurant was broadcasted both on Ustream and TwitCasting which was just released yesterday. Total viewers of them passed 1,000, though it was not known who would show up.

There is a hotel offering the same "number of followers" discount in Mie prefecture. Takoyaki restaurant in Kagoshima prefecture announced "1/10 of your followers discount".

Tags: Japan, Trend by Akky Akimoto
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Yahoo Japan released 16 free iPhone Apps simultaneously at Japanese iTunes Store. By locating each app on the screen correctly, like solving a number slider puzzle, you can depict a face of the most famous character in Japan, Doraemon.

Each app icon is designed to be a part of the face of this character. Usually, iPhone app icons have a unique gradation effect  common to all, but icons of those apps don't have such kind of effect on them.

These apps were released as a part of the campaign to promote the animation movie of Doraemon. Apps are comprised by 11 comic book  apps, a battery level checker app, mini-game apps and etc.

Currently, 16 apps are all ranked in the top 20 free apps in Japanese iTunes App store.

Tags: Japan, Joke, Software by Hiroumi Mitani
1 Comment »

Yesterday's big news around live streaming was Ustream raised from Japanese Softbank. Today, another mobile video streaming launched from Japan (the service is English/Japanese bilingual), TwitCasting by Sidefeed.

http://img.asiajin.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/twitcasting.png">

A free iPhone Application side of TwitCasting is a Twitter client with video broadcasting which boasts low latency (0.1 sec to 0.3 sec within Japan, as they say). On Sidefeed CEO's blog [J], the CEO Yosuka Akamatsu recommends to use iPhone 3GS for the best experience, though the movie's frame rate are adjusted with your environment.

The broadcast movie can be viewed on TwitCasting website by standard web browsers (on Flash) and iPhone/iPod Touch (QuickTime).

Here is the introduction video (Japanese audio/English subtitle),

SideFeed is known by its spin-off service Joker Racer, which got the Grand Prix at WISH 2009 startup event in Tokyo last year.

Tags: Cellular Phone, Japan by Akky Akimoto
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I have just read the breaking news that Softbank invests $75 million to Ustream Inc., live video streaming service. When Softbank will exercise all option, it will be the lead investor with over 30%.

Yesterday, Softbank announced that they would broadcast their third quoter results report over several different channels like follows,

• Softbank Website
• Yahoo! Japan's BB Broadcast (only mentioned in Japanese, could be restricted inside Japan)
• Twitter (hashtag #sbIR3Q)
• Ustream, and dedicated free iPhone viewer
• Cellphone broadcast (only mentioned in Japanese, sounds like only in Japan)
• Cellphone (Toll free from Japan)

When I saw this announcement, I wonder why Softbank added two new channels, Twitter and Ustream, which they did not use at former broadcast. Especially Ustream, because Softbank has Yahoo! BB Broadcast and some other broadcast services they can use. Now I know why Ustream is there.

The broadcast will be done both in Japanese and English, starting around 16:30 February 2nd, 2010 Japan Standard Time, which is just 1 hour from now.

See also:

Softbank's release on Ustream, Inc. investment

Tags: Japan by Akky Akimoto
1 Comment »