"Tsuduki ha Web de"(続きはウェブで, continued to the web) is an internet era's Japanese phrase used so often on television commercial films ("CM" in Japanese) nowadays. Many commercial ends with a search box image and narration tells this "continued to the web", to expect watchers to search their brand or catch phrase on their PC.

This month, Coca Cola Japan [J] starts new TV commercial ends with "Tsuduki ha Twitter de" for its canned coffee brand "Georgia" [J]. You may see it on the end of this 15 seconds commercial [J].

The suggested search phrase "Hon'nouji ha hen" takes you to the campaign site both via Yahoo! Japan and Google. Well, this type of campaign depends on search results, but at least advertiser buys the first positioned ad.

The campaign itself is a Si-Fi novel based on 16th century history, and there are 8 characters tweeting their part to make up the story.

See Also:

CM no Tsuduki ha Web de [J] - A blog records about 1,000 "Continued to the web" style commercial film cases

Tags: Japan, Trend by Akky Akimoto
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Did you know that Microsoft Office Assistant Clippy is not so popular (or not so hated) in Japan?

Japanese version had a Dolphin "Kairu"(came from anagram of "Iruka", dolphin in Japanese) as default, and also had a secretary look-alike original assistant "Saeko sensei" in vivid orange suits. For people care, "Saeko" is a girls name which means "smart girl" and "sensei" is a teacher.

It is the same that this personification of guidance did not win office workers applause here in Japan, and they were removed on Office 2007. But there were some fans of her.

However, Microsoft Japan opened a teaser site this month with some movie, on which a Saeko-sensei-style actress is filming something.

As hold up on the page, Saeko sensei seems to come back on the new Office 2010. Twitter account @saeko2010 is also referred, and both say that everything will be clear on April 22nd.

[Update 2010-04-19] The 4th video today showed her face.

In the video, she talks in Osaka dialect.

[Update 2010-04-22] Now all set.

Tags: Japan, News by Akky Akimoto
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Japan's major television broadcasting network Fuji TV, who has just generated a topic of conversation [J] among Japanese twitter users with the first Twitter featured TV drama, also launched their own microblogging service Imatsubu [J]. Ima means "now" and Tsubu is abbreviation of Tubuyaku, "to tweet".

As always as a new microblog imitator, Imatsubu provides a Twitter interlock feature so you may duplicate your messages into your Twitter account.

My Imatsubu account is akky [J].

Tags: Japan, New Service by Akky Akimoto
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Japanese character merchandising company Bandai announced it would open Gundam Cafe[J] in Akihabara next weekend, in commemoration with the animation series' 30th anniversary.  The cafe is located just a minute away from JR Akihabara station and under elevated railroads.

The cafe serves Jaburo Coffee which is connected to a story of the series about a fictional military base in Jaburo, Brazil, and Gun-Pla-Yaki or a gundam-shape pancake.

This will be a new must-visit spot for foreign tourists as well.

enlarge the map.
(There used to be Ishimaru's mobile shop at this site.)

Tags: Company, Japan, News by Masaru IKEDA
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Japan's ruling Democratic Party of Japan(DPJ) decided to submit the bill removing the ban of election campaign using the Internet, which is intend to be applied for the upper house election this coming summer.   After the public office election law changes, candidates will be allowed to update their websites and to post blogs and tweets even on election period.   The bill will be submitted in April and be expected to be settled by late May.

Currently the law prohibits website updating, blog postings and e-mail because these actions are considered as "the distribution documents and drawings to an unspecified number of people."

Main points of the bill are:

1. Election campaign using the Internet is legally approved.   Any campaigning websites and blogs are allowed to be updated and to be browsed even on election period including vote day.
2. E-mails are allowed to be sent only to voters who have agreed to receive them in advance.
3. Non-candidates and non-members of political parties are not allowed to place any paid ads that make people imagine candidate's names or party's name.
4. The new law is set to be effective from the upper house election this year.
5. Violators will be punished.

Yahoo Japan set up a website[J] expecting removing the ban of election campaign using the Internet last November, and collected signatures of voters who have agreed were handed over to Japanese Minister of Public Affairs at the beginning of this month.

Via: The Sankei Shimbun[J]

See Also:

• Twitter & Politics: Can Tweets Change Our Society?
• Two Parties Start Cyber Negative Campaigning For Upcoming Election
• Election And Internet In Japan
• Election Campaigning On The Net: When Does Law Catch Up With Social Trends?

Tags: Japan, News by Masaru IKEDA
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