Finally, Softbank Mobile got the iPad Pre-sales started.  We could find no queue at their storefronts last Sunday's night, but the scenes have been changed in yesterday's morning.

(In front of Softbank Mobile Omotesando.  Picture courtesy: Japan's A-list brogger Ichiroo a.k.a. Kotori Piyopiyo[J])

The Nikkei reports more than 100 people have been queuing at Bic Camera (a large consumer electronics retailer) in Yurakucho, 70 people at Softbank's flagship store in Omotesando and more than 100 at Yodobashi Camera in Akihabara.

BTW, we reported that the iPad models to be purchased through Apple Stores and Apple's online store may be SIM lock free, but it was found that all the models sold in Japan are SIM locked and able to be used only on Softbank's 3G network regardless of the sales channels.   NTT DoCoMo seems to have got no information from Apple on that exclusiveness until the pre-sales started, and DoCoMo announced it had given up to sell SIM cards targeting the iPad users, Jiji News says[J].

Tags: Cellular Phone, Company, News by Masaru IKEDA
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Continued from (Part 1)

Second half of April news which we did not write as a dedicated article.

Referred pages are all in Japanese, unless otherwise stated.

• First Twitter TV Drama Synopsis
• Twitter Drama's First Episode Viewing Rate Was 11.9%, which is not so great
• Yahoo! Japan News Editorial Chief Published A Book "How to make Yahoo! Topics"
• Yokosuka's fishermen's cooperative starts direct sales of fishery caught.
• Unemployed Killed Father And Baby, Because Internet Access Was Stopped
• Twitter Drama Watchers Thought Twitter As Dodgy Dating Service - one got e-mail caution from brother
• Open Network Lab - Digital Garage, Netprice and Kakaku.com Opens Labs To Assist Entrepreneur Engineers Go Oversea [pdf] - Serkan Toto covered this on TechCrunch [En]
• Dentsu to Establish Dentsu Entertainment USA to Develop Original Content and Expand Global Licensing Sales [En], release [pdf]
• Yahoo! Japan and Macromill Talking On Yahoo Value Insight Merge To Macromill via Reuter
• Ramen Tairiku Minimalist's Windows Twitter Client For Office Workers
• Kyoto-based Questetra Listed On Gartner's "Cool Vendors in BPM, 2010" [En]
• Android Twitter Client Twicca More Popular In English Than Japanese (The 4th in a certain poll)
• GMO Ad Partners Buys Ad Network NeoAd Company Sanoh From Unoh
• Ajinomoto also starts "link to Twitter" TVCF including the promotion with a Twitter bot called Aji-Panda.
• Just System Releases Shogun's Mail Client
• Japan's government revitalization unit decided the following five companies as streaming broadcasters of budget screening live. NicoNico, Stickam, Ustream, ShareCast and DMM.com.
• KLab Closes Social Network Yumy Despites One Million Users Achieved
• HDMI Cable Extender By LAN Cable
• Asahi Shimbun Starts Web Shinsho (Web Book)
• HTML5 Dragon Quest (Firefox 3.6 Only)
• Illustration Embedded QR Code Generator QR-JAM (Windows, Freeware)
• Starbucks-NTTBP Free WiFi Hotspot Campaign For May
• AR Breast Enlargement (Was April Fool's Prank, but AR part works)
• World Networked Fraudulent Click Provider Surprised Net Users By Its Too Direct Explanation How They Make Your Site Access Up
• KDDI Starts Cellphone Drivers License Experiment
• 100shiki (From Gundam) PC Chassis
• iPhone Namecard Scanner App via @kurimax
• Japanese ex-Indonesian Third Lady Dewi Sukarno Accuses Ameblo By Her Blog Comments Censored
• Axe Summer Day Dream
• Lawson's Evangelion flagship store in Hakone, then cancelled because of too many fans gathered
• Sony To Terminate Selling Floppy Disk - ReadWriteWeb covered this news.
• Full Size Manga Ad Only With QR Code On Today's Asahi Shimbun - linked here
• WordCamp Yokohama 2010 officially announced
• Sharp, Panasonic, Fujitsu and NEC To Standardize Next Generation Cellphone OS. Four Companies Occupies About 70% Of Japan Market Share, release by NTT Docomo
• Kids screaming detection iPhone app
• Square-Enix's Japan-style iPhone App Takes Top On Several Countries
• Twitter Similar Icon Search "Kao-twi" (only works within half an million Japanese users)
• Ustream Menu Localized To Japanese. Ustream.jp covered by Mashable
• NetRatings Compare Mixi/Facebook, Mixi/Twitter Users Volume [pdf]
• MyGengo New Translation API Released
• CNET Japan (Part Of Asahi Shimbun) Trying To Close Readers Blog, Spurs protests
• One Senario Of New LovePlus+, Virtual Dating Game, Requires You To Travel All 47 Prefectures To Complete
• Gree Announced To Move Into Roppongi Hills This Summer. Same As Google Japan via CEO's tweet
• NTT Docomo To Sell Mini SIM For iPad - will iPad not be exclusive?
• ANA Allies With Mobile Geolocation Service Colopura
• Softbank's Music Labels Purchase Cancelled

If you want to know any specific news more, but unable to find them in other English blog/media, please let us know.

Tags: Japan by Akky Akimoto
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DeNA, which runs one of big three Japanese social networking Mobage-Town, today announced and immediately launched MiniNation and its games, their popular social games and its basement community in English on iPhone/iPad for oversea users.

The games and MiniNation are only available "outside of Japan". So it is not for their royal Japanese users but iPhone/iPad users who may have never heard DeNA or Mobage-Town. Apps are not accessible on Japanese iTunes Store.

MiniNation is a social community made of "mini-mail", bulletin boards, sa-kuru(club), etc. Virtual point currency is planned to be introduced later. Aurora Feint Inc.(California, USA)'s OpenFeint ID is also usable.

One of the initial four games is "Bandit Nation", which is an English version of their popular social game "Kaitou Rowaiyaru(Royal)".

"Kaitou Rowaiyaru" is kind of flagship game of Mobage-Town. There is a DeNA's commercial film dedicated to this game on-aired on television since last winter. I could not find the CM uploaded on the web.

This is a fan-made movies of a club in the game, to recruit members.

And some took the real game play on cellphone,

The other three games are an action puzzle, Sudoku and Solitaire. As same as its original Mobage-Town, you will not be charged to join and play. Some of users are supposed to purchase avatar accessories and items.

Tags: USA by Akky Akimoto
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Softbank Mobile announced it would begin the iPad pre-orders tomorrow (Monday, May 10) at 10am, Japan Time. You'll be able to make it at iPad authorized dealers such as selected Softbank Mobile shops and consumer electronics retailers. Apple Japan's online store deals with the iPad Wi-Fi model only, and Apple Stores will deal with all iPad models. Only a set Up to two sets of the device can be ordered under a subscriber's contract.

iPad pricing according to installment payment plans and models:
(All prices in Japanese yen. Click it above to enlarge.)

If you subscribe to the prepaid plan, unlimited use of 3G data transfer is available until the end of June for the monthly data rate of 4,410 yen. After that, you may choose an option from the prepaid plan 1GB (up to 1GB/month for 4,410 yen) and the prepaid plan 100MB (up to 100MB/month for 1,510 yen). If you subscribe to the flat rate plan, a discount program will be applied and your monthly phone bill will be 2,910 yen for coming 24 months. The monthly fee for the web browsing feature is required if you choose the flat rate plan or the pre-paid plan.

"I'm very honored that Softbank Mobile can distribute the iPad in Japan in partnership with Apple", Softbank's CEO Masayoshi Son says.

When we can obtain any snapshot or live pictures shooting the queues for the pre-orders, we will embed them in this story ASAP.

Softbank's flagship store in Omotesando at 10pm, Sunday (no queue...)

Apple Store Shibuya at 10:30pm, Sunday (no queue...)

Meanwhile, the iPad 3G models to be purchased at Softbank shops are SIM locked and available only on Softbank's 3G network. And the models on sale from Apple Stores and Apple's online store are reportedly SIM lock free and they will be available on NTT DoCoMo's 3G network as well. NTT DoCoMo and Tokyo-based MVNO Japan Communications(JCI) using DoCoMo's network are expected to introduce SIM cards designed for the iPad 3G very soon.

Author's Note: Some news sources report the models on sale from Apple seem also SIM locked as well as those from Softbank Mobile. The information not confirmed yet.

See Also:

• Mobile in Japan: Softbank Reveals iPad and 3G Data Pricing for Japan

Tags: Cellular Phone, Company, News by Masaru IKEDA
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It's time for another tech IPO in Japan. Voltage, a Tokyo-based mobile contents provider, has received approval to list on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's Mothers market on June 11 (code: 3639). The company plans to issue 200,000 new shares to the public, next to 220,000 shares coming from its existing shareholders. If demand is bigger than expected, another 63,000 (existing) shares will be issued under an overallotment arrangement.

It's probably not going to be a huge IPO though. For the current fiscal year (that ends in June 2010), Voltage expects sales to hit $47.6 million, with a net profit of $3.2 million. However, the company was ranked 31st in Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu's list of the 50 fastest-growing tech firms in Japan released last October. According to Deloitte, Voltage's sales increased by a whopping 109% over a three-year period.

Founded back in 1999, Voltage in Japan is best known for producing mobile content geared specifically towards young girls, for example games, fortune-telling software, or mobile comics. The company generates revenue by charging users for this content, usually 315 Yen per month if they subscribe for a comic series, for example.

Tags: Japan, News by Serkan Toto
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