Japan weekend box office ranking for January 15th-16th weekend has just been released by Kogyo Tsushinsha [J].

The first weekend of “The Social Network” appeared on 321 theaters both in subtitle and dubbed versions all through the nation on January 15, 2011.

1. “Boku to Tsuma no 1778 no Monogatari” [J] (“1778 Stories of My wife and me”) A Japanese human drama. (1st week)

The film is based on the true story of science fiction writer Taku Mayumura whose wife died of colon cancer in 2002. After a doctor told him laughter can help the immune system, Mayumura began writing one story of at least 3 pages every day for his cancer-stricken wife. Although the initial prognosis was that she would only survive one year, she went on to live 5 good years with the help of the 1,778 total stories written by her husband for her over that time.

by Nippon Cinema

2. “So-shiaru Nettowa-ku” (“The Social Network”) (1st week)

In U.S., the movie topped box office on the first weekend with US$23 million sales in October 2010.

3. “Aibou The Movie II” [J] is the sequel of a popular detective drama TV series, the No.1 of the former week. “Aibou” means “buddy” in Japanese. (4th week)

4. “Unstoppable” (2nd week)

5. “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1″ (9th week)
6. “Space Battleship Yamato” [J] (7th week)
7. “Inazuma Eleven The Movie” [J] (4th week)
8. “Tron Legacy” (5th week)
9. “Kamen Rider x Kamen Rider OOO & W feat. Skull Movie Wars CORE” [J] (5th week)
10. “Shrek Forever” (5th week)

Also on another ranking by Toho Cinemas, “The Social Network” is ranked at the second position after “Boku to Tsuma no 1778 no Monogatari”.

Buzzed in cities and on the web

During the weekend, the movie name “So-shiaru Nettowa-ku” appeared a lot on Japanese Twitter stream by people who watched it. Many blog reports were also written. Most of them are positive.

Big theaters in central Tokyo provided a good number of screens for the movie, and they were mostly full.

If the excitements are handed from those tech-savvies to regular Japanese, from urban to countryside, it still has a chance to be a long-run in Japan.

The movie winning four awards on Golden Globes on Sunday also helps to get attention from Japanese movie fans.

See Also:

“The Social Network” Japanese official site [J]

Tags: Japan, Trend by Akky Akimoto
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A half month after the ‘osechi’(traditional Japanese New Year food) trouble, Groupon founder and CEO Andrew Mason appeared on video on the Groupon Japan official blog to offer his apologies to Japanese Groupon users.

“We learn from this mistake, and don’t repeat the same mistake twice.”

I think most Japanese customers will be satisfied with this, and perhaps even like Groupon more than before the incident. Mason’s apology is similar to the apologies given by Japanese executives from time to time in the past, though Mr. Mason didn’t do a deep bow. Isn’t this style a bit strange for an American company?

(proofread by Adam Walls)

[Update: follow-up articles]

Asiajin » Groupon Slows Down After New Year Osechi Incident In Japan

Asiajin » Groupon Japan’s Osechigate Still Smoldering

Tags: Japan by Akky Akimoto
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Shiro Suzuki is a famous Japanese announcer. However, it has emerged
that he’s also an expert at action game Resident Evil (Japanese title
“Bio Hazard”) produced by Capcom. He received a Nintendo console as a
gift at the end-of-year party for one of his TV programs many years
ago, and has been hooked on gaming ever since.

You can see his video here.

On January 8, Suzuki appeared in a gaming program on Japanese video
sharing site Nico Nico Douga, and was asked what he thought of the
Xbox360 game “Mass Effect 2″.

He said, “I think that fighting and winning are natural human
instincts.” He also referred to the book “Grand Theft Childhood: The
Surprising Truth About Violent Video Games and What Parents Can Do” by
Lawrence Kutner and Cheryl Olson, saying “Youth violence and sexual
crimes decreased at the same time that games became popular in the US,
so I think that gaming can have a good effect on repressing people’s
desire to do evil.”

Suzuki went on to say that games have had a good effect on his health.
“On the action games I have to concentrate when driving a car, and
have to respond instantly. Real cars are less responsive, so I found
it easier to drive real carss after getting into games. I hope more
young people play games to train their minds.”

Suzuki turns 73 next month, on February 10.

The archives of Nico Nico Douga’s program are here. (In order to get
access, you need to have a Nico Nico Douga account. See our article on
how to register and use Nico Nico Douga).

(proofread by Adam Walls)

See also these articles:

Nico Nico Douga News [J]

Kotaku Japan [J]

Tags: Japan by Chiho Komoriya
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Earlier this week, Japanese mobile social gaming juggernaut DeNA added a new pricing plan to its super-popular Mobage-town platform (which currently boasts 22 million users): users can now pay for virtual items through a monthly pricing plan.

This first so-called Premium Course on Mobage consists of two offerings, one for the hit game “Kaitou Royale”, and another one for avatars (by which each Mobage member must be represented).

Users subscribing for the first course can choose between four options (monthly cost: US$6 and up) to get items for use in Kaitou Royale, and what’s interesting is that some items in the game can’t be obtained in any other way. Monthly prices for the avatar-related plan, dubbed Aisatsu Premium Course, start at $2.40 (six options).

The obvious motivation for DeNA for adding subscription plans to per-item purchases (which are still possible for both Kaitou Royale and avatars) is to make spending money on Mobage easier for its members. The Premium Course is only accessible to NTT Docomo and KDDI au customers though: SoftBank subscribers and those visiting Mobage through their smartphones are left out at this point.

Tags: Japan, News by Serkan Toto
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