About an hour prior to Apple’s “Let’s Talk iPhone” event, Apple Store Ginza (Tokyo, Japan) page [J] is showing that the new iPhone 4S will be on sale from 8 a.m. October 14.

The text is here with my translation,

iPhone 4S、登場。

10月14日、午前8時より、Apple Storeで発売。あなたにぴったりの通信事業者と料金プランを選ぶお手伝いをします。iPhoneの設定もスタッフが行うので、ストアを出る前から使い始める準備が完了します。さらに詳しく

iPhone 4S has come.

It’s on sale from 8 a.m. October 14 at Apple Store. We will assist you to choose carrier and plan fit the best for you. Since our staff will set it up, your iPhone will be ready even walking out the store. See more,

Some Japanese says the text “to choose carrier” means that now Japanese consumer can choose KDDI au on top of long time exclusive seller Softbank Mobile. Maybe so, but it is also possible that the whole text was straight translation from English site.

Here is the full page screenshot,

[Update]

On the right side, iPod nano with “the new user interface, improved fitness function, new clock face and multi-touch” is also announced. The price is from 10,800 yen (US$140)

The same texts are on all local Apple Store pages as well on Shinsaibashi(Osaka), Nagoya-Sakae, etc. but not on Shibuya store.

[Update 2] It seems that all local store pages had mistakenly been switched with the one with the new iPhone 4S, turned back to the old page one by one. Anyway Tim Cook start talking now.

via Netafull [J]

Tags: Japan, News by Akky Akimoto
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The so-called Mashup Awards have a relatively long history in Japan’s web world, with the 7th event scheduled to be held in Japan next month (here‘s Asiajin’s report on the last event from December 2010).

It has been organized in Japan every year so far, but now the Mashup Awards 7 (MA7) event is coming to Silicon Valley, too: on October 19, there will be some sort of sub-event in Palo Alto called “MA7 Ninja Challenge”.

The organizers explain:

At the event, up to 10 startups interested in the Japanese market will be presenting in front of industry experts in the market to get professional advice.

At this event, developers in the US (including CTOs in startup companies or engineers who are interested in the Japanese market/ Asian market) will give a presentation (pitch) about their products, services or technologies they have developed.

In contrast, for the companies which participate in MA7, the experts who are familiar to the Japanese/Asian markets will participate in this event. Expert advisors will give advice through Q&A of each participant and discuss about how to expand as well as support the product’s growth into the Japanese market . Also, this event becomes a great place to meet developers and partners in Japan.

What’s cool is that the winner of the contest in Palo Alto gets the chance to move to the 2nd Round of the so-called “Mashup Battle” and win MA7 as a whole, too.

The call for presentations ends on October 12. All US-based startups/individuals interested in entering the Ninja Challenge can apply here (in English).

Details of the MA7 Ninja Challenge event:

When: 6:00pm, Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Where: DOCOMO Innovations, Inc.
Map: 3240 Hillview Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94304
Tickets: http://ninjachallenge1.eventbrite.com (the event is free)

More information about MA7 in English can be found here and here.

Tags: Announcement, Japan, USA by Serkan Toto
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