We are celebrating 4 year anniversary today! We launched Asiajin officially on December 12, 2007, 4 years ago. Here I announce two new Asiajin blogs, Spanish version and Japanese version.

The new Spanish version, Asiajin en Español is supported by Tokyo-based ShakingAsia, whose business is bringing oversea services into Japan and Asia.

If you are interested in opening Asiajin in other language, please contact us.

We also began Asiajin日本語(=Asiajin Japanese) last month, which is not a Japanese translation of Asiajin, which does not make much sense, but introduce what Asiajin is doing to Japanese people, to find potential contributors and sponsors.

Please share these sites to your Spanish/Japanese speaking friends who should be interested in.

Asiajin Spanish, Japanese And 4 Year Anniversary

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.

7th Mashup Awards “Ninja Challenge” To Take Place In Palo Alto October 19 (Call For Presentations Ends October 12)

[Update] Meetup has been changed to afternoon at Suria KLCC. Two local Asiajin readers who contacted me preferred during daytime.

Asiajin's chief editor Akky AKIMOTO is visiting Singapore/Malaysia for 3 weeks, that is mainly for family vacation but thinks having a chat with local Asiajin readers who are interested in.

This Wednesday, starting around 19:00 August 17, Tappers Caffé in Capsquare (No. 8 Jalan Munshi Abdullah 50100 Kuala Lumpur Malaysia)

I have never visited this place, just picked up one randomly from search. You are welcome to suggest another place near there. Starting time is also flexible for me.

If you are interested in, please contact me at my surname plus gmail. I will send you my Maxis number here.

See Also:

Past Asiajin events at Singapore, Taipei, Seoul, Shanghai and Tokyo

Asiajin Meetup Kuala Lumpur Aug 17, Wednesday

Picture courtesy: Flickr user edwin.11 (used under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license)

Singapore is very hot on tech throughout this week, since Echelon 2011, one of the largest tech conference in South East Asia, will be taking place at the National University of Singapore, where the region's best start-up companies and services will be chosen by well-known authorities. We will join it as a media attendee and bring you live coverage.

Following the event, on the Friday evening (June 17), a Singapore-based blog covering the Asian tech scene, Penn Olson will host a meet-up, and they give Japanese four tech start-ups a chance to pitch their innovative ideas to tech geeks, Internet celebrities and investors who will have come from all across Asia.  Applications for the meet-up have been already closed, but we're expecting to bring you a live streamcast or a live blogging from it.

Participating start-ups are:

• Fashion Style Japan: Yoshio Narita, CEO & Founder of Qomune (See this for more)
• Compath: Hiromichi Ando, CEO & Founder (w/ his colleagues)  (featured in this story)
• Moso: Shinji Murakoshi, CEO & Founder of Moso (featured in this story)
• Cacoo: Shinsuke Tabata, Managing Dir. & co-founder of NuLab, Inc. (See this for more)

Furthermore, on Saturday at 7pm (Singaporean time), at Hackspace.SG which is located at the heart of the country's Arabic district, we will have a casual meet-up with people of the hackerspace and the four start-ups mentioned above. I'm intended not to create an agenda nor time schedule.  But if you are interested in talking with these guys in person, please come and join us. (Plancast)   I'm looking forward to tasting great meals by Meng Weng Wong there, who is the hackerspace's director and also known for being very good at cooking.

See you all there.

See Also:

• Update: Asiajin To Host Reader Meet-up In Singapore On Saturday
• Echelon 2011: Applications For Asia’s Leading Launchpad Program Closing In Two Weeks
• Event Wrap-up: Asiajin Readers Meet-up in Singapore

Meet Japanese Start-ups on Fri and Sat in Singapore

We have just switched to Disqus comment system from another comments service. So this post also serves as new comment system test.

All registered users and Disqus users can write comments. Tentatively, now guest users can post comments, too. Please help our test by leaving any general questions, requests, suggestions, applauds, complaints, whining, etc. for Asiajin staff on this post's comments.

# article-related comments should be posted on each article

Until now, we intentionally made commenting difficult by demanding Asiajin registration. That was because we wanted to concentrate on writing new articles, though we of course knew discussions with readers would also help us. We are not sure if this change goes better, or regret soon. If this goes really bad, we will turn off anonymous guest comments, but Disqus users' comment will be kept.

# most Asiajin-s are living in Japan Standard Time so you cannot expect immediate reply during when East Asia is sleeping.

Ask Asiajin Authors

For the second year in a row, Asiajin is one of the participating group of the largest tech bōnenkai in Japan, Tokyo Biggest Tech Party Ever.

We had more than 400 people last year, celebrating together during an epic evening. To stir things up a bit this year, we found a better venue and reached out to even more friends at tech/web/entrepreneur communities. Here there are, from venture funding to Mac lovers, from mobile enthusiasts to startup launchers: AppleCert, Digital Eve Japan,GreenITers, ICA Japan, Mobile in Japan,Mobile Monday Tokyo, Ninjava, Open Network Lab, Poken Japan, Ringo MUG,Startup Dating, StartupWeekend Tokyo,TLUG, Tokyo 2.0, Tokyo Beer & Blog, Tokyo HackerSpace, Tokyo PC Users Group,WASForum.

We would love you all to join us.

The event will be held next Monday, Dec 6 in Aoyama, at the モーダポリティカ MODAPOLITICA event space (Google Map / Gmap)

Don't forget to register and quick as we're about to close registration due to so many people willing to come.

And while we'll all be partying, the revenue of the evening will be donated to Beers for Bytes, a charity who helps build tech infrastructure for impoverished people. The more you drink, the more tools we'll be able to fund. Isn't that a great way to finish 2010?

Here's the official announcement, both in English and Japanese:

It’s time once again to bring all of the tribes together for our annual TechXmas event, aka: Tokyo’s Biggest Tech Party Ever. We have nailed an Awesome Venue for the 2010 gig with a larger collection of participating groups and are expecting an even bigger crowd than the 400+ very cool folks who attended our epic mixer last year!

So mark your holiday calendar for December 6th – make sure you register – and use Twitter, Facebookand Plancast to help share the good word

Charity Benefit:
All net proceeds go to Beers for Bytes, an offshoot of the acclaimed Beers For Books event. The funds will be donated to tech infrastructure for Room to Read, whose focus is on childhood literacy and gender equality in education in developing countries.

Sponsorship Opportunities:
We will also be offering the opportunity for sponsors to donate door prizes or small cash envelopes, so please do drop us a note asap to make arrangements.
sponsor @ tokyobiggesttechpartyever.com

Date: Monday December 6th, from 7-10pm
Venue: Modapolitica – Map
Fee: ¥2,000 with Advance Registration – Or – ¥3,000 At The Door **Note Below
Menu: Advance registration comes with a super tasty buffet – while all drinks, including beer, standard mixed or non-alcohol and wine selection, will be cash bar 500jpy each.

**Note: ‘At The Door’ attendees will receive two-drink tickets instead of a food coupon as we need to confirm an accurate buffet estimate in advance.

Participating groups:
AppleCert, Asiajin, Digital Eve Japan, GreenITers, ICA Japan, Mobile in Japan, Mobile Monday Tokyo, Ninjava, Open Network Lab, Poken Japan, RingoMUG, Startup Dating, StartupWeekend Tokyo, Tokyo 2.0, Tokyo Beer & Blog, Tokyo HackerSpace, TLUG, Tokyo PC Users Group, WAS Forum.

Thanks for another fantastic year — We look forward to see you all again soon!

東京最大の技術者仲間のかってないパーティー！

忘年会　2010　－　12月6日　–　モ-ダポリティカ

技術者仲間が一同に会して年末恒例のTechXmas event、別名Tokyo’s Biggest Tech Party Everを楽しむ時期がまたやって来ました。主催する多くの関係団体の合議で2010年の集会場として息を呑むような会場が最終決定されました。今年の人数は去年の壮大な交流会に集まった400人超のステキな仲間をさらに上回ると予想しています。

そこで、皆さんはカレンダーの12月6日に上記行事を予定して下さい。その事前登録の確認をお忘れなく。適切な発言の共有に役立つ Twitter, Facebook, Plancast を使いましょう。詳細は下記を参照して下さい。

チャリティ収益：
チャリティ利益の全額は、賞賛を受けている Beers For Books より分派したBeers for Bytesに寄付されます。寄付された資金は、開発途上国の教育において子供の文盲解消および両性平等に注力するRoom to Readの技術インフラに使われます。

スポンサー募集:
私共主催者は福引の賞品または大入袋を寄付するスポンサーを募集します。希望者は準備が必要なので出来る限り早くその旨を連絡して下さい。
sponsor @ tokyobiggesttechpartyever.com

日時：12月6日（月曜日）午後7時　-　10時
会場： モ-ダポリティカ（Modapolitica） – Map
入場料：前売券＝2000円　当日券＝3000円**
メニュー：前売券には一流のうまいビュッフェ食事が含まれています。一方、飲み物として、ビール、標準的な選別した洋酒、ワインとソフトドリンクが用意され、バーで一杯500円にて販売します。
**注意：主催者は事前に食事する人数を正確に把握する必要があるので、参加者は受付で食事ク－ポン券の代わりに2枚のドリンク券を受け取ることになります。

参加団体:
AppleCert, Asiajin, Digital Eve Japan, GreenITers, ICA Japan, Mobile in Japan, Mobile Monday Tokyo, Ninjava, Open Network Lab, Poken Japan, RingoMUG, Startup Dating, StartupWeekend Tokyo, Tokyo 2.0, Tokyo Beer & Blog, Tokyo HackerSpace, TLUG, Tokyo PC Users Group, WAS Forum.

すばらしいこの1年に感謝しましょう－- まもなく、皆さんに再会できることを楽しみにしています

On a personal note, I sadly won't be able to attend, as I'll be speaking in Paris for LeWeb. Most of the Asiajin team has already confirmed participation, though.

You can follow the official party Twitter account @TBTPE and the Twitter hashtag #tbtpe or follow -and like- the Facebook Page.
You can also announce your participation via Plancast or Facebook.

And, if you're a photo lover, please share your pictures of the party on Flickr after the event, we would love to have these memories.

Have fun, everyone!

Join Asiajin at Tokyo Biggest Tech Party Ever

On Saturday at Ustream Studio Akiba[J], a livecast facility in an Internet cafe in Akihabara, we had a readers meet-up in Tokyo for the first time in approx. 2.5 years.

The meet-up started with Asiajin co-founder Akky's presentation about our current state.   It described Asiajin contributors are always shortstaffed to cover what are happening in the tech and social media scenes in Japan and Asia.   We've been making our effort to invite new contributors as the areas to be covered are getting wider, but basically those who have command of English as well as understand technical and media aspects of  innovative services are usually busy for their money making job.   In order to keep on bringing our readers hot tech news from this region, we need to invite more people.   If you're interested in joining us for write-ups, please drop us a line.

Secondary, bringing you news coverage in good quality requires some expenses.   Asiajin aims at encouraging Japanese and Asiajin start-ups to go to the world arena "by our selfless love", we hope not to ask them to be our sponsor.    Several people says, we should ask the Internet tycoons like DeNA, GREE and Rakuten who became no longer start-ups.   Asiajin stories are often quoted by popular tech blogs and major news resources, as you know, we're proudly one of good exposures for IT companies and services to get a global attention.

Yoski Akamatsu, a Japanese techpreneur who has developed a series of useful and interesting web services, also made an appearance at the event.  He presented what his company is concentrated to and demo-ed his dangerous but funny gadget as he did at our Singapore meet-up.

Some of the attendees suggested that we should have more meet-ups on a monthly basis, a quarterly basis or whatever --- anyway, more frequently.   As Akky mentioned in this announcement, we would like to do more things to accelerate our tech-related activities including community development, but we're unfortunately shortstaffed.   By having new guys for developing new things just like this meet-up, we'll keep trying to find a new way to give our readers what they want.

Finally, we appreciate all your continuous support for Asiajin.

Event Wrap-up: Asiajin Readers Meet-up in Akihabara, Tokyo

I was visiting Singapore in late-September for attending Accelerate 2010 and meeting with great techpreneurs.   Thanks to Bernard Leong from Chalkboard, a Singapore-based start-up providing retail promotion solutions for several smartphone platforms, and Justin Lee from Tech 65, a Singapore-based gadget-focused tech blog, we could have a readers meet-up at the country's geek hub, Hackerspace.SG, which is located at a very convenient location near Arab Street where we can take a variety of Arabian foods at any time and hear the holy Qur'an from a mosque nearby throughout the day.

If you have any chance to visit Singapore, I strongly recommend you to visit Hackerspace.SG to meet attractive people after checking out the event calendar on their website.

Japanese techpreneur Yoski Akamatsu (@yoski), who was visiting the country for Accelerate 2010 and enjoying watching the Formula One Grand Prix night race, also joined the meet-up, and he demo-ed his service TwitCasting with a prototype of a combination of his mobile livestream service with a R/C car equipped with the iPod.

Video image captured with the on-board camera is available live on his laptop.   During his demo, a small dinner party was underway in a room next to our meet-up.   He threw the car into the room stealthily and let it crawl into the group under the dinner table.   We could what happened in that room without coming down to the room.   They were so amazingly surprised and commented that it looked like a scene of a secret agent movie.

The camera of the iPod is laid on the car and faces up to the ceiling, that's why there's a mirror attached to the camera pinhole to change the angle and let you see the car's ahead.   "Without this mirror, I'll get busted", he says with laughing.  (If no mirror, unexpectedly it could be a molester's tool for peeping inside someone's skirt.)

Miss Yan Phun (@yanphun) joined the event, she is a Singapore-based techpreneur and co-founded an event management tool called FlickEvents.   Her service is still in beta test, not opened to the public and I've not tried it out.  But it seems like a combination of Eventbrite, Amiando and Plancast.   She's studying on what kind of additional features attract users more than other competitive services.   If you're interested in using the service, visit FlickEvents' website and ask them for a beta invitation key.

Attendee Mr. Guyi Shen is the founder of Lobangclub, a Singapore-based price comparison portal and now in Beta (available with your Facebook account).   Mr. Shen says, retailers in Singapore would not like to be listed on price comparison portals as well as the other nations, neither they don't like to expose their retail prices of merchandise on the Internet because it may cause a harder competition on discounting among them.   He's interested in how Japan's largest comparison portal Kakaku.com persuade Japanese retailers to be involved and why they have made such a success.   He requested me that Asiajin should have such analysis stories.   We'll try it.   (I just answered him for the question from my point of view.)

The meet-up was an amazing experience for me.   Thank all coming by despite traffic in the city was strictly controlled due to the car race and hard to get to the venue.    Let's keep in touch and see you soon again.

Event Wrap-up: Asiajin Readers Meet-up in Singapore

Venue is now fixed at Akihabara. We will have the second Tokyo meetup this Saturday after two years rest.

Please check the following link to join the meetup.

http://asiajin.doorkeeper.jp/

Or you may apply via e-mail by scanning this QR-Code and send to the gotten e-mail address.

[Update] We have sent an e-ticket to all who registered by 19:00 Wednesday. There are some slots available yet so please check.

Many thanks to Mobalean for the application/registration system Doorkeeper.

Asiajin Meetup Tokyo #2 Signup

We proudly announce that the first Asiajin meetup in Seoul will be held on 16th, October (Saturday). Asiajin co-founder, Shunichi Arai, will visit the city and talk about the situation of the Japanese web and startup industry.

This will be a great opportunity to meet new friends, and learn about the differences between Korean and Japanese web market.

Feel free to join us. Everyone is very welcomed.

Please register from this Eventbrite page.

Asiajin Seoul meet up on October 16th