Mixi, GREE, Mobage-town – Japan’s top three social networking services have either already opened or decided to open their platforms to third-party developers in the last few months. And a handful of foreign application providers, such as RockYou from the US or Rekoo from China, already managed to successfully launch localized social games on Mixi, Japan’s biggest social network.

Both companies now have offices in Japan, but Tokyo-based (and listed) mobile contents provider Index now wants to make the move into Japan’s social gaming market easier by offering support for foreign makers of social games that want to enter Japan’s lucrative mobile market in particular.

One of the problems most foreign social game makers have is that their games are usually tailored for use with the PC. GREE and Mobage-town, however (each with about 16 million members), are more or less mobile only. And even Mixi sees more page views on its mobile site than on the fixed web site, which means that making social games mobile-friendly will get providers a lot more Japanese eyeballs.

Index says they will not only translate in-game texts, buttons etc. but also provide help in re-designing games to make them more appealing for Japanese customers. In addition, the company will also take care of the “technical” side of things so that the games actually run and can be properly played on Japanese mobile phones. Another problematic factor is billing and collecting money from local users, but Index says they will cover this area as well.

The first game that received the Index treatment is a Chinese pig-raising game that will be released on Mixi Mobile later this month. Index hopes to generate 1 billion yen ($11.1 million) in sales per year with the new business.

Via The Nikkei [registration required, paid subscription]

Index Corp. Helps Foreign Social Game Developers Enter Japan

Index Corporation announced that its cellphone ringtone site Sokuho Music Search (Sokuho = breaking news) provides a new version of ringtone collections “Hana Sukkiri Melody” (Hana Sukkiri = cleared up nostril).

“The ringtone will make a nose has resonant frequency with pollens adherent inside your nasal cavity, so eventually pollens fall down. ”

Improved from the first version released in 2004, this new one has 27 variations of frequency from 420Hz to 1070Hz, one of which should fit your chamber size. You may access the download site with your Japanese cellphone by taking this QR code.

In spring Japan, there are many people suffered by pollen allergy of Japanese cedars, which were planted in the mountains around Japan after the war to expect its rapid growth, then neglected by decay of timber industry.

The application is developed by Japan Ringing Tone Laboratory (JRTL), who “develops scientific approach on ringtones”, led by Dr. Matsumi Suzuki [J] who is a professor of Adam Smith University (diploma…).

Other than this one, JRTL has been developing “sleep-promoting ringtone”, “ringtone makes your date”, “crow scarer ringtone”, “ringtone makes your skin beautiful”, etc.

See Also:

Press Release [J]

Anti-Pollen-Allegy Nostril Cleansing Ringtone

Nikkei BP Consulting and AdMob ran an online research to 1,000 Japanese iPhone users. The result [J] tells that 49.4% of Japanese Male iPhone Users have two or more cellphones.

On the same research, male:female ratio is 72.3%:27.7%. Web-tan Forum [J] who reported excerpt of this paid research did not mention how much of female iPhone users keep their second cellphone.

[Update] 1 in 5 Japanese cellphone users have second (or more) sub cellphone(s), another research says. So I can tell that more Japanese iPhone users need to have a second cellphone, probably a Japanese cellphone to keep using the closed cellphone websites and app stores.

Half Of Japanese Male iPhone Users Keep Their Japanese Cellphone

KDDI (cellphone network name is “au”) today announced [J] that they will sell 2 smartphones, Android and Windows Phone at earliest in June 2010.

They will open their own Android Application Market besides the original Android Market. On there, application providers’ charge will be able to be included on their cellphone bills, as same as current 3 major Japanese cellphone carriers have been doing on their app stores.

On smartphone (which almost means cellphone having OS by foreign companies in Japan), KDDI is the slowest one among top 3, only sells one Windows Mobile for half an year, whilst #3 Softbank sells exclusive iPhone, Windows Mobile and planning Android, and #1 NTT Docomo sells Blackberry, Windows Mobile and Android.

Japan No.2 Carrier KDDI au Announces Android and Windows Phone Shipment Since This June

Nikkei Trendy Net reported [J] that Facebook Head of International Growth Javier Olivan told them Facebook’s Japan branch status and their first goal, specially customized site for Japanese cellphone.

According to the report, Facebook already opened their Tokyo office on February 2nd, which was announced in last fall (our report). The main task of them is to make a Japanese cellphone version of Facebook to chase Japanese social networking services. The number of Japanese Facebook users is about 1 million, whilst the No.1 Mixi holds about 18 million.

The name of the new Japan office head, who “has 10 years of experience in Japan’s largest internet company for decade”, will be public soon. May the “largest internet company” be Yahoo! Japan?

In 2008, I was asked if Facebook comes to Japan, by an English media. the comments were not used so I wrote them on Asiajin. On it I predicted that Facebook wouldn’t understand cellphone importance in Japanese market, which turned out to be wrong.

Thanks for the new link kwmr.

Faceboook Is Making Japanese Cellphone Dedicated Version

Yesterday’s big news around live streaming was Ustream raised from Japanese Softbank. Today, another mobile video streaming launched from Japan (the service is English/Japanese bilingual), TwitCasting by Sidefeed.

http://asiajin.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/twitcasting.png“>

A free iPhone Application side of TwitCasting is a Twitter client with video broadcasting which boasts low latency (0.1 sec to 0.3 sec within Japan, as they say). On Sidefeed CEO’s blog [J], the CEO Yosuka Akamatsu recommends to use iPhone 3GS for the best experience, though the movie’s frame rate are adjusted with your environment.

The broadcast movie can be viewed on TwitCasting website by standard web browsers (on Flash) and iPhone/iPod Touch (QuickTime).

Here is the introduction video (Japanese audio/English subtitle),

SideFeed is known by its spin-off service Joker Racer, which got the Grand Prix at WISH 2009 startup event in Tokyo last year.

TwitCasting – Free Twitter+Videostreaming iPhone App

Dentsu Inc., Japan’s largest advertising agency, announced that they started experimental coupon platform iButterfly with free iPhone application.

The application “iButterfly – Coupon Entertainment” can be downloaded for free until the end of March 2010 (requires iPhone 3GS).

On the mobile application, user can look through the iPhone app to the town and find butterfly flying around. By shaking iPhone like using butterfly net, user catches the virtual butterfly carries coupons and contents related to the location.

During the experimental period, three companies or shop group provide the butterflies.

• Tokyo Music Map Group – shops offering good back ground music provides discount coupon
• Yamada Denki – Japan’s biggest electric store chain will offer coupon at its Ikebukuro branch
• Tokyo Gas – regional gas provider will offer a coupon for free novelty at three showrooms

Chou (butterfly in Japanese) is used here in double meaning, with another same sound “Chou” which means “collection book”.

Dentsu is planning to add more “Chou” such like “Nationwide local mascot characters collection book”, “All Yamanote Line stations collection”, “Today’s Fortunetelling”, “iPhone App recommendation”, etc.

Dentsu iButterfly Experiments AR and Location Based Coupon Service

Square Enix, who holds two best selling Japanese role playing game series, Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy, announced on Facebook their Final Fantasy I and II are being ported to iPhone/iPod Touch.

In Japanese cellphone market, Square Enix has been offering downloadable early Final Fantasy. Final Fantasy Mobile [J] on three major carriers offered the first Final Fantasy in 2004 (2006 for Softbank Mobile. original in 1987), Final Fantasy II in 2005 (original in 1988), Final Fantasy IV in 2009 (2010, last week, for Softbank Mobile).

Final Fantasy II for Docomo i-mode was even bundled for Panasonic cellphone P901i in 2005.

So Final Fantasy I, II and now IV are all playable on most of Japanese cellphone. Now Square Enix is targeting growing smart phone iPhone to cover 99% of cellphones in Japan. But this also means they are to sell the game not only isolated Japanese cellphone market but also to the world.

iPhone Final Fantasy Targets Oversea Market

Japan’s second largest ad agency Hakuhodo DY Media Partners, Sony CSL’s spin-out specializing in developing location detection technology with WiFi signals Koozyt and the country’s second-ranked newspaper in its circulation the Asahi Shimbun jointly started a new ad service using the iPhone today.

The new service is named A-Clip, by installing the iPhone app and shooting an image of an paper-printed ad that you’re interested in, you can view videos and other extensive information associated with the ad.

The first ever ad enabling this service is placed on the Asahi’s morning edition of January 8th, and you don’t need to scan any 2-D barcode but just shoot an image of the ad itself. Koozyt’s image recognition technology built in the iPhone app will detect which ad you watch, it shows you a video associated with the ad on the iPhone screen.

See Also:

• Hakuhodo’s Press Release: Hakuhodo and Koozyt jointly develop a movie ad distribution service associated with newspaper advertising[J, PDF]
• Koozyt’s Press Release: Koozyt and Hakuhodo jointly develop a movie ad distribution service associated with newspaper adverising[J]

Hakuhodo And Koozyt Introduce iPhone App Adding Video Extension To Paper Ads

Hong Kong-, Tokyo-, Silicon Valley- and London-based tech start-up MotherApp has kindly developed the iPhone/iPod Touch app which allows Asiajin readers to get the latest news more easily on their palms.  The company specializes in developing apps for multiple mobile platforms only by simple and single development process, and won the first prize of the audience votes at the first edition of TechCrunch Japan’s Start-up Meeting[J] that was held last month.

The Asiajin iPhone/iPod Touch reader app is absolutely free, and you can download it at any country’s edition of the AppStore by simply clicking on the banner which is appeared on the right sidebar of our website.

We appreciate this MotherApp’s contribution, and we’re sure it helps us to reach more people who are eager to keep themselves update with tech news and IT trends in Japan and Asia.

Asiajin iPhone/iPod Touch Reader App Debuts