(photo credit Japan Shogi Association)

The first top professional player vs computer Shogi(Wikipedia) match Dennousen (Battle of Cyber-King) was held at Shogi Kaikan (Japan Shogi Association building), Tokyo January 14, 2012.

Kunio Yonenaga, an ex grand-master (in 1993) and a chairman of Japan Shogi Association, who retired in 2003, played against a computer program "Bonkura-s". Although he is a retired pro, it is the first time computer defeats top-pro.

In 2010, an women player belongs to the female-only pro-league lost a game against other computer program Akara 2010. The second Dennousen is being planned this year with 5 active pro players.

Japanese chess has the same origin as Chinese and Western chess, Chaturanga from India, and same as in computer chess in West, it has been popular research issue to make a strong computer program. In Western chess case, IBM Deep Blue first beat the world champion in 1996. However, Shogi having the rule of reusing captured pieces makes much more complexity on computing and so far the strength of the top computer-shogi programs were thought as top amateur level.

Japanese Shogi Association holds over 100 pro players. Most major newspaper have and sponsor their own leagues, and has Shogi news every day. The Top player is said to earn about 1.3 million dollars in a year.

Appropriate to the computer match, one of the sponsors of this Dennousen title is Dwango, who runs Japan's YouTube rival Nico Nico Douga. Nico Nico Live broadcast [J] the whole game for 10 hours. According to Kunio Yonenaga's Twitter, over a million Nico Nico Douga users watched the game, and 341,000 of them were paid subscribers.

負けました。昨日の対コンピュータは負け。ニコニコ動画は有料会員341,000人が観戦。無料会員を含めると100万人以上とか。この番組は良かったという人が98.9％でした。みなさん応援有難うございました。

2012/01/15 12:06:59 via web

米長邦雄

yonenagakunio

See Also:

If you are interested in play Shogi and have an Android handset, Android Shogi (you need the data app as well) is free and quite good. If that does not compete you, PC apps having the same Bonanza engine are stronger.

After the match interview on Kunio Yonenaga [J]

Nico Nico News [J]

asahi [J]

Sankei Sports [J]

Tags: Japan, News by Akky Akimoto
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2011 is over - reason enough to take a look at some of the key trends that shaped Japan's web, mobile, and gaming industries last year.

I could think, in no particular order, of five major developments that made a significant impact last year:

March 11 Triple Disaster
The triple disaster that hit Japan on March 11, 2011, highlighted the power and importance of social media and the web at large when it comes to communicating and sharing information with others - especially as the phone networks went bust immediately after the earthquake and made voice communication impossible.

Challenges remain, such as the digital divide (young vs. old people, users who are web-savvy vs. those who aren't, etc.) or the danger of mass-distributing false information through social media, but the web's "reputation" has clearly risen in Japan.

Internationalization
The list of Japanese web, mobile, and gaming companies that started expanding across borders (or bolstered their efforts) in 2011 is long: Rakuten, DeNA, GREE, Dwango's Nico Nico Douga, and CyberAgent are just the most prominent examples.

Quite a few startups are now creating services that are multi-lingual from the get-go (i.e. Sumally, Beatrobo, Crowsnest, etc., etc.).

The tech industry is maturing, Japan's population is greying, and entrepreneurs need to deal with saturated markets: expect internationalization to only pick up speed in the next years.

Android Revolution
The smartphone revolution started earlier than 2011 (mainly driven by the smash success of the iPhone), but it was during the last year that Android really started gaining a foothold in Japan. Just one example: SoftBank's winter 2011 cell phone line-up includes just one feature phone - but nine Android handsets.

Feature phones are still king in Japan, but market research companies like Tokyo-based MM Research are expecting smartphone shipments to outnumber those of traditional handsets next year.

Americanization
2011 is the year that Facebook started to become popular in Japan even though it will take at least another year to determine how sustainable the growth really is - not too few people think it has the potential to eventually throw market leader Mixi off the throne. Twitter has seen another massive boost in popularity after March 11 (see above).

In mobile, Google's Android and Apple's iOS are set to dominate the market in the next years - local mobile platforms have no chance in the foreseeable future.

• the removal of sim-locks in Japanese cell phones
• the termination of analog TV (and rise of connected TVs) after 58 years
• major Japanese video game makers going social,
• or ebooks slowly (but surely) gaining popularity in Japan.

Tags: Japan, Trend by Serkan Toto
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Bijin Tokei, a company known for having developed a hot girl clock gadget, has recently developed the weather girl iPhone app called Bijin Tenki[J] in partnership with mobile app provider Dwango.

On the app, cute girls (no idea on how many girls are involved) will keep you updated with weather forecast for the next seven days, for your current location by utilizing the iPhone's GPS function or pre-configured settings on the app.    You can check the profile of anyone you are interested in, such as name, date of birth and blood type.   You are also allowed to tweet a link to a weather girl you like.

Noteworthily, it has some patterns of error images in which the girls show us messages, which will be appeared on screen when a technical fault occurs.

See Also:

• Bijin Tokei: Japanese company offers Hot-girl-clock gadget
• Bijin-Tokei Gots Inevitable Follower – Adult Version
• Bijo Linux – Photo Site Where Girls Are Displaying Linux Commands
• Mi-in sigye: Korean company offers Korean Hot-girl clock gadget similar with Bijin-tokei
• Bijin Kabuka: Girls Presenting Quotes Make You Hot Even When Markets Are Cold

Tags: Company, Japan, New Service by Masaru IKEDA
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We explained how to register for Japanese video sharing site Nico Nico Douga in English here (click here for a list of all Nico Nico articles we've written so far).

This quick guide should explains Nico Nico's main features and how to actually get around the site (ignore our older guide). Nico Nico has changed a lot over the past months, having added live streaming, apps, a manga section etc. - too much to cover the now massive site in a blog post.

Nico Nico is still being used mostly for clips, which is why we focus on the "videos" section in the following. (Note: Unlike YouTube, you can't view videos on Nico Nico without being logged in.)

Please click on the screengrabs to enlarge them.

Screen 1 (Nico Nico top page, viewed as a logged-in user):

Screen 2 (videos section - what you see after clicking the "videos" category on the top left on the top page):

Screen 3 (video display):

Tags: Japan by Serkan Toto
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It's been a while since we explained how English speaking users can set up an account for Japan's super-popular video sharing site Nico Nico Douga (click here for a list of all Nico Nico articles we've written so far). A few things changed in the registration process, which is why we thought it's a good idea to give you a new guide (so please ignore the older version).

(Note: Unlike YouTube, you can't view videos on Nico Nico without being logged in.)

Please follow the instructions given in English in the screengrabs below to register for the site (click on the pictures to enlarge them). Learn how to use Nico Nico Douga here.

Screen 1 (starting page for logged-out/new users):

Screen 2 (choose between premium and free account):

Screen 3 (email address form - note: hotmail and other services didn't work, Gmail did):

Screen 4 (registration):

Screen 5 (confirmation):

Screen 6 (notification):

Screen 7 (registration complete - you land here after you click on the link provided in the email):

Screen 8 (Nico Nico top page, logged in as new member):

You're done!

Again, click here for a guide (in English) on how to use Nico Nico Douga in Japanese.

Tags: Japan by Serkan Toto
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