51% Of Japanese Have No “Close Friend” On Their Social Network Friends List

Microsoft Advertising reported that a social media usage research conducted by Microsoft in Asia-Pacific(APAC) 11 countries and regions. According to about 3,000 answering online to the questions (375 of them are Japanese), average APAC users are using 3 social networking services. They think only one-forth of their friends list are their close friends. 51% of… Continue reading 51% Of Japanese Have No “Close Friend” On Their Social Network Friends List

Is Yahoo! Japan Switching To Google Search?

Wall Street Journal’s blog All Things Digital(ATD) reported that Yahoo! Japan is going to announce that they will use Google Search as its search backend, switching from their customized Yahoo! Search Technology(YST). At this point, there are no Japanese media reported this rumour, except Bloomberg Japanese [J] which just refers All Things Digital. Until more… Continue reading Is Yahoo! Japan Switching To Google Search?

The 2010 Most Popular Company For Japanese Job Seekers Is Google

Japanese outplacement firm Intelligence [J] released their research of what companies people want to join next [J], done on 5,000 of office workers between age 25 to 34. On the ranking, Google jumped up from 2009’s third position because of good feeling to their “innovation” and “potential”. 2010 Rank in 2009 Company 1 3 Google… Continue reading The 2010 Most Popular Company For Japanese Job Seekers Is Google

“Saeko Sensei” Travels Around Japan For Microsoft Office 2010

This is a follow-up article for Asiajin » Japan Original Microsoft Office Assistant “Saeko Sensei” Coming Back. Japanese MS-Office’s Clippy alternative “Saeko Sensei” girl finishes its teaser period. Now she, “Saeko 2010”, makes an inaugural speech, She has departed to local cities with a mission to get 2010 people’s words “Well, Office 2010 is cool”.… Continue reading “Saeko Sensei” Travels Around Japan For Microsoft Office 2010

Japan Original Microsoft Office Assistant “Saeko Sensei” Coming Back

Did you know that Microsoft Office Assistant Clippy is not so popular (or not so hated) in Japan? Japanese version had a Dolphin “Kairu”(came from anagram of “Iruka”, dolphin in Japanese) as default, and also had a secretary look-alike original assistant “Saeko sensei” in vivid orange suits. For people care, “Saeko” is a girls name… Continue reading Japan Original Microsoft Office Assistant “Saeko Sensei” Coming Back

Shueisha And MS To Start Distributing Dragon Ball For WinMo In Japan, U.S. And Europe

Microsoft Japan announced yesterday that it would launch Windows Marketplace for Mobile in Japan next month.   The company already started the service in the U.S. last month.   Similarly to Apple’s AppStore and Google’s Android Market, mobile software developers will have opportunities to sell their application titles to Windows Mobile(WinMo) users all around the world.   As… Continue reading Shueisha And MS To Start Distributing Dragon Ball For WinMo In Japan, U.S. And Europe

Cyber Agent Investments Organizes Business Plan Competition

Investment arm of a Tokyo-based Internet venture Cyber Agent Group, Cyber Agent Investment LTD.[J] announced to organize a business plan competition called “START”, for the purpose of discovering innovative and potential tech start-up, in cooperation with  Cyber Agent, Mixi[J], Yahoo Japan[J], EC Navi[J], CA Mobile, netprice.com, DeNA and Microsoft Bizspark. Award winning plan may get funding… Continue reading Cyber Agent Investments Organizes Business Plan Competition

Japanese magazines start to go online and for free

Even the Tech-savvy Japanese still love their print media. In fact, this country is one of the biggest markets for printed information in the world and the variety of magazines is sheerly amazing. At one time for example, there were eight periodicals specifically catering to homemakers who made a living by trading stock online! Also,… Continue reading Japanese magazines start to go online and for free

Yahoo! Japan is worth $28billion

The market capitalization of Yahoo! Japan stands at $28 billion (as of Feb. 2008). Telecommunications conglomerate Softbank is the largest shareholder, holding 41% of the company’s shares. Yahoo! owns 33.4% of Yahoo! Japan’s shares. Microsoft’s bid for Yahoo! is $44.6 billion while Yahoo!’s share of Yahoo! Japan is worth $9.3 billion.