Three of Japan’s four biggest mobile carriers, namely NTT Docomo, KDDI au, and eAccess, are about to make it easier for their combined subscriber base of roughly 90 million people to exchange emails with other.

The plan is to standardize the display of emoticons, or emoji in Japanese, across handsets offered by the three networks.

As of now, certain emoji aren’t correctly displayed when sent from the cell phone of a Docomo user to that of a KDDI user, for example. I am not a big emoji fan, but The Nikkei says that if a Docomo subscriber sends an emoji showing i.e. Taurus the Bull to somebody using a KDDI phone, a cow is displayed.

What may sound trivial is actually quite a big deal in Japan, where emoji have been in use since 1999 and emails have been the most popular way to communicate between mobile phone users since.

It’s especially young people who use emoji excessively. Around 2008, the lack of emoji support was blamed as one of the factors leading to the (initially) sluggish sales of the iPhone in Japan. In the same year, it was Google Japan’s local team that made it possible for Gmail users worldwide to use emoji in their messages.

KDDI an eAccess are also in the process of creating around 200 new emoji that fit NTT Docomo’s most popular ones. The standardization will kick off with new handsets released this summer.

SoftBank Mobile, Japan’s No. 3 carrier, isn’t part of the agreement: the company says it simply doesn’t display problematic emoji sent from handsets offered by other carriers on its handsets.

Tags: Cellular Phone, Japan, News by Serkan Toto
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Twitter Japan official blog announced [J] that the brand page for promotion launched in Japanese Twitter.

The new advertising program on Japan’s (probably) most popular social networking service is introduced 4 month after its US launch.

The first three companies use the brand page are the largest telco NTT Docomo, convenience chain store Lawson and Film Distributor’s Japan arm Warner Entertainment Japan.

Tags: Japan by Akky Akimoto
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NTT Docomo from February 28th has released “Minna No Engei Hiroba TM” (Everyone’s Gardening Plaza), a social network service for enjoying home gardening.

“Everyone’s Gardening Plaza” is a new SNS for gardening enthusiasts, who can record a daily cultivation log while raising plants, connect with peers, and share information.  By entering the type of plant or the cultivation starting date, explanations about essential thinning, fertilizing, and other such tasks are sent by mail at appropriate times.  In addition, you connect with other users raising the same plants and reference skillful gardeners’ methods, and since you can give each other advice when you run into trouble, beginner gardeners can tend their greenery in a carefree spirit.

Also, from April 1st (scheduled), a paid membership service will be implemented, for a monthly fee of 157 Yen (incl. tax), allowing users to receive cultivation advice from a horticultural specialist advisor.

Translation authorized by VSmedia

Tags: News, Social game by Chiho Komoriya
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NOTTV – that’s the name of a new mobile TV channel that could one day replace 1Seg, the current TV and broadcasting standard for Japanese cell phones.

Japan’s biggest mobile carrier NTT Docomo, the country’s biggest ad agency Dentsu, and a handful of private-sector broadcasters are planning to launch NOTTV on April 1 this year. What’s interesting is that picture quality will be significantly better than with 1Seg and that NOTTV will be available exclusively for Android smartphones and tablets.

The service consists of three different channels showing content such as news, sports events, TV series, etc. – 24 hours a day.

mmbi, a joint venture between Docomo and its partners, is planning to charge 420 Yen (US$5.30) per month for NOTTV, while 1Seg is free (owning a 1seg-compatible handset is enough). Users can only access NOTTV programs through devices supporting the new service (see the picture and video embedded below for the first two models).

mmbi explains why viewers need smartphones:

In this service, there are two types of broadcasting. One is real-time, which you can watch just like ordinary TV. The other is clipcasting, where files are sent to the smartphone. The files can be e-books, digital magazines, games, or applications as well as TV programs.

mmbi is aiming for a total of one million subscribers by April next year. NOTTV will initially be limited to the Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka areas.

More info in this video from Diginfo TV:

Tags: Cellular Phone, Japan, New Service, News by Serkan Toto
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Business daily The Nikkei says it learned that Amazon Japan, the country’s second-biggest e-commerce company, is planning to finally offer its e-book reader Kindle to Japanese customers.

According to the paper, Amazon is expected to launch Kindle devices in April this year “for less than 20,000 yen” (US$257). Apparently, the Kindle Touch will be positioned as the flagship model, while there is no word on how or if the Kindle Fire will be introduced, too.

For the 3G connection, Amazon has chosen mobile carrier NTT Docomo as its partner. Just like in other markets, Japanese Kindle owners will be able to download books over 3G for free, provided they decide to go for Kindles offering both 3G and Wi-Fi connectivity.

Rumors about Amazon Japan entering the domestic e-book market have been circulating for a long time. In November/December 2011, for example, The Nikkei speculated that the company was ready to start offering e-books by the end of 2011 (which obviously didn’t happen).

In an interview with the paper from November 2011, Yoshinobu Noma, president of major publisher Kodansha, said that he estimates Japan’s e-book market to be worth 65 billion yen (US$837 million). Noma also said that 90% of sales in this segment come from content distributed to cell phones – a number that will surely change when the Kindle becomes a hit in Japan, too.

In Japan, the Amazon device will go head-to-head with other e-readers and tablet hybrids like Sharp’s Galapagos, Sony’s E-Reader, Toshiba’s BookPlace, Panasonic’s Raboo, or Fujitsu’s Flepia.

Tags: Japan, News by Serkan Toto
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