Tokyu Malls Development, run by Butterfly and the fashion building “SHIBUYA 109,” have released “SHIBUYA 109 -StyleCollection-”, a social game for mixi based on “SHIBUYA 109.”

“SHIBUYA 109 -StyleCollection-” is a reality based social game coupled with the actual fashion building as the setting.  Users become the manager of a newly opened “SHIBUYA 109” shop, create their own avatar, challenge against rival shops in customer service battles, and together with their stylish staff aim to be the No. 1 shop.  There is now a campaign to commemorate the launch of this service, where all players who visit the actual “SHIBUYA 109” shop will receive an avatar background featuring the symbolic cylindrical building.  You can get it from the touch panel set up on the eighth floor of the building whenever you visit the shop.  As the first part of the plan to link up with popular shops, the number one selling “CECIL McBEE” is featured.  When you actually visit the “CECIL McBEE” shop on the second floor of “SHIBUYA 109,” you receive a limited staff card (in the game) modeling the staff from the “CECIL McBEE” shop, and furthermore if you introduce friends within the game, you can get an avatar with a popular item sold there.  There will also be a collaboration with the major fan festival “Shibuya109 Girls Festival 2012” for girls held at Shibuya Hikarie on May 12th.  Those attending this event will be presented with a one day limited item in the game.  From now the company will be developing various devices to link up the game with reality with “SHIBUYA 109” as the setting.

©Butterfly Licensed by SHIBUYA109

Translation authorized by VSMedia

Tags: Social game, VSMedia by Chiho Komoriya
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Mark Zuckerberg is showing up at the event in Tokyo now. The event is Facebook Mobile Hack Tokyo [J] at Tokyo Midtown, Roppongi.

Photos by @ken_b4u,

[Update 4] A Japanese Facebook user recorded when Zuckerberg appeared. You see how the attendees (expected someone else) were surprised.

[Update][Update 3] Some Twitter users tweeted that he met the prime minister Yoshihiko Noda today, which no media have reported yet. We will see soon if that is true.

Reuters now reports the Noda-Zuckerberg meeting.

[Update 2] Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son, who has been known its active Twitter usage (@masason), began Facebook today.

His first message at 17:55 was “I am to start Facebook from now on”(これからFacebookを始めてみようと思います。)

Of course, many social media users link this two incident, they think Zuckerberg and Son had a meeting in Tokyo.

Tags: Japan, News by Akky Akimoto
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A Japanese column media Omocoro [J] ran an interesting test in Shibuya, one of the most crowded area in Tokyo. A writer Sebuyama tries to find a random person whose tweets show he/she is in Shibuya.

All 3 target were picked up from search by “Shibuya nau(=now in Shibuya)” on Twitter, which sometimes could be 30 times per minute. Sebuyama picked up Twitter users who carelessly tweeted where they are shopping, what they were eating. All three were using real photo of them on icons, which is rather minority in Japanese Twitter.

Although he could not catch the first target as she hopped too many shops in short time, he could find other two by icons, photos of shops and lunch, some physical description such like body height on their Twitter profile.

The third person was tracked easily because he attached Foursquare URLs (FYI – Shibuya is one of the most checked-in cities on Foursquare around the world). Both persons were shocked that the unknown guy suddenly approached and called them by Twitter name, told what they had just ate at lunch. Both said that they would change their icons, stop tweeting with private information, or even stop Twitter itself.

It is possible that this kind of thing happen if you expose your info lots, however, good amount of the site readers, then Japanese net/Twitter users seemed to be surprised and the column spread widely.

Tags: Japan by Akky Akimoto
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Cave [J] is hosting “Atoraku E Ikou,” [J] an event for their location information mobile game “Shirotsuku” in partnership with the Tokyo Dome Company’s integrated amusement establishment “Tokyo Dome City Attractions,” from February 1st until February 29th, 2012.

“Atoraku E Ikou” is a limited term event being held through Tokyo Dome City Attractions, which by clearing, you can get limited items used within Shirotsuku.  In the event period, a Shirotsuku poster with the QR code is being posted up inside the park of Tokyo Dome Attractions.  After registering your location in front of this poster and reading the QR code, you can get limited items such as “Tokyo Dome City Passage Proof” or “Tokyo Dome Blueprint.”

Shirotsuku Image Song “Aa, Wa Ga Shirotsuku Jinsei” [J]

Shirotsuku Official Goods Complete Guide [Limited Publication] [J]

Translation authorized by VSmedia

Tags: News, Social game by Chiho Komoriya
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Twitter added more choices of cities on its trending keywords in Japan on February 2. There were only all-Japan and Tokyo rankings before.

6 cities, Osaka, Nagoya, Sapporo, Kyoto, Fukuoka and Sendai are the new ones.

View Twitter Trends On New Japanese Cities in a full screen map

There are many bigger cities than Sendai, but most of them are satellite cities of the largest ones (Yokohama, Kawasaki, Saitama, Chiba for Tokyo, Kobe for Osaka) so they were probably selected to make geographic balance. Hiroshima, which has slightly more population than Sendai, could have been chosen though.

I am unsure if different cities will make much difference on trends. We will report if there are anything interesting observed.

Tags: Japan, News by Akky Akimoto
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