Japan Has iPad(Aipad) – It’s Hi Tech Adult Diaper

Last article, I wrote Fujitsu’s iPad is only for USA market so this time Apple would not have a trademark problem in Japan… Maybe wrong. ITMedia found [J] a sensor-ready adult absorbent brief product [J] by a company called Awajitec [J], named “あいパッド”, which pronounce exactly same as iPad in Japanese. Although the product page’s… Continue reading Japan Has iPad(Aipad) – It’s Hi Tech Adult Diaper

iPad-Fujitsu Trademark Conflict Sounds Familiar In Japan

Apple’s “revolutionary” tablet PC iPad name collides with Fujitsu US’s shop clerk gear which exists for 8 years. (Engadget goes deeper) That may remind US people Apple and Cisco’s issue around the iPhone brand. To Japanese, “Aiphone” story is familiar. When Apple brought iPhone into Japan, they faced a similar issue against another Japanese “intercom”… Continue reading iPad-Fujitsu Trademark Conflict Sounds Familiar In Japan

January 2010 Japan-IT Links (part 1)

Last week our RSS subscribers passed over 5,000, which is a good milestone. Twitter followers also increased to 400. Following @asiajin also will notify our latest articles. Thank you so much. Here is the first half of January Japanese IT/Web interesting news links we did not take as a dedicated article. (part 2 is here)… Continue reading January 2010 Japan-IT Links (part 1)

Japanese Government Site For Whistle-blower Finally Launches, Still Insists Non Existing “.com”

As we reported [1][2], Japanese government opens a website for people to inform wasted tax money or irrational rules issues directly to them. The domain name, after squatted, is “http://www.cao.go.jp/” which guarantees the website is by government. However, they do not stop using “Hatomimi.com” [J] logo and tries to send confuse people to the squatter’s… Continue reading Japanese Government Site For Whistle-blower Finally Launches, Still Insists Non Existing “.com”

Rakuten Allies With Baidu To Promote Their E-commerce Business in Mainland China

Japan’s biggest, and the world second largest e-commerce company Rakuten, which is also known by its active overseas activities in last years as a Japanese originated web company, announced its partnership with China’s leading, and the world third largest search engine company Baidu. [pdf] According to the release, Rakuten and Baidu agreed to establish a… Continue reading Rakuten Allies With Baidu To Promote Their E-commerce Business in Mainland China

The Nikkei Newspaper To Begin Paid Online News In March, Multiple Sources Say

Nihon Keizai Shimbun (The Nikkei) [Wikipedia], one of the most influential industrial newspaper in Japan, who had declared its digital version launch plan for this spring on its January 3rd newspaper, seems to set its starting time and fee plan, according to multiple sources. Both February issue of Facta magazine [J, magazine subscription required] and… Continue reading The Nikkei Newspaper To Begin Paid Online News In March, Multiple Sources Say

Weekly Diamond Featured Twitter For 40 Pages, Reprinted

One of the most read Japanese business magazine (such like Forbes or Businessweek), Shuukan Daiyamondo(Weekly Diamond) January 23th 2010 issue, featured Twitter as a special topic for 40 pages. Both of the cover of the magazine and the first page of the featured section, thousands of Japanese Twitter user icons, which had been called for… Continue reading Weekly Diamond Featured Twitter For 40 Pages, Reprinted

First Japanese Manga On Amazon Kindle Released

Although Amazon Kindle is possible to order from Japan, Kindle and its backend do not support Japanese font well yet. Support for Japanese publishers in Japanese are not prepared, too. So, most Japanese people who currently own Kindle are gadget fans, English-savvy or for research purpose. And some people see potential on the device and… Continue reading First Japanese Manga On Amazon Kindle Released

Twitter Japan Enables Retweet Button

Twitter has turned on official retweet button for Japanese users. You could use it by changing your menu language with English, but most Japanese users see this button first this week. The label of the retweet button in Japanese is “リツイート” which just show its English sound in Japanese katakana (phonogramic alphabet). Japanese localization staff… Continue reading Twitter Japan Enables Retweet Button

iPhone Push-Ups Apps: Be Careful Otherwise You Will Crack iPhone Screen

NEC Biglobe, one of the largest Japanese ISP/portal releases iPhone app “Push-Ups Dojo” to count, record and share (of course, on Twitter) your push-ups. I am sure that there are already many exercise recording iPhone apps. This one directly uses iPhone’s touch panel as a counting sensor. You need to touch the iPhone on the… Continue reading iPhone Push-Ups Apps: Be Careful Otherwise You Will Crack iPhone Screen