e-Money Service Edy Rebrands Itself As Rakuten Edy

BitWallet, who runs one of Japan’s most successful e-money service Edy since 2011, who joined the Japan’s largest e-mall group Rakuten in January 2010, 2 years ago, announced [J] that the e-money brand Edy will be changed to “Rakuten Edy” from June 1, 2012. Rakuten did similar renaming on companies they bought, like DLJdirect SFG… Continue reading e-Money Service Edy Rebrands Itself As Rakuten Edy

Istyle(@cosme) Goes IPO On TSE Mothers

(@cosme’s tag line on the logo is “site of everyone’s word of mouth”) Istyle [J], who runs Japan’s top cosmetic products review site @Cosme, announced [J] on February 3, 2012, that they will be listed on Tokyo Stock Exchange Mothers (Tosho Mothers) planned on March 8, 2012. The company was established in 1999, and its… Continue reading Istyle(@cosme) Goes IPO On TSE Mothers

Japan’s Web News Week 5

This week’s Japanese Web/IT related news which we did not write as a dedicated article. Referred pages are all in Japanese, unless otherwise stated. Docomo Announces To Take Over Online Grocery Service Radishbo-ya. Radishbo-ya’s release Smartphone Time-recorder Solution Driven By Virtual High-school Girl Government Bond Recommended To Prepare For Possible Crash Of Government Bond!! –… Continue reading Japan’s Web News Week 5

Many Hatsune Miku Videos Being Removed From YouTube By Invalid Copyright Report

Popular human voice synthesizer Vocaloid Hatsune Miku are getting known oversea as a Japanese web phenomenon. Like the global company Google picked it up as a “singer” for Chrome promotion in Japan, where they chose Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga for US. As the Chrome video shows, there are massive number of generated songs and… Continue reading Many Hatsune Miku Videos Being Removed From YouTube By Invalid Copyright Report

CyberAgent Establishes Subsidiary Company For iPhone Camera App “My365”

CyberAgent [J] has announced that they will transfer their iPhone camera social network app “My365” over to Sirok, a subsidiary company they set up for developing smartphone applications.  From now on this new company will manage the service. “My365” is an iPhone camera app that was released on October 26th of 2011.  Based on the… Continue reading CyberAgent Establishes Subsidiary Company For iPhone Camera App “My365”

DMM Coming Out With Social Games, Including Some 18+

DMM.com [J], who offer mail order and DVD rentals as well as video distribution, are currently testing out offering social games for cell phones.  The service page is here.  [J] At the moment, titles offered by DMM.com are their own titles plus third party titles, 9 in all.  Two of DMM’s distinctive  titles, “Planet Girlfriend”… Continue reading DMM Coming Out With Social Games, Including Some 18+

Nobu-nyaga’s Ambition Steps Into Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau

Koei Tecmo [J] has made a contract with Taiwan’s Cayenne Entertainment Tchnology and have announced that they will develop their currently offered social game “Nobu-nyaga’s Ambition” for Yahoo! Mobage and Mobage in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao. Koei Tecmo has also until now been developing joint service under management license contract for “Age of Discovery… Continue reading Nobu-nyaga’s Ambition Steps Into Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau

Dole Japan Offers Special Bananas Listened AKB48 For Ripening At Tokyo Marathon 2012

2012 version of annual Tokyo Marathon will be held on February 26, with 36,000 runners who luckily win the lottery from 283,988 applicants. At the marathon, one of the official supplier Dole Japan is going to provide 96,000 “lucky” bananas, named “Goku Sen”(Extremely Selected) [J], which will be chosen from its over 100 kind of… Continue reading Dole Japan Offers Special Bananas Listened AKB48 For Ripening At Tokyo Marathon 2012

CyberAgent’s “Ameba” Tops 20 Million Users

CyberAgent [J] announced on December 30th of 2011 that the number of users of their “Ameba” [J] community has topped 20 million.  To commemorate this momentous development of the “Ameba” service, they held the 20 Million Member Breakthrough! Thank You Campaign [J] between January 10th and 23rd. Since the Ameba service opened in September of… Continue reading CyberAgent’s “Ameba” Tops 20 Million Users