In US airports, many people can be seen using their laptops plugged in to nearby outlets. If you do that in Japan, you could be arrested by the police. In February 2004, a man using a power outlet in Nagoya Station was questioned by railroad police. The case was reported to the prosecutor’s office as… Continue reading Laptop users plugging in at stations risk police visit
Author: Shunichi Arai
Winny trial goes High Court
Winny is the most popular P2P file-sharing software in Japan. Isamu Kaneko [JP], the developer of Winny, was prosecuted by Kyoto Prosecutors Office. Kaneko was found guilty and fined 1.5 million yen ($15,000). Kaneko and the prosecuter both appealed to Osaka High Court. 4th January, 2009, Toshimitsu Dan [JP], a lawyer of the defendant, and… Continue reading Winny trial goes High Court
Ruby craze sweeps Fukuoka, Japan
Programming language Ruby was created by a Japanese programmer, Yukihiro Matsumoto. However, Ruby was a minor hobby language until the appearance of Ruby on Rails. After the Ruby on Rails fad reached Japan, the government people became interested in Ruby, because it is the first made-in-Japan programming language which is commonly used worldwide. Shimane prefecture,… Continue reading Ruby craze sweeps Fukuoka, Japan
Gree and Paperboy stocks trade much above IPO prices
Gree (TSE:3632) and Paperboy (JASDAQ:3633) went public on December 17th and 19th respectively as we reported before. Gree’s IPO price is 3,300yen ($33) per share. On 17th, Gree stock opened with 5,000yen ($50), and closed with 4,800yen ($48). Its market capitalization, 107 billion yen ($1B), is larger than Mixi (TSE:2121). Gree issued 1.2 million new… Continue reading Gree and Paperboy stocks trade much above IPO prices
So-net M3 – a community site for doctors
So-net M3 (TSE:2413) is a very profitable and unique company which is providing a community site ‘m3.com’ exclusively for medical doctors. Doctors are restricted by confidentiality, so they cannot use typical community sites to share information about their professional life or skills. M3 provides them with a bulletin board service. M3 has 390,000 registered medical… Continue reading So-net M3 – a community site for doctors
Yahoo! Japan launches English version of their auction site
Yahoo! Japan introduced an English version of Yahoo! Japan Auctions on October 10th, 2008. Its target audience is foreign residents in Japan who can communicate in basic Japanese but prefer to use an English interface. Yahoo! Japan Auctions is the biggest Internet auction site in Japan. The major drawback of the English site is that… Continue reading Yahoo! Japan launches English version of their auction site
Executives of Tokyo startup SUN arrested
Executives of SUN, a Tokyo-based “Second Life”-related startup company, have been arrested under suspicion of facilitating the escape of another man wanted by police. The suspect, a lawyer and ex-member of Osaka’s prefectural assembly, was allegedly involved in tax evasion [1], and has since been captured in Manila. The CEO of the company was prosecuted… Continue reading Executives of Tokyo startup SUN arrested
Paperboy & co. goes public
18th November 2008, Japanese web hosting company Paperboy (J) (JASDAQ:3633) announced that the company will be listed to JASDAQ stock market on December 19th. Paperboy runs services like Lolipop (J), Heteml (J), and Jugem (J). Kazuma Ieiri started the business in October 2001 in Fukuoka. Paperboy is providing hosting services for consumers with very low… Continue reading Paperboy & co. goes public
Summary of Gree’s financial statements
Yoshikazu Tanaka founded Gree (JP) in 2004. At first, Gree‘s SNS services were aimed at PC users, but Mixi had greater success in the PC market. So, Gree partnered with mobile phone operator KDDI in November 2006, and entered the mobile market. KDDI holds 7.58 percent of Gree’s shares. Now, 99% of Gree’s 8.3 billion monthly page… Continue reading Summary of Gree’s financial statements
Japan is going to ban online non-prescription drug sales
The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW) has announced a plan to ban online sales of non-prescription drugs. The MHLW is planning to issue an Ordinance of the Ministry to ban online drug sales by June 2009. In Japan, the online drug market has overall annual sales of 111 billion yen (1 billion… Continue reading Japan is going to ban online non-prescription drug sales