Author: Shunichi Arai

Kin-en-style: Smoke-free restaurants directory

Kin-en-style (禁煙スタイル, smoke-free style) is a restaurant listing site which only lists smoke-free places. Japan’s smoking regulation law is not as rigid as the USA or European countries. They can smoke at almost every bar, restaurant and cafe (except Starbucks). The Japanese smoking rate is 30.9%, a very large figure. Not everyone is happy with… Continue reading Kin-en-style: Smoke-free restaurants directory

Asiajin launches

We’d like to announce the arrival of a weblog called ‘Asiajin’ which introduces Asian Internet startups to English speaking readers. Asiajin will provide you information about Asian Internet trends, company profiles, key people, communities, conferences and events. We provide you essential information for professionals who want to do business in Asian market. You may or… Continue reading Asiajin launches

Niconico douga

Niconico douga is a rapidly growing video sharing site in Japan. Site’s feature is not very different from Youtube, but one cool difference gained big attraction. The difference is a comment feature which enables users to write timely comments on the video screen itself. The feature allowed users to share ‘experience’ with other users. Niconico… Continue reading Niconico douga

Drecom: next scandal or …?

Drecom is a public company, specialized in making a blog tool. Drecom is viewed as a Web 2.0 company. Because they provide many RSS related services. Also they sponsor ‘Drecom Award on Rails’ which awards good Rails’ applications created by many participated developers. Recently, Drecom’s financial activities are questioned by bloggers. Drecom has IPOed with… Continue reading Drecom: next scandal or …?

Mobage town – a mobile social network for teens

Mobage town has been started in 2006 by Tomoko Namba, a Mckinsey alumna. “Mobage town” is short for “mobile game town”. So, Mobage provides numerous small games and a social network service for mobile phone users. Essentially users are using Mobage as a social network service. The service has 7.4 million registered users and 13… Continue reading Mobage town – a mobile social network for teens

Jun-ichiro “itojun” Hagino dies at 37; IPv6 developer and evangelist

Jun-ichiro “itojun” Hagino who as a core developer of the KAME project which enables IPv6 on BSDs, died Oct. 29th 2007. He was 37 and was living in Tokyo, Japan. He was a hacker. A distinguished hacker. He served as a member of Internet Architecture Board which makes decisions on Internet specifications (RFCs). Itojun was… Continue reading Jun-ichiro “itojun” Hagino dies at 37; IPv6 developer and evangelist

Rakuten: online shopping monopoly

Rakuten is a giant. Rakuten group has an Internet shopping mall ‘Rakuten‘, a hotel reservation site ‘Rakuten Travel’, ‘Rakuten Securities’, ‘Rakuten Credit Card’ and so on. Rakuten has $1.72 billion annual sales. The mall and the travel agent has the biggest share of their markets like Amazon did on the book market. Mikitani started his… Continue reading Rakuten: online shopping monopoly