Mobile Party – mobile wedding party assistant service

Mobile Party is a website which supports Japanese wedding celemony afterparty, by utilizing atendee’s cellularphones. In Japan, usual wedding day goes with the celemony (one of Shinto, Buddism, Christian-style, etc. no matter what their religion), formal reception and casual after-party. The first two usually involves families and relatives with few close friends (the size depends… Continue reading Mobile Party – mobile wedding party assistant service

iPhone sold from the 3rd player Softbank in Japan

Softbank announced that they agreed with Apple to sell the iPhone in Japan. SOFTBANK MOBILE Corp. today announced it has signed an agreement with Apple® to bring the iPhone™ to Japan later this year. Masayoshi SON, president of Softbank and investor of Yahoo! Japan, Alibaba, etc. attended the conference during Steve Jobs announced the iPhone… Continue reading iPhone sold from the 3rd player Softbank in Japan

Kiseki – Cellularphone lifelog service starts

NTT Resonant, who is doing the portal site “goo”, released a mobile lifelog service “Kiseki” integrating GPS automatic recording and mobile/PC diary/blog in greater Tokyo area on 29th May, 2008. With supported cellularphone (FOMA 905i/904i/903i series having GPS) in Tokyo/Kanagawa/Chiba/Saitama prefectures, Docomo users can download a free i-appli (mobile application) and set it as a… Continue reading Kiseki – Cellularphone lifelog service starts

Japanese government plans to restrict mobile web access for children

We covered political initiatives in Japan to censor the web a few times on Asiajin in the past. In a new move announced today, the Japanese government urges parents and schools to tightly control how children use their cell phones. A panel recommended a handful of concrete steps which were nodded through today by the… Continue reading Japanese government plans to restrict mobile web access for children

NTT Docomo provides high-speed cellularphone-web at home

NTT Docomo announced that they will start a new internet connection service “Home U” in June, which enables WiFi web access from cellularphone at home. With the latest cellphone type N906iL(nicknamed: “onefone”), which has not only data access over cellphone but also WiFi access feature, user can access their favorite cellularphone websites at maximum 54Mbps… Continue reading NTT Docomo provides high-speed cellularphone-web at home

Report: Mobile Monday Tokyo Peer Awards Event

This month’s Mobile Monday Tokyo event (held on March 24th near Hibiya park in central Tokyo) was actually an awards show. The so-called “MoMo Tokyo Peer Awards” event featured a total of 12 companies aiming to go to Malaysia in May to represent Japan in the Mobile Monday Global Summit. Speaking time was limited to… Continue reading Report: Mobile Monday Tokyo Peer Awards Event

2D barcode tombstone

Ishinokoe (means “voice of stone”) K.K. announced their newly designed tombstone series “Kuyou no mado” (“commemoration windows”), which has QR Code (Japanese 2D bar code) inside. This QR Code, enhanced version “Design QR Code”, developed and trademarked by IT Design, can have small extra images in the code, which does not prevent proper code scanning.… Continue reading 2D barcode tombstone

Japan’s Cyber University offers courses on PCs and mobiles

In April last year, Japan’s first so-called Cyber University opened its virtual doors. The university is private and headquartered in Fukuoka on the southern island of Kyuushu. It is run by a nonlisted stock company called Japan Cyber Education Institute which is mainly controlled by Japanese Internet telecom giant SoftBank. As of now, approximately 1,900… Continue reading Japan’s Cyber University offers courses on PCs and mobiles

Report: Asiajin Meeting #1 (part one)

The Asiajin Meeting #1 took place this Tuesday in Akasaka/Tokyo. Courtesy of Cybozu Labs, the event was free of charge. About 30 people participated while the number of people viewing the live broadcasting (done by Andrew Shuttleworth) peaked at 25. We will see to it that we announce the livecast earlier next time, especially for… Continue reading Report: Asiajin Meeting #1 (part one)

SonyEricsson and Nokia integrate Mixi Mobile access into cell phones

Japan’s largest social network Mixi announced that a total of three mobile phones made by Sony Ericsson and Softbank/Nokia have integrated direct access to its mobile version. These are the Cybershot SO905iCS, the Cybershot W61s and the Nokia N95. The Nokia model is delivered in Japan as the SoftBank X02NK. It was announced that users… Continue reading SonyEricsson and Nokia integrate Mixi Mobile access into cell phones