Bijin-Tokei Gots Inevitable Follower – Adult Version

We covered the first Bijin-Tokei (Beautiful Girls Clock, if you are to take Japanese language exam, “Bijin-Dokei”), every single of 1440 minutes has a different photo with a beautiful girl hanging the time on a blackboard, on their launch. It got huge attentions and has been producing a lot of variants, both by themselves (Binan… Continue reading Bijin-Tokei Gots Inevitable Follower – Adult Version

Japan’s IVP Invests $1.5 million In Chinese Social Gaming Company Rekoo

One of Japan’s most famous independent venture capital firms, Infinity Venture Partners (IVP), seems to have a big interest in the social gaming space and China. IVP already has a number of startups with this profile in their portfolio, and today it came to light they’ll intensify the relationship with one of them through a… Continue reading Japan’s IVP Invests $1.5 million In Chinese Social Gaming Company Rekoo

ESPer2009: Exploratory IT Engineers And Developers Wrap-up This Year’s Japanese Tech Scene

Since 2000, IPA, a Japanese governmental arm in charge of promoting IT industry, has been running an annual contest to find young computer engineers who have developed services and technologies that we’ve never experienced, which is titled the Exploratory IT human resources project a.k.a. MITOH. There was an year-end alumni meet-up where the entrepreneurs who… Continue reading ESPer2009: Exploratory IT Engineers And Developers Wrap-up This Year’s Japanese Tech Scene

The 7th and Final Bonen Kaigi

Daiya Hashimoto and 100shiki’s Gen Taguchi’s annual year end event Bounen Kaigi (Year-forgetting party+meeting) was held at Yahoo! Japan’s headoffice, Roppongi Midtown, Tokyo. This 7th anniversary, however, had been declared the last one. 2009 Ranking As always, the two hosts made their (personal) year ranking what impressed them in 2009. MovaTwitter (Asiajin): unofficial Twitter site… Continue reading The 7th and Final Bonen Kaigi

Taxi-pooling Service Meets The Best Known LBS iPhone App And Map Portal

Probably it’s common in any city around the world that not more female geeks are appeared than males at tech industry scenes.   Except some activities that encourage more females to join this exciting community, such as U.S.-based “Girls in Tech” and Tokyo Girl Geeks[J], it is mere that we see a female entrepreneur who runs… Continue reading Taxi-pooling Service Meets The Best Known LBS iPhone App And Map Portal

Japan’s CyberAgent Sets Up $22.7 Million Fund For Startups In East Asia

The more you talk with Japanese VCs and entrepreneurs these days, the more you hear “China” as the next target for investing money or establishing a subsidiary. Now Japanese web behemoth CyberAgent (listed at the Tokyo Stock Exchange) says it has set up a fund exclusively focused on web startups in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan… Continue reading Japan’s CyberAgent Sets Up $22.7 Million Fund For Startups In East Asia

A New Japanese Twitter Clone Ameba-Now Front Loaded To PC Web

Cyber Agent, known by one of the most successful blog hosting Ameblo boasting thousand celebrities users, who started a new mobile microblog service Ameba Now, accelerated to launch its PC version 3 days later, today 11th, which was originally planned on 16th. Ameba Now’s top page (without login) shows featured celebrities messages. Different from cellphone… Continue reading A New Japanese Twitter Clone Ameba-Now Front Loaded To PC Web

Hatena Bookmark for iPhone: Simply Rotate Yours To Share Your Favorites

Kyoto-based tech start-up running Japan’s largest social bookmarking service Hatena[J] (meaning a question mark in Japanese) set up a new entrance specifically designed for the iPhone/iPod touch[J] today. Hatena Bookmark has a Digg-like feature allowing you to record the links of the websites that you have browsed and to share them with the other users.  … Continue reading Hatena Bookmark for iPhone: Simply Rotate Yours To Share Your Favorites

CyberAgent Launches Twitter Clone Called “Ameba Now!”

Shibuya-based social media service company Cyber Agent launched a Twitter-like micro message service called “Ameba Now[J]” today.   As a Japanese Internet slang, “now” is frequently used in a Twitter message telling other Twitterers where you are, such as “Shibuya Now!” and “Akihabara Now!”.   That company’s new service name comes from it. As Serkan Toto mentioned… Continue reading CyberAgent Launches Twitter Clone Called “Ameba Now!”

NTT Docomo And DeNA To Launch Joint Mobile UGC Site

Japan’s largest cellphone carrier NTT Docomo and The 3rd biggest social network Mobage-Town’s DeNA announced a joint venture worth 1.6 billion yen (17.7 million USD), which will run an User Generated Content site on cellphone since the first half of 2010. DeNA’s mobile social network Mobage-Town has a user posting sections for novels, music and… Continue reading NTT Docomo And DeNA To Launch Joint Mobile UGC Site