Japan’s No.1 TV web portal acTVila tops 1 million subscribers

It took 28 months, but now it has happened. Japan’s answer of sorts to American video platform Hulu, a content-on-demand service called acTVila, has racked up one million subscribers [JP, PDF]. acTVila is surely benefiting from the sharp rise in popularity of Internet-enabled TV sets, which are required to used the video-on-demand service. Users can… Continue reading Japan’s No.1 TV web portal acTVila tops 1 million subscribers

Make Tokyo Meeting 03: Where You Can See Future, Magic And Junk In A Place

Last weekend at Hachioji Campus of Digital Hollywood University in Tokyo’s surburb, “Make” magazine’s readers and gadget inventors came together and held an annual meeting titled “Make: Tokyo Meeting 03[J]“.   For readers who have never heard about Make:, the magazine is a quarterly magazine published by O’reilly Media and it contains articles on hardware hacking… Continue reading Make Tokyo Meeting 03: Where You Can See Future, Magic And Junk In A Place

Kenko.com and Wellnet Sues Japanese Government around Drug e-Commerce Ban

Today, two online pharmacy stores Kenko.com and Wellnet had a press conference to announce that they had filed a lawsuit against Japanese government. They claims that the ban of online and postal drug sale, which is going to be effective from June 1st, is against the constitution. After we reported Rakuten, Kenko.com and others claimed… Continue reading Kenko.com and Wellnet Sues Japanese Government around Drug e-Commerce Ban

Make Your Blog Catchier With Yellow Paper’s Know-How

Kayac[J], a funny web app developer based in Tokyo’s suburb, and Tokyo Sports[J] (a.k.a. Toh-spo), a daily sports newspaper company,  jointly introduced a blodget[J] on Wednesday, which may make your blog much catchier. Toh-spo covers sports and show biz news everyday, and it is an yellow paper having a large circulation.   Tokyo businessmen love… Continue reading Make Your Blog Catchier With Yellow Paper’s Know-How

This Weekend’s Three Tech Events You Must See

On this weekend, here we can get a chance to witness three great tech events in a row. As first of all, a Tokyo-based social entrepreneur Todd Porter, the co-founder of Tokyo International School Patrick Newell and their companions will have the first event of TedxTokyo on this coming Friday at the National Museum of… Continue reading This Weekend’s Three Tech Events You Must See

Joker Racer – “Truly-Remote” Control Car Over The Internet

A team of Joker Racer, a project by Tokyo-based Jokerworks Corp. to make remote control cars (and possibly real cars) controlled over the internet to provide virtual-but-real driving experience by using on-car linux and web cam, is visiting the Silicon Valley for their demonstration trip including O’Reilly Where 2.0 and Ignite + Launch Pad. Yoski… Continue reading Joker Racer – “Truly-Remote” Control Car Over The Internet

National Anthem of Japan is Short Enough for Domain Name

The world shortest national anthem lyrics, which became an official national song 10 years ago and still provoking public controversy, seems to be taken as a Germany domain (.de) by someone with using the maximum allowed number of letters (63, according to RFC 1034). As you see, to make the lyrics properly end, it needs… Continue reading National Anthem of Japan is Short Enough for Domain Name

Behind the scene of YouTrivia(Kentei Gocco), new style of Web Ads using trivia from Manabing

YouTrivia (in Japanese, Kentei Gocco) is new style of advertisement to reach customers using trivia style questions to certain topics. The company named “Manabing” which means “on learning” in Japanese (http://www.manabing.jp). They grew 15,000 trivia for 8 million users for last three years. Their new ads attracts large clients like Nissan, Hitachi since it has… Continue reading Behind the scene of YouTrivia(Kentei Gocco), new style of Web Ads using trivia from Manabing

Softbank Mobile Gives Away iPhone 3G To Univ. Students

Softbank Mobile, Japan’s only cellphone operator dealing with iPhone 3G,  and Aoyama Gakuin University announced on Friday that they would distribute the handset to all students studying at the university’s school of social informatics[J].    The students are allowed to use it for attendance reporting, lecture podcasting and having online examination. When a student submits his/her… Continue reading Softbank Mobile Gives Away iPhone 3G To Univ. Students