24 yo Woman Broadcasts Her Death Leap

Stickam Japan is a personal video streaming service, a Japanese version of US Stickam.com, which is said to be owned by Japanese. Today on Stickam Japan, a girl whose handle is _mextli attempted suicide by jumping off her balcony, the 4th floor of apartment, during her live videostream, some watchers wrote on 2 channel BBS.… Continue reading 24 yo Woman Broadcasts Her Death Leap

Virtual world Ameba Pigg to go English next spring in Americanized version

Tokyo-based (and listed) web juggernaut CyberAgent‘s virtual world Ameba Pigg [JP] has proven to be a veritable success here in Japan since its launch this February. The company says there are now 1.5 million members in the virtual community, with an undisclosed number of those coming from Non-Japanese-speaking countries (the service is Japanese only). But… Continue reading Virtual world Ameba Pigg to go English next spring in Americanized version

Osaka-based Consultancy Forms A Network Giving Entrepreneurs Many Cost-Savings & Various Supports

Tokyo-, Osaka- and Shanghai-based business consultancy providing support for start-up companies, Akinai Research Institute[J] just introduced a new program encouraging entrepreneurs in terms of financial, personnel and material resources in association with nine program supporting partners. Entrepreneurs joining the program can get benefits by receiving complimentary services and packages as follows. Microsoft BizSpark: offering free… Continue reading Osaka-based Consultancy Forms A Network Giving Entrepreneurs Many Cost-Savings & Various Supports

Google Books Gives Up To Cover Japanese Publication To Avoid Int’l Legal Conflicts

Google submitted a revised settlement to the NY Federal Court Friday seeking approval of an agreement that would clear the way for continuing operation of Google Books, Google’s book retrieval and online sales service.   To avoid legal conflicts with publishers and authors in Japan, France and Germany, the settlement redefined the service so as to… Continue reading Google Books Gives Up To Cover Japanese Publication To Avoid Int’l Legal Conflicts

Mobile Factory Takes Over Photo Recognition Mobile App From J-Magic

Tokyo-based mobile tech start-up developing photo recognition apps, J-Magic[J] is now said to shut down its business and office very shortly, some sources say. The company was founded four years ago by Mr. Takuya Miyata[J] (@takmiyata[J]), the former CEO of Santa Monica-based biometrics and photo recognition tech venture Neven Vision (acquired by Google in 2006,… Continue reading Mobile Factory Takes Over Photo Recognition Mobile App From J-Magic

Rakuten Subsidises Electronic Money Service Edy

BitWallet, Inc. [J], a company has been running Edy [J] since 2001, will allocate new stocks to a third party at the end of this year, about 3 billion yen of which will be bought by Rakuten. Rakuten group, centres the giant e-commerce mall Rakuten Ichiba, purchased KC Card, a credit card company in 2005… Continue reading Rakuten Subsidises Electronic Money Service Edy

Marriage Fraud Case Forces Rakuten To Push Back Service Release

Recently in Tokyo, there was a marriage fraud case that a woman is suspected of having murdered her several boyfriends.   According to several news media, due to the effect of the case, Japan’s e-commerce giant Rakuten had been planning to launch an online marriage hunting site, but they were forced to push back the release… Continue reading Marriage Fraud Case Forces Rakuten To Push Back Service Release

KDDI To Invest USD9M On Bangladeshi Largest ISP

Japan’s second largest telecom company KDDI announced yesterday that it would invest USD9M (JPY800M) on Banglaseshi largest ISP bracNet next January.   The rate of the diffusion of the Internet service in the country is as low as 2% despite the country is ranked as the world’s 7th in the number of the population.   With… Continue reading KDDI To Invest USD9M On Bangladeshi Largest ISP

Shueisha And MS To Start Distributing Dragon Ball For WinMo In Japan, U.S. And Europe

Microsoft Japan announced yesterday that it would launch Windows Marketplace for Mobile in Japan next month.   The company already started the service in the U.S. last month.   Similarly to Apple’s AppStore and Google’s Android Market, mobile software developers will have opportunities to sell their application titles to Windows Mobile(WinMo) users all around the world.   As… Continue reading Shueisha And MS To Start Distributing Dragon Ball For WinMo In Japan, U.S. And Europe

Facebook To Have The First Oversea Development Base In Tokyo

Facebook, which I think I do not need any explanation what it is to English web users, announced that they would open their Japanese arm in Tokyo early in 2010, ITMedia reports [J]. The branch, which is planned to be formed with developers from US and locally hired Japanese engineers and managers, will make a… Continue reading Facebook To Have The First Oversea Development Base In Tokyo