All Nippon Airways To Start iPhone/iPod Connection Service On NRT-JFK Flights

Japan’s second largest airliner ANA (All Nippon Airways) announced they would start a new service on selected flights between NRT (Narita International, Tokyo) and JFK (John F. Kennedy International, New York) next February, which makes all passengers (including economy class seats) on the flights possible to connect their iPhone/iPod to the in-flight personal entertainment system.… Continue reading All Nippon Airways To Start iPhone/iPod Connection Service On NRT-JFK Flights

WSJ To Launch Japanese News Portal In December

The Wall Street Journal(WSJ) announced today it would launch Japanese news portal site[J] on December 15th.   This will be the company’s second non-English portal site following Chinese Edition[C] in Asia, and is bringing us a few news stories a day on a trial basis until the official launch date. WSJ has been owned by News… Continue reading WSJ To Launch Japanese News Portal In December

Rakuten Introduces Akamai For Japan’s Largest Online Mall

Akamai’s Japan subsidiary(Akamai Kabushiki Gaisha) announced that Rakuten now uses their “Dynamic Site Solutions” for Rakuten Ichiba(=market), Rakuten’s flagship service holding 30,000 online shops. According to Internet Watch [J], Rakuten has been using Akamai for their Infoseek Rakuten(search), e-Bank, Rakuten ShowTime(movie) and Rakuten Taiwan. Akamai Japan commented that this is the first case among Japanese… Continue reading Rakuten Introduces Akamai For Japan’s Largest Online Mall

Japanese Online Drug Retailer Forced To Go Abroad To Serve Japanese Customers

One of Japan’s largest online drug retailers Kenko.com[J] announced it had launched a subsidiary[J] last September in Singapore, which is intended for avoiding the possible violation of the new law banning online drug sales and for serving the company’s customers by the personal import scheme. (Refer to this Akky’s story and that Shun-ichi’s story for… Continue reading Japanese Online Drug Retailer Forced To Go Abroad To Serve Japanese Customers

KDDI Commits To Invest On IVP Fund

On Wednesday, Tokyo-based independent venture capital Infinity Venture Partners (IVP) LLP announced that Japan’s second largest telecommunication company KDDI has committed to invest on IVP Fund B, L.P.   The fund has fundraised from Japanese tech ventures, and is investing in mobile start-up companies in Japan and Mainland China.  (Refer to these Asiajin article [1][2] for… Continue reading KDDI Commits To Invest On IVP Fund

KDDI To Increase Tribrid Powered Cellphone Base Stations To Reduce CO2 Emissions

Japan’s no.2 cellphone carrier KDDI au announced to start the deployment of a new power control system to their cellphone base stations as to switch the power sources to three ways of solar power, battery and midnight power service. Solar-powered stations used to be deployed only in the areas which have no access to commercial… Continue reading KDDI To Increase Tribrid Powered Cellphone Base Stations To Reduce CO2 Emissions

Japanese Social Network Wars: GREE Overtakes Mobage-town, Is Now Japan’s No. 2

Mobile social gaming platform GREE‘s CEO Yoshikazu Tanaka repeatedly said in the last weeks he wants every Japanese to use GREE eventually (yeah, right). He also said he wants to beat direct rival Mobage-town in terms of user base in six months, and Mixi in twelve months. That was in September. And today, at the… Continue reading Japanese Social Network Wars: GREE Overtakes Mobage-town, Is Now Japan’s No. 2

Sunshine Ranch: More Than 2M Japanese Users Join China-made Flash Game In 2 Months

Mainland China’s 2nd largest social game maker Rekoo[C] launched a flash-based social game on Japan’s largest social network service Mixi[J], which earned more than two million users in less than two months since the launch, and it’s ranked the 1st in the number of Mixi app users. The game is called Sunshine Ranch (click here… Continue reading Sunshine Ranch: More Than 2M Japanese Users Join China-made Flash Game In 2 Months

Quadlingual Midnight Weather Show Broadcasts Live Images Of Orionids

On the 24-hour Internet video broadcast channel brought to you by the world’s largest meteorological information service company Weathernews, a quadlingual weather news show was launched this month, which is aired from 1am to 3am everyday excluding Monday, Japan Time. (Refer to this article for more about the video channel) Korean weathergirl Lee Jee-youn (李芝妍,… Continue reading Quadlingual Midnight Weather Show Broadcasts Live Images Of Orionids

Google Puts Big Billboard Ad At Shinkansen Station To Promote Enterprise Use

Google started a promotion campaign that encourages corporate users to switch their BI (business intelligence) tool platform to Google Apps, which is called Go Google[J]. Go Google is the worldwide campaign, and the company displays a billboard ad at a location for each one of major cities around the world.   Here in Japan, a 6.6… Continue reading Google Puts Big Billboard Ad At Shinkansen Station To Promote Enterprise Use