Flipnote Hatena Strikes Back To USA, Plus Europe Assisted By Nintendo Fame

Hatena, known by a million geekiest loyal users and the most popular social bookmarks service in Japanese [J], announced that their joint project with console game giant Nintendo “Flipnote Hatena” launches in North America on 12th, in Europe on 14th August (both in local time). Flipnote Hatena is a CGM service on where users draw… Continue reading Flipnote Hatena Strikes Back To USA, Plus Europe Assisted By Nintendo Fame

Event Preview: Web Innovation Showcase WISH2009 To Be Held

Agile Media Network, a Shibuya-based start-up company providing Japanese A-list bloggers with ad revenue opportunities and Asiajin’s adviser Motohiko Tokuriki[J] serves as the president of, plans to hold an event called WISH2009[J] on Friday evening next week. Mr. Tokuriki attended TedxTokyo last May, and he was highly inspired by the event and turned to think… Continue reading Event Preview: Web Innovation Showcase WISH2009 To Be Held

Peatea – URL Redirector Offers Deeplink At The Middle Of Pages

Goga released a single function URL redirector service Peatea, which lets you make an URL to show the any parts of the page directly. Even with the pages do not provide hash link for in-page jump, you can send a link to show the specific area on the page to your friends by this. All… Continue reading Peatea – URL Redirector Offers Deeplink At The Middle Of Pages

ReTweeter! – Measure The Popularity Of Your Tweets

Takako Kansai, a developer working at User Local,Inc.[J] has released a service to measure the popularity of tweets. Takako Kansai’s blog[J] The service named ReTweeter!, shows how many users could have read your tweets from number of your followers and ReTweets. ReTweeter! Features of ReTweeter! are; You can check how many users can read your… Continue reading ReTweeter! – Measure The Popularity Of Your Tweets

23 Feet High T-Shirt For Tokyo Gundam Auctioned

Club T, one of the biggest online T-shirts seller (like threadless) in Japan, suggests 7 meters high T-shirt which fits the Odaiba real-sized Gundam statue. The 7m x 4.7m T-shirt, which is designed to the real size Gundam, will be tailored and shipped after one month, though it fails to meet the end date of… Continue reading 23 Feet High T-Shirt For Tokyo Gundam Auctioned

To Learn Their Real Intentions, “Tokyo Nylon Girls” Debuts

On Friday, Tokyo-based website development company Level-Q[J] launched a brand new webzine named “Tokyo Nylon Girls[J]” after the synthetic fiber symbolizing a girl, because it is finer than a spider’s thread, more shiny than silk, and more solid than steel. Rie Tomimoto[J], also known as Jibunya 24[J] (see this article), serves as the editor-in-chief of… Continue reading To Learn Their Real Intentions, “Tokyo Nylon Girls” Debuts

An Easy Way To Switch Old-Fashioned Publishers Into Digital

Wayz Japan[J], a Tokyo-based tech start-up company which develops e-publishing platforms, recently released two services that allow old-fashioned publishers to switch themselves into digital as easily as 1-2-3. Last week the company introduced an iPhone/iPod touch app allowing users to browse the latest issues of 400 magazines.   Without visiting a bookseller nor worrying about possibly… Continue reading An Easy Way To Switch Old-Fashioned Publishers Into Digital

The First Practical Kyoto Address Search Yahoo/Google Do Not Offer

If you ever lived in Japan, you know that Japanese address system is uneasy for people who get used to the western system on which all streets have a name and name+number identify the single location. In Japan, addresses are rather area name. Two Giants Yahoo! Japan and Google have been working well with this… Continue reading The First Practical Kyoto Address Search Yahoo/Google Do Not Offer

Ultimate Localization: Twitter Gets Japanese Nickname And Theme Song

Japanese pop singer and song-writer Kohmi Hirose[J] (@kohmi), who has released a number of popular songs in ’90s and been singing winter dating stuffs for young couples, is also one of the celebrity twitterers.   Kohmi exchanged many tweets with Kazuyo Katsuma[J] (@kazuyo_k), a friend of her, economist and the best-selling business book author in Japan,… Continue reading Ultimate Localization: Twitter Gets Japanese Nickname And Theme Song

E-Optician: Try It Before Making Any Purchase

When we purchase something to wear on the Internet, what the most unsatisfied thing is that we cannot try it on before making an order.   Japanese major clothing e-retailers usually accept returning item even after the item has been tried on.   This helps to minimize the disadvantage of e-commerce services, and to make up a… Continue reading E-Optician: Try It Before Making Any Purchase