Facebook Movie “The Social Network” Tops At Its Second Week

It is a slow-starter. The Facebook-themed movie “The Social Network”, which was defeated by Japanese movie “Boku to Tsuma no 1778 no Monogatari” at its release weekend reportedly won the ranking top on January 22-23 weekend (by Kogyo Tsushinsha). The Social Network Boku to Tsuma no 1778 no Monogatari (Stories Of Me And My Wife)… Continue reading Facebook Movie “The Social Network” Tops At Its Second Week

Think You’ve Got What It Takes? iPhone App For Japanese Thugs’ Rite of Passage

photo by Macotakara [J] Studio MorikenStudio Moriken [J] has released a free iPhone application called Konjoyaki that lets users experience a piece of Japanese Yankee culture. “Yankee” in Japan does not mean North American – it refers to “bad boys” or “thugs”. The name of the app (‘Konjoyaki’ – literally “Burn, with guts”) comes from… Continue reading Think You’ve Got What It Takes? iPhone App For Japanese Thugs’ Rite of Passage

Q&A: What’s The Japanese Equivalent Of [enter foreign web service here]?

Are Japanese people using different websites than users in other countries? Back in July 2008 and 2009, we made two lists that showed some similarities and differences in usage, and now it’s time for a reboot. Note: We know that this list is highly subjective. We know that some sites are not identical in nature… Continue reading Q&A: What’s The Japanese Equivalent Of [enter foreign web service here]?

Mixi Partners With German Social Network VZ

Mixi, one of Japan’s largest social networks and a direct competitor to Facebook, announced [J] a new alliance on January 20 with German company Vznet Netzwerke. Mixi says that both companies will standardize their social application platforms to enable third-party social application providers to run their applications on both networks. Mixi announced the same type… Continue reading Mixi Partners With German Social Network VZ

Japan Railway GPS Challenge Requires Users To Visit Bullet Train Stations Nationwide

Railway heavyweight JR (Japan Railway), which was the national railway until privatization in 1987, has begun a new promotion for its high-speed ‘shinkansen’ (bullet train) network using a GPS location game. All six of the JR passengers companies, spread from Hokkaido to Kyushu, are involved in “Nihon Rettou Judan, Challenge Shinkansen” [J] (Bullet Train Challenge… Continue reading Japan Railway GPS Challenge Requires Users To Visit Bullet Train Stations Nationwide

Say Media To Sell Six Apart Japan And The Brand To Infocom

Six Apart Japan, a 100% subsidiary of Say Media, who bought a blog service company Six Apart (U.S.) in September 2010, announced [J] that the whole stock of the company will be sold from Say Media to a Japanese company Infocom soon. According to the announcement, Six Apart Japan takes the “Six Apart” trademark, keeps… Continue reading Say Media To Sell Six Apart Japan And The Brand To Infocom

Homunculus: The Car Becomes More ‘You’

Yoichi Ochiai and Keisuke Toyoshima from Tsukuba University developed a car with facial expression – convey your driving intentions and emotions over the car, to communicate with other drivers and around. Humans and vehicles can be unified as one unit by Homunculus. It is based on a new concept of interactions between humans and vehicles.… Continue reading Homunculus: The Car Becomes More ‘You’

Listagram And Instastream – Two Instagram Mash-ups From Japan

Listagram is an unofficial Instagram related site by Kotaro Chiba, which lists up Instagram photos by specific user. Giving a single URL of the Instagram photo will show the set of photos by the user. You need to set profile if you want to be searched on it. RSS feed will be generated so you… Continue reading Listagram And Instastream – Two Instagram Mash-ups From Japan