Japan Market
Japan Market

Japan Market

Drink Beer & Win a 1-Seg Digital TV Watch

Asahi Breweries has teamed up with Willcom to give away 5,000 1-Seg digital TV watches. According to the Willcom contest info page: “By inserting W-SIM in a slot, you can make a telephone call and use mail over the microcell network of Willcom.” No info on the hardware specifications, such as battery run time, etc., that we could find in a hurry; however, we’re looking forward to seeing these units popping up around town and are actually just rushing out the door now to buy a flat of brews so we hopefully get one of our own!

Obon Holiday Season in Japan

You may have noticed that we’re experiencing a quiet news period here with the summer holiday and war-time-memorial anniversary season in full swing. There are a handful of wireless notes after the log in that we clipped over the last few days and more international (Japan-related) stories coming through again later today. Yoroshiku!

Vodafone K.K. Results for Q1 – 2007

Despite growth in data transmission revenue due to an increase in 3G subscriptions, consolidated operating revenue in the period has recorded 352,321 million yen, a decrease of 11,451 million yen (3%) as compared to the same period of the previous fiscal year, due to a decline of voice revenue affected by a new price plan launched in the previous fiscal year and other factors. In total, VKK reports 15,240,200 customers at the end of June 2006 with positive net customer additions of 30,300 for the quarter ended 30 June.

Adobe Japan Plans Revolution

Adobe, which was established in 1982, has 54 overseas offices and more than half its revenue comes from outside the United States. Japan accounts for about 20 percent of revenue, positioning itself as the second-largest country in these terms. It boasts advanced mobile devices and is likely to continue to be one of the strategic markets for Adobe as the company has increased efforts to push its products to mobiles.

[an interesting interview with the incoming president of Adobe Japan — Eds]

Number Portability Spooks Investors

The next several months could be very bumpy for Japan’s Big 3 cellular service providers. First, KDDI Corp. just reported record Q1 earnings but failed to see a further rise in its share price since it also warned of uncertainty in the 3rd and 4th quarters, which is when number portability becomes available. Strong earnings were priced in given recent strength in retaining subscribers. KDDI understandably left its full year forecast in place projecting a lower y-o-y net profit on higher revenue. However, that does allow it to raise its forecast this autumn if number portability is not as severe as anticipated. Its shares lost 2.15% on the day.

OhMyNews Gears Up in Japan

South Korean citizen-media website OhMyNews began recruiting on Friday for its new Japanese-language site, which is due to launch next month. The site started in South Korea in 2000 under the banner “every citizen is a reporter” and immediately began challenging the mainstream media with its news site written by readers. It currently utilizes around 40,000 citizen reporters, each of whom get paid about US$20 for a newsworthy submission. The JV with SoftBank for Japan was announced on 22 Feb.

Japan Mobile Users Click Ads

Mobile Research with goo, a project run by goo research and Japan.internet.com, announced the results of their Mobile Search study. 1083 mobile users in Japan participated in the poll, 43.4% male and 56.6% female. 78% answered that they browse web site using mobile phone, and 44% answered that they have clicked the ads on mobile search sites.

DoCoMo R&D – Wireless Charger

Every once in awhile we come across something from DoCoMo’s Yokoska R&D labs that really turns our head and this is a great example, Video Here. The company appears to be working on a wireless charger function for enabled handsets to ‘juice-up’ while away from the home station charger cradle. As the increase of power hungry on-board applications continue to push usage and drainage this would seem to be a logical pursuit that we forsee becoming future reality. Meanwhile, the just announced AquaFairy solution will have to do (?!?) for quick power charge while on the go.

Firms to Get Help in Wireless Market

The Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry plans to draw up a new set of rules this fall to allow companies that do not own their own wireless infrastructure to more easily enter the mobile communications business, ministry officials said Thursday. The new rules are aimed at helping companies that lack their own networks to become “virtual mobile network operators” by using the networks of established mobile phone operators, including NTT DoCoMo Inc., KDDI Corp. and Vodafone K.K., the officials said.

Japan tops list of lowest monthly broadband prices

Japan came second, after South Korea, in terms of access to digital communications technology, while having the lowest monthly broadband prices, according to a report released Wednesday by the International Telecommunication Union.

Editor’s note: WWJ will try and get our hands on a copy of this report; the ranking would change, no doubt, if broadband access via mobile were considered. We strongly suspect Japan would still rank as one of the cheapest on a cost-per-megabyte for traffic basis, exclusive of content fee.