Japan Market
Japan Market

Japan Market

Vodafone May Sell Japanese Arm

Vodafone has revealed it is in talks about selling its struggling Japanese phone business to internet and telecoms provider Softbank. Its Japanese subsidiary has been losing customers in the face of fierce competition from domestic operators such as NTT DoCoMo and KDDI. “Vodafone confirms it is in discussions regarding a potential sale of a controlling interest in Vodafone Japan to Softbank,” the company said in a statement. “These discussions may or may not lead to a transaction.”

See our Vodafone’s Japan Exit: Thinking the Unthinkable dated Feb. 2005 — Eds.

Consortium to Trial Train TV Broadcast

Nippon Television Network, Japan Telecom and the East Japan Railway Co. group announced that they would start a joint experiment to air TV news inside trains. Japan Telecom will transmit the news to monitors inside trains via wireless LAN (local area network) devices installed at JR East stations. The partners plan to begin commercial operations from around July this year.

RFID Tagged Students

In December, Furuedai Junior High School in the city of Suita, Osaka Prefecture introduced an RFID system. 160 of the 298 students at the school are wearing namebadges [.jpg image]. The objective of this system is to make the school safe. If a person who doesn’t have a legitimate RFID tag comes in through a school gate, the system notifies teachers and a surveillance camera starts recording the areas.

Mobile Phone Adoption Rates in Japan

Research and Markets have announced the new Wireless World Forum report: Japan Mobile Market 2006 – Your Statistical Guide To Understanding The Mobile Opportunities in Japan 2006-2007. Stating that data from the “Japan Mobile Market” statistical handbook shows that future growth in the Japanese mobile market will be centred on the under 14s and over 55s as 100% penetration is reached in all other age groups. Penetration in the 5-9 year-old age group will more than double from 29% in 2004 to reach 64% in 2007 but the largest number of new subscribers in 2006 will come from the 55-65 age group, with 1.62 million new customers.

RFID Assistant Robot Tests

NTT Communications and Tmsuk will test an RFID-driven shopping assistant robot at a shoping mall in Fukuoka. The robot reads RFID tags embedded in the floor and get information about its location (it doesn’t use GPS or other location technologies). The pilot test will take place on the 9th of February and lasts till the 15th. The robot can assist in-store shoppers as well as remote shoppers at home.

Motorola Looking to Japan

Motorola, the world’s second-largest mobile-phone maker, could partner with a Japanese manufacturer to launch appealing phones that will help it boost its presence in Japan, its chief executive said Thursday. “We’re trying to figure out how to get into the market quicker with our brand and working potentially with someone else,” Chief Executive Ed Zander said, referring to Japan in an interview with Reuters in Tokyo. “(We’re) talking to the NECs, the Panasonics, the Sanyos, and looking at, ‘Is there technology collaboration to bring products to market?'” Zander said. “We’re exploring some of those things.”