Japan Market
Japan Market

Japan Market

Nico Nico Douga App for iPhone

Nico Nico Douga, the popular Japanese video sharing site known it’s original interface where users can add comments on video in realtime, has finally released their iPhone app – for free! – according to this article on cNet Japan. The design was based on the companies mobile edition, which was done on Java, launched in 2007, however, Iphone apps need to be coded in C and this apparently caused some real challenges for coding the delivery of certain functions such as commenting.

DoCoMo Annual Results – Future Plans

DoCoMo has just released it’s unaudited results [.PDF Here] for the full 2008 fiscal year, which closed on 31 March. While operating revenues were down 5.6% YoY – with operating expenses trimmed by 7.3% – the bottom line net income was off 3.9% compared to 2007. The company has also announced a series of new initiatives, in several fields of interest, more details after the jump.

KDDI and Sharp Announce Solar Phone

KDDI and Sharp have announced the world first debut of a waterproof solar panel powered handset will be available for sale in Japan as of early June. The eco-friendly design will enable an estimated 1 minute of voice usage for every 10 minutes of charging time, under ideal conditions, and appears set to be the first of several innovative models planned for future release. The code-named Voyage, Soup and Gem concept designs are featured Here.

Japan's Soft Power for Global Business

Of course this stunt was bound to get a few tongues wagging, however the meat within, indicating the Feds renewed push for moving domestic digital content into markets overseas, is apparent if not politically motivated. Prime Minister Aso, a well-known manga maniac, was recently quoted as suggesting his government would like to create 500,000 new jobs in the music, fashion and media space by 2020.

HotSpot on the Bullet Train

NTT Com is now accepting applications for it’s new HOTSPOT Express product, a WLAN service for the bullet train between Tokyo and Osaka, which will start March 14. Touted as the first wireless Internet access offering on any Shinkansen line in Japan, although UQ Wi-Fi recently announced availability for select corporate customers as of March as well, the service will offer maximum downlinks of 2Mbps on each 16-coach bullet train for any IEEE 802.11b/g-compatible device for a monthly charge of 819 yen (approx. $8 usd). According to the announcement, connectivity will also be available in the waiting lounges of all 17 stations along the route.

Alternative WLAN Access Offer

JCI will start a new fixed-rate data service with a fee of approx 10-cents per minute on March 23, 2009. “Doccica” will use DoCoMo’s 3G network combined with public wireless LAN access points from several established providers. Subscribers are required to purchase a USB dongle manufactured by ZTE Corp., for approx US$150, including a pre-paid fee of for the first 500 minutes. WWJ conducted a video interview with Sanda-san, way back in 2002, about the mvno’s B-Mobile product offering.

CocoTan – iPhone 3G Location App

NTT Com held a press conference to announce their new free push-type service that feeds information about nearby places of interest to iPhone and iTouch owners who also subscribe to the companies HOTSPOT WLAN flat-rate data package offering. The new service, named Cocotan! taken from Japanese koko “here” and tan “search”, automatically provides a list of recommendations based on the clients access point matched to a database of consumer-generated content, including blogs and Web reviews, for restaurants etc. located near-by.

DoCoMo Reduces Interconnection Fees

DoCoMo announced that it has notified the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications that the fees it charges other operators to interconnect with its network have been reduced by more than 10 percent, effective immediately and applied retroactively to all interconnections since April 1, 2008. Perhaps related to this news from September last year, that the company had been over charging for international roaming, the full details of their updated billing structure is explained within several .pdfs which accompany the press release.

Japanese Kids Mobile Usage Survey

Japanese Kids Mobile Usage SurveyThe Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology released the results of their “investigation about use of a child’s cellular phone” survey which was conducted late last year. With replies coming from a total of 10,448 people, ranging in age from elementary school through high school, it’s a wide ranging report with a significant amount of user data, all in Japanese. It’s a real eye-opener on mobile youth usage behavior so we cranked out a quick machine translation, to cover the key points, after the jump.