| Jan 27 | Sony Music Japan Chairman Calls for Tougher Piracy Law Enforcement (shoutcastblog.com) |
| Sony Music Entertainment Japan chairman Masao Morita spoke about music piracy and the lack of enforcement by the Japanese government during his keynote speech at MIDEM yesterday. The Japanese government has recently added a law that makes downloading unauthorized content illegal, but Morita is concerned that this will never be enforced. |
| Jan 27 | Toshiba Blu-ray recorders, mCube90 make life more compact (Japan Times) |
| If you can't beat them, don't join them - just copy their ideas and improve them. Toshiba is endeavoring to do just that having abandoned its HD-DVD format and instead opted to craft versions of Sony's brainchild, Blu-ray. Nobody can accuse Toshiba of not doing a wholehearted about face, what with three new Vardia-branded Blu-ray recorders to hit the market next month. The best of the bunch is the D-B1005K, which sports a prodigious 1-terabyte hard disk for recording up to 500 hours of high-definition TV footage. |
| Jan 26 | Japan logs record high shipments of flat-screen TVs in 2009 (AP) |
| Shipments of flat-screen televisions in Japan topped 10 million units in 2009 for the first time as consumers stepped up preparations for Japan's complete shift from analog to digital broadcasting in July 2011, an industry body said Tuesday. The government's "eco points" purchase incentive program for TVs capable of receiving high-quality terrestrial digital broadcasts also contributed to a rise in shipments to 13.63 million units, up 40.4 percent from a year earlier, the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association said. |
| Jan 26 | Users balk at iTunes mystery charges (Asahi) |
| Dozens of users of Apple Inc.'s iTunes Store say they were billed for purchases they never made at the online music and software shop, according to credit firms and other sources. Victims' passwords and IDs were apparently used to make the purchases. It is not known how the personal data was stolen, but Apple Japan has denied any leak of such information from its website. Some credit companies have agreed, after investigating individual cases, to cancel such charges. |
| Jan 26 | Panasonic updates Japanese Toughbook notebooks (electronista.com) |
| Panasonic on Monday announced several key updates to its range of Let's Note rugged notebooks in Japan, which are known as the Toughbooks in the North American market. The changes include replacing their Intel Core 2 Duo chips with the new i5 and i7 processors, as well as shipping with Windows 7 Professional. The range includes the 14.1-inch F9, 12.1-inch S9 and N9, and the 10.4-inch R9. |
| Jan 24 | Search Engine Usage Soared in 2009 (PC World) |
| More than 131 billion searches were made by people age 15 or older in December 2009, marking a 46 percent increase from 2008, according to a report from Web analytics firm Comscore. That breaks down into 4 billion searches per day, 175 million per hour, and 29 million per minute. The U.S. represents the largest individual search market globally, accounting for 22.7 billion searches or nearly 17 percent of all global searches. China came in second with 13.3 billion searches and Japan was third with 9.2 billion. |
| Jan 24 | Copyright Law change toothless / Illegal downloading remains rampant due to lack of punishments (Yomiuri) |
| Last April, a 13-year-old middle school girl in Tokyo was told by a friend about a Web site that offers free music and image downloads--without the approval of copyright holders. "You can download cell phone ringtones there for free," the girl said. The girl was able to access the site after following her friend's instructions, finding a selection of an artist's songs she had wanted to use as ringtones. "Almost all of the songs we want are on the site," she said. She has since used the site to obtain most of her ringtones. Each of her six closest friends has a different song assigned to play when they call her phone. These songs are usually switched out every few months. |
| Jan 23 | Small but mighty PCs next wave / New generation of pocket-sized computers seen filling netbook niche (Yomiuri) |
 In recent months, personal computer manufacturers have been launching mini netbooks capable of fitting into a jacket pocket.
With screens of about five inches, this new generation of mini netbooks are about half the size of the cut-price netbooks that have recently driven the PC market. They can be operated with keyboards or a touch screen, and some come with preinstalled e-book readers--devices that are beginning to change the way people read in the West.
Manufacturers see mini netbooks as useful for checking e-mail or browsing the Internet on the move. They hope this new operational method will drum up demand in a market that has just started to see a fall in notebook sales.
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| Jan 22 | Game Boy (Metropolis) |
It's Saturday evening and the game is craps. A flock of stylishly dressed Japanese men crowd around the table, tossing the dice and yelling each time a player wins or goes bust. The dealer, 'Rei', coolly regards each one of them as he manages the chips on the board. Suddenly, one of the men decides to liven up the evening by throwing a handful of gold-studded black chips at the pass line. Rei calmly stacks them up and counts, 'Hachi, kyu, ju man-en.' A 100,000 yen bet.
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| Jan 22 | IC recorders gaining popularity (Yomiuri) |
 Integrated circuit audio recorders have come a long way in terms of sound quality, memory capacity, ease of use and affordability.
IC recorders now are used in more diverse situations. They are now used not only in business situations, such as for recording conferences and meetings, but also in language studies and by people studying musical instruments to record practice sessions.
Makers said the devices have become popular also among women and students.
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| Jan 22 | NTT DoCoMo to launch Xperia smart phone (Economic Times) |
 Japan's top mobile phone operator NTT DoCoMo Inc. on Thursday said it will launch Sony Ericsson's Xperia smart phone in April, in a direct challenge to heavyweight Apple's iPhone handsets.
With the touchscreen Xperia, a model that the Japanese-Swedish enterprise will introduce globally in the first quarter, NTT DoCoMo hopes to catch up with its smart phone rivals in Japan's already saturated market.
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| Jan 20 | Bright global demand for LED bulbs (Asahi) |
| With global demand projected to grow for energy-saving bulbs made of light-emitting diodes (LEDs), consumer appliance makers Toshiba Corp. and Sharp Corp. see a bright future. Demand for LED bulbs is expected to soar as prices fall and environmental awareness rises, makers say. Toshiba's first targets will be in Europe and North America, where there are legions of environmentally conscious consumers. |
| Jan 20 | Computer makers adopt small approach (Asahi) |
| Personal computer makers are thinking small to prop up sales in spring by winning back consumers whose attention is focused on smart phones and electronic reading devices. Major manufacturers unveiled their latest compact models Monday. Along with their reduced size, the pocket-size portable notebooks provide faster processing speeds and enhanced versatility. |
| Jan 19 | Mophie to give Japanese iPhones FeliCa with apps (electronista.com) |
| Mophie today promised to give Japanese iPhone owners much-requested support for FeliCa wireless payments. The team-up with two local firms will see a version of Mophie's casing that uses the same RFID wireless as the Sony standard. In tandem with an iPhone app, the add-on will let Apple's device pay for many goods by bringing the iPhone within an inch of a FeliCa source, such as at a store. |
| Jan 19 | SoftBank to establish stolen-phone tracing service (Yomiuri) |
| SoftBank Mobile Corp. will launch a new online system later this month to help determine whether cell phones sold on the secondhand market are stolen. Stolen cell phones cut off from services recently have been appearing on the secondhand market. With the new system--available on SoftBank's Web site from Jan. 28--the company hopes to prevent people from inadvertently purchasing stolen secondhand cell phones. |
| Jan 18 | Toshiba develops translation app for cell phones (Computer World) |
| Travelers in East Asia may soon be able to use their cell phones for quick, easy and cheap language translation, thanks to a new prototype application from researchers at Toshiba Corp. The company has developed a trilingual translation system with voice recognition and synthesis that's compact and light enough to be installed in a cell phone. Unlike other mobile translation applications, the software doesn't offload processing to a server on a network but performs the task inside the phone. |
| Jan 16 | Japanese PS3s Get DVR Add-on (Cairns Post) |
 We're still waiting for information as to whether we'll be getting these in the US, but Japan finally got their DVR.
Torne is an adapter for Japanese PS3s that essentially gives the system DVR functionality. European markets were granted the privilege back in 2008, and Japan finally got it this week, but there's no word on a US release.
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| Jan 14 | Is your cell phone leaking? / Data thieves exploiting new Docomo browser software functions (Yomiuri) |
| Cell phone technology experts are warning that NTT Docomo Inc.'s latest cell phone models with i-mode Browser 2.0 software installed could expose users' personal information without their knowledge. Docomo has asked operators of Internet sites accessible from cell phones to take precautions to safeguard personal data, such as asking users to input passwords. |
| Jan 13 | Kindle upgrades, but DX e-reader is just the start of a boom (Japan Times) |
 Sony produced the world's first e-ink device for reading books, some six years ago. While Sony is still in the e-ink reader game, U.S. giant Amazon now leads the global market. Amazon is set to land a second blow against Sony in the form of its much-anticipated Kindle DX. Although the DX must be ordered from Amazon in the U.S. and delivered from there it will be usable in Japan, allowing wireless downloading of electronic books over 3G networks, reputedly in 60 seconds.
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| Jan 11 | Panasonic envisions high 3-D TV sales in U.S. (Japan Times) |
| Panasonic Corp. expects to sell as many as 1 million 3-D TVs in the next year in the United States, Europe and Japan. The company will begin shipping in March, Yoshi Yamada, Panasonic's North American chairman and chief executive officer, said Friday in an interview. |
| Jan 09 | Japanese scientists advance printable battery tech (cleantech.com) |
| A group of Japanese scientists claim they've come up with a lithium polymer battery that can be made using only printing technology. Though printable battery technology isn't unheard of, previous inventions have been in manganese and zinc types. The new flexible, lithium polymer battery is considered to be applicable for solar batteries, flexible displays, or being attached to curved surfaces. |
| Jan 08 | TV production war enters new dimension (Asahi) |
| Japanese manufacturers, seeking to dominate the future in home entertainment, showcased their three-dimensional televisions and recorders at an electronics fair Wednesday. The makers unveiled both market-ready models and prototypes of 3-D appliances, while others announced plans for their own 3-D sets. Front-runners Sony Corp. and Panasonic Corp. also said they were getting involved in broadcast content by tying up with U.S. companies to create programs using the 3-D technology. |
| Jan 07 | 'Gumblar' virus playing havoc with home pages across Japan (Mainichi) |
| A computer virus dubbed "Gumblar" is wreaking havoc with Internet users, directing them to harmful sites and embedding malware via hacked Web pages. According to Internet security firms, there are more than 3,500 cases of Gumblar Web page infection in Japan, and the independent Information-Technology Promotion Agency (IPA) has called on Internet users to beware. IPA says that Gumblar works by first stealing the administrator passwords for company and personal Web sites from computers where they are based, allowing penetration of the sites. |
| Jan 06 | Sharp to produce solar cells in Italy (Asahi) |
| Sharp Corp. will set up a joint venture to produce thin-film solar cells in Italy and also build large solar power plants in Mediterranean countries. The joint venture will begin operations in early 2011 and supply solar cells capable of generating 160 megawatts of electricity a year, enough for 40,000 households, officials said Monday. |
| Jan 06 | Panasonic to market largest 3-D plasma TV (Yomiuri) |
| Panasonic Corp. plans to market in autumn the world's largest 3-D plasma television with a 152-inch screen that projects stereoscopic images. The firm will display the TV at the International Consumer Electronics Show, the world's largest consumer technology trade show, which opens Thursday in Las Vegas. |
| Jan 05 | Nintendo Dominates in Japan (IGN) |
| Final Fantasy XIII topped the Japanese game charts -- for exactly one week. But New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Nintendo's lineup of long selling hits quickly showed who's boss as the year came to a close. Media Create has provided Japanese sales stats for the last full week of the year, covering December 21 through December 27. Nintendo usually rules the year-end period in Japan, and this trend continued this year as New Super Mario Bros. Wii dominated with over 500,000 units sold. Since its release in early December, the multiplayer Mario has topped the 2.4 million mark. |
| Jan 02 | Japan's Apple Stores continue Lucky Bag tradition (tuaw.com) |
 Fukubukuro, or "Mystery Bag," is a Japanese New Year's Day tradition during which merchants sell sealed bags of various items at a substantial discount, often as high as 50%. Shoppers may get some great deals on the contents of these bags - even if they don't know what exactly they're buying. Japanese Apple Stores have participated since 2005. Once again, this year, they're offering mystery bags to Japanese Apple Store customers.
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| Jan 01 | Final Fantasy XIII takes Japan by storm (telegraph.co.uk) |
 Chaos ensued in Tokyo's Akihabara 'geek district' last month with the launch of Final Fantasy XIII, the first Playstation 3 instalment of Square Enix's series.
Hordes of RPG-obsessed Japanese flooded electronics stores across the country in an attempt to pick up a copy of the game. Huge queues gathered outside the major game shops in Tokyo, with more than 300 people queuing in Akihabara at one point.
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| Dec 30 | Japan's mobile phone marvels go back to the future (AFP) |
 In the Japan of 2020 a stressed-out salaryman may unwind from his hectic futuristic lifestyle by time-travelling back a few centuries and taking a virtual stroll through medieval Tokyo.
As he walks over arched wooden bridges, he will chat with the avatars of his real world friends, admire pollution-free views of Mount Fuji and perhaps do some cash-free souvenir shopping for a digital download of a woodblock print.
He will navigate through the city once called Edo from the comfort of his intelligent living room, wearing 3-D glasses and moving about by waving a super-networked mobile phone that is attached to his wrist like a watch.
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| Dec 29 | Japanese men spend Christmas with 2-D girlfriends (switched.com) |
 If Japanese men are now wedding their virtual girlfriends, it only makes conjugal sense that they would spend the holiday season with them, too. Why they would want to document and post an intimate holiday with their Manga Misses, though, is another question. Apparently, the practice has become somewhat of an Internet meme in Japan, with anime enthusiasts across the nation eagerly posting photos of romantic Christmas Eve dinners with the 2-D girls of their dreams.
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| Dec 29 | Toshiba Develops Translation System for Cell Phones (PC World) |
| Travellers in or from East Asia may soon be able to turn to their cell phones for quick, easy and cheap translation help thanks to a new application from Toshiba. The company has developed a trilingual translation system with voice recognition and synthesis that's compact and light enough to be installed in a cell phone. Unlike existing applications the software doesn't offload processing to a more powerful server on the network but performs the task inside the phone. That makes it quicker and avoids potentially costly data roaming charges when used overseas. |
| Dec 29 | PS3 Japan sales No. 1 amid Final Fantasy XIII (punchjump.com) |
| Sales for Sony Corp.'s Playstation 3 ranked as the top-selling hardware for the week in Japan amid the release of Square Enix Holdings Co.'s Final Fantasy XIII. Media Create Co. on Fri. said the PS3 sold 237,086 units between Dec. 14 Dec. 20 to rank as the top console and No. 1 overall hardware for the week. |
| Dec 29 | Sony PS4 to use multi-core CPU not Cell? (slashgear.com) |
 Sony are considering replacing the PS3's Cell architecture with a more mainstream multi-core processor in the PlayStation 4, according to PC Watch, after game developers have reported greater than average problems developing for the current-gen console. Based on rumors and speculation coming out of Japan, the company also considered - but decided against - a combination Cell/Intel Larrabee setup.
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| Dec 25 | Facebook traffic jumps in Japan but it still lags Mixi (PC World) |
 Facebook has seen an almost fourfold increase in the number of visitors to its Web site from Japan in the last year but the site still lags far behind market-leader Mixi, according to data released on Thursday by NetRatings Japan. In November 1.39 million unique visitors accessed the Facebook site, up from just 355,000 visitors in November last year, said NetRatings. Growth has been trending upwards throughout the year but became stronger three months ago when monthly visitors were at the 767,000 mark. The figures are extrapolated from data gathered from a panel of several thousand users in offices and homes.
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| Dec 22 | Electric Japan: A yen for digital TV (Global Post) |
| Japanese TV manufacturers hope the spread of their country's digital-TV standard will translate into more sales for them. Their government hopes it provides a badly needed boost for Japan's long-flagging economy. The standards battle's current skirmish is being fought in Latin America as the continent chooses which standard it will use to broadcast digital programming. Japan, the U.S., Europe, and China all have their own standards. The areas of the world where consumers can afford expensive new TVs have mainly made their choices, with most picking the European standard, known as DVB-T. |
| Dec 19 | Japan should follow Finland's lead on adapting to Internet age (Mainichi) |
| Lately, I've had numerous opportunities to collaborate closely with the Finnish organizations. Finland's minister of transport and communications once came to visit our lab. Recently the ministry announced that broadband Internet access -- capable of transmitting high volumes of information at high speeds -- will become a legally guaranteed right in Finland. |
| Dec 18 | Apple's iPhone commands 46% of Japanese smartphone market (Apple Insider) |
Nearly half of all domestic smartphone users have turned to the iPhone in Japan, giving Apple a dominant position in the market, according to a new study.
New data released this week from Tokyo-based research company Impress R&D shows the iPhone 3G taking 24.6 percent of the consumer smartphone market. The iPhone 3GS, released this year, accounts for another 21.5 percent.
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| Dec 17 | Role-playing game 'Final Fantasy XIII' goes on sale in Japan (Mainichi) |
 Fans of popular role-playing game series "Final Fantasy" lined up outside stores early Thursday as the latest installment went on sale across Japan.
Around 300 fans were lined up outside the Shibuya Tsutaya store in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward -- where the official launch was made -- before sales began at 7 a.m.
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| Dec 17 | 8 Japanese computer servers suspected in July cyber attack (AP) |
| Japan's National Police Agency said Thursday it suspects eight computer servers in Japan were involved in a wave of cyber attacks in July against government and private sector websites in South Korea and the United States, Japan's National Police Agency said Thursday. Japanese police have detected a software program on the servers for issuing instructions to terminals outside of Japan to send large amounts of data. |
| Dec 17 | Sharp will supply LCD panels to Philips (Forbes) |
| Japan's Sharp Corp will supply LCD television panels to Royal Philips Electronics in Europe and South America as early as next year, the Nikkei business daily reported on Thursday. Sharp will ship LCD panels to Philips' factories in Poland and Brazil from its Sakai plant in western Japan which began operations in October, the Nikkei said. |
| Dec 14 | Hello Kitty LCD TV going on sale in Japan (examiner.com) |
 Hello Kitty products can be found in an overabundance at times in Japan. It seems these days that any household product can be purchased with Kitty's face on it. The introduction of the DY-133KT, a Hello Kitty LCD TV, on Dec. 11th truly adds to that list.
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| Dec 13 | Big, advanced refrigerators a hot item (Yomiuri) |
| Large, high-tech refrigerators have been bucking a general slump in retail sales, thanks to the government's eco point program to promote sales of energy-saving home appliances. According to the Japan Electrical Manufacturers' Association, the total number of refrigerators shipped domestically from April through September fell 2.7 percent from the same period the previous year. |
| Dec 11 | Japanese Software: Mario Wii Tops Charts As Change Comes To Top 10 (gamasutra.com) |
| To nobody's surprise, New Super Mario Bros. Wii topped the Japanese sales charts for the week that ended December 6, selling 953,000 amidst a chart featuring numerous sales debuts. That figure is an all-time first-week Wii sales record for the nation, beating Nintendo's own previous high point of 816,000 for Super Smash Bros. Brawl. |
| Dec 11 | Panasonic's green leap a test for Japan (Japan Times) |
| Panasonic Corp., though dogged by repeated delays, finally announced Thursday it acquired a 50.19 percent stake in smaller Sanyo Electric Co. for ¥403.78 billion as it makes headway in its transition into a green consumer electronics giant that can remain globally competitive in the decades ahead. |
| Dec 09 | Google zooms in on Japanese market (Asahi) |
| Google Inc., the U.S.-based Internet search engine company, is adding new free services for Japanese users, aiming to outdo rival Yahoo Japan Corp. in the world's second-largest advertising market. A phonetic search engine for mobile phones that Google Japan introduced Monday is the latest aimed at attracting Japanese users. It works on cellphones equipped with Google's Android operating system and on Apple Computer's iPhone. |
| Dec 09 | Sony's finger on the pulse with vein reader (Japan Times) |
 Sony's new FVA-U1 is a finger-vein reader that plugs into your computer via a USB. The device is meant to protect computers from unauthorized users, externally at least. The rising popularity of vein-reading technology in Japan as a better means of securing data is praiseworthy, but a tad odd considering this country is one of the world's safest.
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| Dec 09 | 'Eco point' program to be extended to end of 2010 (AP) |
| The government decided Tuesday to keep the so-called "eco- point program" in place till the end of 2010, extending the program from its initially scheduled expiry at the end of next March. The program is designed to promote sales of energy-efficient air conditioners, refrigerators and televisions capable of receiving high- quality terrestrial digital broadcasting by giving buyers "eco points" which can be exchanged into gift tickets and the like. |
| Dec 09 | Japanese create talking toilet (CNET) |
 Major Japanese toilet maker Toto has created a talking commode. The new Neo model has a robotic lid that moves in time with its voice, which for some reason is male.
Neo features in a series of short video ads for the Japanese market, apparently as a joke. The videos show Neo chatting with a man about everyday things like relationships and riding Japan Railways trains.
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| Dec 08 | New Super Mario Bros. on Fire in Japan (IGN) |
| Wii hardware and software sales have been sluggish in Japan over much of the past year. Expect that to change in the upcoming software charts. New Super Mario Bros. Wii will be topping the charts with over 900,000 units sold in its first week. |
| Dec 07 | Sony Japan Celebrates 15 Years of PlayStation (playstationlifestyle.net) |
 The PlayStation brand has been around for a good long while now, since about halfway from when the video games industry started until now. Sony Japan has decided to celebrate by crafting a website in the brand's honor.
It is highly interactive and features a nice timeline of major releases and events in PlayStation's history.
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