News On Japan

More about going wireless on the move

Japan Times — 2010-03-08 22:09:30

In reply to a computer user seeking advice on "Going wireless on the move" (Lifelines, Jan. 5), M.H. wonders why Bic Camera ( www.biccamera.com ) and Emobile ( www.emobile.jp/en ) were mentioned, but not UQ WiMAX ( www.uqwimax.jp/service/trywimax/ ). UQ WiMAX has two payment plans: a flat rate of about ¥4,500 a month and a "per packet" rate with a ¥380-minimum, ¥4,900-maximum monthly fee. (Japan Times)

Japan's top web forum an outlet for free speech -- and hate

independent.co.uk — 2010-03-08 03:14:49

Japan's biggest Internet forum, where anonymous netizens trade anything from cooking tips to death threats, has long been an anarchic zone of uninhibited free speech and a magnet for controversy. This week the raw commentary on 2channel - which with 10 million visits a month is one of the world's largest online bulletin boards - saw tempers flare anew. A massive hacker attack from South Korea crippled the site in retaliation for users' online slights against Olympic skater Kim Yu-Na, after she beat Japanese rival Mao Asada to take gold at the Vancouver Winter Games. The site was attacked on Monday, the anniversary of a 1919 uprising in Korea against Japanese colonial rule, and shut down for two days. (independent.co.uk)

Illegal Net access jumps to record high in 2009

AP — 2010-03-04 09:05:36

Police uncovered and took action in a record number of cases of unauthorized access to Internet sites in 2009, a National Police Agency survey showed Thursday. The number of cases in which illegal Net access was recognized by police surged 22.1 percent from the previous year to 2,795 in 2009, the highest since the agency began compiling data in 2000. The number of cases in which arrests and other police actions were taken jumped 45.6 percent to 2,534, also the highest, the agency said. The figure jumped more than nine times from 2005 and 84.7 percent of the cases involved fraud using Net auction sites. (AP)

Newspapers lead online charge

Yomiuri — 2010-02-28 21:59:19

An increasing number of domestic newspapers have started charging readers for their online content. The newspapers hope to attract new readers by providing more specialized and detailed articles online, with the aim of making such services a pillar of their business operations. Nikkei Inc., which publishes the Nikkei business daily, will launch a fee-based online service on March 23 in which subscribers can access news flashes and articles carried in the newspaper's morning and evening editions. (Yomiuri)

Nikkei to offer online subscriptions

Wall Street Journal — 2010-02-24 21:58:23

Nihon Keizai Shimbun Inc., publisher of Japan's Nikkei business daily, said it will become the first of the country's four major national newspapers to offer an online subscription version, opening the door for other Japanese dailies to follow suit in one of the world's biggest newspaper markets. While U.S. newspapers have struggled for years with declining readership as more people turn to free news available online, Japan's major national dailies have fared somewhat better because of their huge circulation base. (Wall Street Journal)

Megabanks embrace Internet banking

Yomiuri — 2010-02-18 22:07:11

The nation's three megabank groups, which own a vast network of banking outlets, are embracing Internet banking. In their efforts to compete with banks that specialize in Internet-based banking, the megabanks reward customers who use such banking services with lower commission charges and allow them to manage several accounts at once. Meanwhile, banks are trying make Internet banking easier. Mizuho Bank's membership-based Mizuho Mileage Club allows customers to view a variety of items online, not just transactions with the bank, but stock and credit card details and the balance of their air miles, among others. Lottery tickets can be bought online and winnings collected online. (Yomiuri)

Police cracking down on fraudulent matchmaking Web sites

Yomiuri — 2010-02-17 22:48:33

Fraudulent matchmaking Web sites, one of which is estimated to have victimized 1.4 million yen people and netted about 2 billion yen, are finally being targeted by police. Last month, the Metropolitan Police Department and Miyagi prefectural police broke up a group operating one such site for the first time. The site apparently did not have a system through which users could get acquainted. Part-time workers hired by the operators of the site, dubbed sakura in Japanese, first became members of major free social networking service sites and then lured other members to pay matchmaking sites on which getting acquainted with the opposite sex was impossible. (Yomiuri)

Temples offering virtual visits to graves

Yomiuri — 2010-02-13 00:00:22

As the nation grays and people gravitate to big cities and leave their hometowns behind, new services that enable people to see live images of the graves of their loved ones online or access photographs of their loved ones via the Net are gaining in popularity. Several online services are available to subscribers, such as having photos of relatives who have died put online or providing access to live streamed videos of graves. (Yomiuri)

Rakuten moves back to black with record group net profit in FY 2009

AP — 2010-02-13 00:57:19

Rakuten Inc. said Friday it saw record consolidated net profit of 53.56 billion yen in the year ended December, in a turnaround from a loss of 54.98 billion yen in the preceding year, thanks to strong online retail business. Sales also jumped 19.4 percent to an all-time high of 298.25 billion yen as many consumers chose to shop online at their homes due to the recession instead of going outside to visit retail stores, the major Internet portal operator said. (AP)

13 radio stations in Tokyo, Osaka to begin simultaneous webcasting

AP — 2010-02-13 11:46:57

Thirteen commercial radio stations in Tokyo and Osaka will start simultaneous broadcasting on the Internet in March on a trial basis, sources close to the radio stations said Saturday. If the attempt to increase listeners and help shore up falling advertising revenues succeeds, the stations will shift to full-scale online broadcasting in the fall, according to the sources. The stations will set up a dedicated website where listeners will be able to pick a station, they said. (AP)

S. Korea, Japan have world's fastest web links

AFP — 2010-02-02 12:13:48

East Asian countries led by South Korea, Hong Kong and Japan are the best wired in the world with the highest number of fast broadband connections to the Internet, a recent report has found. South Korea boasts the world's highest average connection speed at 14.6 Megabytes per second (Mbps) and also has six of Asia's 10 cities with the fastest link-ups, all with average speeds above 15 Mbps. Japan had the second highest average connection speed of 7.9 Mbps, followed by the Chinese territory of Hong Kong with 7.6 Mbps, said the report by US-based network provider Akamai Technologies. (AFP)

Rakuten to form joint venture with Baidu to launch online mall in China

AP — 2010-01-27 11:32:42

Japan's largest Internet mall operator Rakuten Inc. said Wednesday it has agreed with China's top Internet search engine Baidu Inc. to form a joint venture to launch an online mall in China in the second half of this year. The two firms will invest 4.3 billion yen over three years in the joint venture that will be 51 percent owned by Rakuten and 49 percent by Baidu. (AP)

Users balk at iTunes mystery charges

Asahi — 2010-01-26 01:20:44

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. (Asahi)

Magazine publishers in Japan team up to sell content online

Mainichi — 2010-01-09 10:03:25

Fifty publishing companies including major firms Bungeishunju, Kodansha, and Shogakukan have teamed up to launch a joint Web site that will sell magazine articles online. Trial operation of the site will begin on Jan. 27. Users will be able to search for articles from cell phones, and select the ones they want to read from a table of contents. (Mainichi)

48 men charged with posting obscene images, video of girl on Internet

AP — 2010-01-06 22:52:18

A total of 48 men aged 18 to 55 have been charged with circulating obscene photographs and video of a junior high school girl on the Internet in violation of the law prohibiting child prostitution and child pornography, police said Wednesday. The 48 men from 18 prefectures include teachers and firefighters. The men are suspected of using Cabos file-swapping software to publicly circulate the pornographic images and video on the Internet last year, according to the police. (AP)

'Gumblar' virus playing havoc with home pages across Japan

Mainichi — 2010-01-07 12:46:09

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. (Mainichi)

Online game provokes ire of Japanese nationalists

chosun.com — 2010-01-06 07:20:56

A conservative Japanese newspaper has blasted a popular Japanese online game for labeling the waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan the "Sea of Korea." The Sankei Shimbun on Tuesday wrote the labeling "reflects the online game developer's lack of understanding of international relations." The Sankei is the island country's fifth largest daily. (chosun.com)

'Netrepreneur' boasts generation-'76 success

Japan Times — 2010-01-04 22:05:43

As the 33-year-old president of an Internet startup company located in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo, one could say Shujiro Beppu is a typical "nanaroku sedai," or literally, "generation of '76." The term refers to the generation of information technology and Internet entrepreneurs in Japan born around 1976. These people saw computers entering their everyday lives and are familiar with Internet businesses launched by IT pioneers such as Masayoshi Son of Softbank and Hiroshi Mikitani of Japan's largest e-commerce Web site, Rakuten. (Japan Times)

Japan-based multilingual Asian pop culture website scores a hit

AP — 2010-01-03 12:06:34

A website featuring music, comics, fashion and other pop culture of Japan and other parts of Asia run by the Fukuoka prefectural government is growing popular as it goes multilingual and expands its scope. The site -- http://asianbeat.com -- is currently available in Japanese and four other languages. It is a rarely seen attempt by a Japanese local government and has logged access from at least 150 countries, according to officials of the southern Japan prefecture. (AP)

Facebook traffic jumps in Japan but it still lags Mixi

PC World — 2009-12-25 02:27:37

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. (PC World)

Japanese companies target China's online shopping

ecommerce-journal.com — 2009-12-23 22:55:18

Japanese businesses have begun to turn their eyes to China, and the rapid development of online shopping in China is considered as the key to opening the Chinese market. Chinese market is too attractive because its population is 10 times bigger than Japan's. But China is too large, it is impossible to open stores in all regions, so online sales will become the key to opening the Chinese market, said a manger from a Japanese children's wear manufacturer. (ecommerce-journal.com)

Hacker illegally accesses JR East Web site and alters part of system

AP — 2009-12-23 10:51:57

A hacker has illegally accessed the Web site of East Japan Railway Co. (JR East) and altered part of the program managing the system, company officials said Wednesday. Thousands of people who used its search function after the incident may have got their computers infected with a virus. The Tokyo-based railway operator has closed affected pages of its Web site to investigate the details of the problem. (AP)

LDH looks to unload Livedoor Web portal unit

Japan Times — 2009-12-22 22:07:17

LDH Corp., the Internet company that paid ¥30.6 billion in dividends this year to Morgan Stanley and other investors, plans to sell its Livedoor Co. Web portal unit, sources said. LDH plans to hire Citigroup Inc. to advise on the sale of Livedoor, including its blog and online matchmaking sites, according to the sources, who requested anonymity because the talks are private. The company will begin an auction for Livedoor as early as next month, they said. (Japan Times)

Telling the time Shibuya-style with the Gal Clock

Mainichi — 2009-12-22 12:05:45

An online clock service using photographs of young Tokyo girls is attracting growing attention. The "Gal Tokei" (Gal Clock) made its debut on Dec. 3, attracting so many viewers that the Internet server crashed temporarily. It will inform the viewers of hours using images of gals in their late teens to early '20s. A total of 1,440 pictures of girls holding up a sign with the current time will be displayed on screen all day long, meaning every minute is announced by a different shot. (Mainichi)

Japan should follow Finland's lead on adapting to Internet age

Mainichi — 2009-12-19 03:44:46

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. (Mainichi)