I was invited to take part in the so-called “Venture Beat Monthly Networking” party in Harajuku/Tokyo on this past Wednesday. The event is organized by a couple of influential IT organizations such as CNET Japan or IBM Japan. Hisashi “Sam” Katsuya from the latter company...
Japanese company releases new tool for use in Second Life
I personally believe the basic concept behind the idea of Second Life (the existence of “virtual worlds” in 3D populated by avatars) will be here to stay in the web world forever. In Japan, people took a liking to Second Life particularly after Linden Lab decided to translate the site...
Mixi goes berserk
Japan’s biggest social network and blogging platform Mixi (boasting a user network of over 13 million people, my review) caused a huge stir some days ago when it announced a shocking move. The company of the same name plans to take away all content to be found on its website from its users...
Remote controller for PC operation and Chinese character input
Typing in Japanese can be a real pain. Whereas using the Roman alphabet to type on a keyboard is a relatively direct and easy issue, typing in Japanese usually involves a lot of converting (i.e. from the Japanese alphabet Hiragana to the Chinese characters called Kanji). Also, there sometimes are...
10 winners of CNET Japan’s Tech Venture contest
Last week, CNET Japan held a Tech venture contest and a total of 10 companies were awarded with prices. The event drew a lot of attention in the Japanese web and IT world. Companies awarded which have an English website (unfortunately only three do): – Community Engine(development of network...
Mobile browser from Japan: Jig
Jig is the name of a genuine Japanese Internet software product, a mobile web browser. There is also an English version available which is very welcome. The best point: For overseas customers the usage of jig is completely free! A few days ago, Taisuke -who is CEO and CTO of the Tokyo-based company...