An Amazing Japanese TV Commercial

In spite of all the bad news out of Japan recently, Japan shows that she still knows how to make the world's top quality and innovation. Here's a TV commercial for Japan's cell phone carrier DoCoMo.

I love Japan and I love Tokyo. This is still, far and away, one of the most fun and exciting places to live in the world...

Thanks to Lew Rockwell

Finally! Tokyo to Get Cellphone Service in Subways!

It never seems to fail. I could be sitting around at home or in the office all day and not get a single phone call to my cellphone (not really complaining), but sure as the sun will rise in the East tomorrow morning, the moment I get into a subway train, and the door closes, someone will call me.

As soon as the train leaves the station - in between stations - there's no cellphone reception in Tokyo. 


But that's all going to change this year!


CNN reports:

Users of the iPhone in Japan have long had one grievance to share -- the poor lack of signal on phone giant Softbank's network.

Walk underground or stand in an elevator and you can expect the line to go dead on any Softbank phone, let alone on a moving subway train. Of course, one should never speak while in the carriage, but for those wishing to download news or send text messages, each tunnel is a frustration.

Tokyo Vice Governor Naoki Inose and Softbank president Masayoshi Son agreed at a meeting at the municipal head office to resolve the issue whereby a phone signal can be found in the passageways under the city, but not while moving between stations -- affecting millions of commuters.

According to the Mainichi, Son "proposed that e-mail use be enabled in subway trains because doing so would raise people's productivity."

......

The antennas will be paid for by a consortium of the three telephone giants, Softbank, NTT Docomo Inc and KDDI Corp, so should serve all phones, and could be up and running by the end of 2011.

I don't really want to talk to people on the trains, but would love to be able to read the news on the Internet or check stock prices or watch Youtube.

I hope they do arrange this as soon as possible. It looks like Osaka will have this service in 2012!

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Making Money from Free Cellphone games? How?

Here's an interesting article from the Mainichi. I've wondered about this....

How do firms make so much money from free cell phone games?

Despite Japan's continued recession, companies that offer free cell phone game platforms like Mobage and Gree -- are raking in tens of billions of yen annually. If the games can be played for free, where is all the money coming from?

At the Roppongi headquarters of Gree Inc., employees in their 20s and 30s tap away at the several hundred computers lined up in the huge office.

"I'm always thinking about what might make people want to fish," says a 27-year-old male employee on the development team for Gree's leading product, a fishing game called Tsuri Suta. He stares at his computer screen.

Making money from a free online fishing game called "Tsuri"? But how? Aha! Fishing supplies? Really?

With Tsuri, for example, players are free to participate in fishing events with other players, but fishing poles can become so worn out that they break. The user is then given the opportunity to continue using the free pole, or select a more user-friendly pole for 100 yen or more. Among the available tools are 1,000-yen poles with lures that enable players to catch big fish, and the "ultimate" pole at 2,000 yen.

Computer games that charge players for additional tools existed before cell phone games appeared on the scene, however. So what's the difference?

I decided to experiment with cell phone games for about three weeks. At first, I couldn't understand what about them drew people in. But as I made friends and exchanged short letters on the way, I found myself looking into my phone during my commute to work.

"Put simply, it's just a way to pass the time," says a 27-year-old man in Tokyo's Itabashi Ward who began gaming on Mobage Town three years ago and has continued to play during breaks at work. Indeed, the convenience is what DeNA says characterizes their product.

"It's a new form of entertainment that can be used in those 'in-between' times," says a DeNA publicist.

The article goes on to state that 5 ~ 10% of players will pay for extra tools. That's a great conversion rate!

Now you know how they make money with "Free" games!

Junior and High School Girls and Cellphones

In Japan, cellphones are everywhere. I even see small children, in first and second grade, at my son's school who have their own cellphones.

Many adults in Japan have more than one cellphone and I personally know some guys who have three or more (one guy told me he had a different phone for every girlfriend so that he doesn't confuse them when they call).

But the one slice of the pie here in Japan that is just incredible is the junior high school and high school girl segment of the market. These girls are devouring novels on their cellphones as fast as they can get them.

CS Monitor reports:

Media-sharing website Maho i-Land boasts 1 million online books and 6 million users who read and/or write novels on the website for free. Many users tap away and compose using their cellphones, simply following a word limit of 1,000 or less characters per page. Budding authors can choose to “publish” their online story immediately or keep it unlisted. Many upload their content as they finish and choose to receive feedback from readers. Authors respond to feedback by fixing mistakes and sometimes changing the story lines. The most successful authors get their stories printed.

“Keitai novels make up a roughly $36 million market annually,” says Shigeru Matsushima, an editor at Starts Publishing Co.

That explains a lot. I often see these girls on their phones just enraptured by what they are reading. If it were a friend's e-mail or text, it would be short, right? But these girls will stare at their phones for 20 or 30 minutes straight. If they are reading cellphone novels, then that would explain it.

Who says young people today don't read?