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Fabless printing startup Raksul partners with Stores.jp, fulfills printing needs for e-store owners

Junya Mori 2013.03.21

Raksul, a Tokyo-based startup providing online printing services, announced today it has partnered with Stores.jp, the e-commerce platform that lets you set up a store online in minutes.

Raksul is a fabless company that provides printing services in partnership with more than 1,400 printing factories nationwide. Users can place printing orders at affordable rates because the participating printers use their downtime to finish those orders.

The partnership allows the owners of online stores using the Stores.jp platform to order free printing of their store’s promotional cards, providing an one-stop solution for e-commerce owners. This makes it easier to manage their stores, since they can also do other things like set up a promotional newsletter or apply for credit card payments all in one place.

With the partnership, Raksul also lets the store owners pay more attention to printing materials as promotion tools. Both startups are also planning to introduce a new service together, although the details of this are not yet known.

Earlier this month, Raksul announced it had partnered with Crowdworks, a startup that crowdsources engineering and design needs for business cards and hand-outs.

Raksul was founded in 2009 and raised a total amount of 230 million yen ($2.4 million) during the last year from Nissay Capital, Yahoo Japan, and angel investor Anri Samata. Stores.jp was founded by Yusuke Mitsumoto who has developed a variety of web services.

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Awesome Japanese iPhone app serves up surprise centaur photobombs

Rick Martin 2013.03.20

Over the past month or so, I’ve been seeing this unusual photo app here and there on the Japanese interwebs. It’s called Kenstagram, and it claims to be ‘the number one centaur camera’ (that’s actually part of the app’s name) — although I expect that’s a pretty niche space. Like Instagram, Kenstagram has a number of filters, and after choosing one you can snap off your picture. Once you’re satisfied with how it looks, that’s when the centaur sweeps in from the edge of the screen, typically ruining your perfectly good photo. It’s really, really bizarre. So far Kenstagram hasn’t seen too much traction, although I expect if it can move up in the photo app rankings, then that could change. It’s totally a novelty app, and not something that you’re likely to use for a long time. But it’s still really fun, and that counts for a lot. Kenstagram was developed by Nanameue, a team that has done some photo apps for the likes of Line and WeChat. If you’d like to check it out, you can get it for free over on iTunes.

Like Instagram, Kenstagram has a number of filters, and after choosing one you can snap off your picture. Once you’re satisfied with how it looks, that’s when the centaur sweeps in from the edge of the screen, typically ruining your perfectly good photo.

It’s really, really bizarre.

So far Kenstagram hasn’t seen too much traction, although I expect if it can move up in the photo app rankings, then that could change. It’s totally a novelty app, and not something that you’re likely to use for a long time. But it’s still really fun, and that counts for a lot.

Kenstagram was developed by Nanameue, a team that has done some photo apps for the likes of Line and WeChat.

If you’d like to check it out, you can get it for free over on iTunes.

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New transparent, foldable material could be the future of e-paper

Yukari Mitsuhashi 2013.03.20

Oji Holdings Corporation and Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation have succeeded in inventing a roll of robust and transparent film-like paper. This type of paper is the first of its kind and could potentially be used as foldable e-paper for pocket-size digital books. The transparent material uses cellulose nanofiber created by pulverizing plant fiber so thin that it measures 1/20000 of a single hair. The biggest challenge was to strain these ultra-thin cellulose nanofibers with traditional paper machines. The resulting paper can be bent and folded, and it is also resistant to heat, which means there is potential for the material to be used in large displays. The two groups are working at a dedicated pilot plant in Tokyo in an attempt to commercialize the product by the year 2016. Their efforts began in September of 2010, combining the chemical processing and paper manufacturing technologies possessed by the two companies. It’s exciting to think about what kind of new products could come about using such a technology.

The transparent material uses cellulose nanofiber created by pulverizing plant fiber so thin that it measures 1/20000 of a single hair. The biggest challenge was to strain these ultra-thin cellulose nanofibers with traditional paper machines. The resulting paper can be bent and folded, and it is also resistant to heat, which means there is potential for the material to be used in large displays.

The two groups are working at a dedicated pilot plant in Tokyo in an attempt to commercialize the product by the year 2016. Their efforts began in September of 2010, combining the chemical processing and paper manufacturing technologies possessed by the two companies. It’s exciting to think about what kind of new products could come about using such a technology.

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Japanese fashion e-commerce service Laso raises $2.1M from DCM

Masaru Ikeda 2013.03.20

Laso, a Tokyo-based fashion e-commerce retailer specializing in high-end clothes and outfits from around the world, has announced it has fundraised 200 million yen (approximately $2.1 million) from US-based VC firm DCM. The company expects to use the fund to improve site design, further system development, hire new employees, and create O2O (online to offline) marketing approaches. To differentiate the service from others in this intensely competitive field, the company has imported more than 200,000 items from 2,000 brands in 50 countries worldwide. Their buyers handpicked items to showcase in accordance with global fashion trends. They have no physical inventory of these items in Japan, so a user’s purchase will be delivered one or two weeks after placing the order. In its announcement, the company highlights how much potential there is in this business: The Japanese fashion market has not matured yet, where some foreign fashion brands are struggling hard to find market potential and other brands have been forced to give up continuing their business expansion. We wish to give consumers more opportunities to encounter wonderful global fashion items and make themselves feel close to the world. Laso was founded in 2006 by Masatoshi Murota who was previously on…

laso_logo Laso, a Tokyo-based fashion e-commerce retailer specializing in high-end clothes and outfits from around the world, has announced it has fundraised 200 million yen (approximately $2.1 million) from US-based VC firm DCM. The company expects to use the fund to improve site design, further system development, hire new employees, and create O2O (online to offline) marketing approaches.

To differentiate the service from others in this intensely competitive field, the company has imported more than 200,000 items from 2,000 brands in 50 countries worldwide. Their buyers handpicked items to showcase in accordance with global fashion trends. They have no physical inventory of these items in Japan, so a user’s purchase will be delivered one or two weeks after placing the order.

In its announcement, the company highlights how much potential there is in this business:

The Japanese fashion market has not matured yet, where some foreign fashion brands are struggling hard to find market potential and other brands have been forced to give up continuing their business expansion. We wish to give consumers more opportunities to encounter wonderful global fashion items and make themselves feel close to the world.

Laso was founded in 2006 by Masatoshi Murota who was previously on the board of directors for J-Word, which provided a web browser plug-in and an alternative to Google Search. It later acquired by Yahoo Japan and GMO.

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Tomy’s dog-to-human communication toy introduces tots to mobile translation

Yukari Mitsuhashi 2013.03.20

For Japanese parents looking for a toy for their baby girl’s next birthday, Tomy’s Ketai Wanko (roughly translated as “mobile dog”) might be a fun option to consider. It’s a cute stuffed dog accompanied by mobile controller that works as a mock dog-to-human translator. When the toy dog barks, you can bring the cell-phone close to its nose, and the noises are translated into language. The dog can say over 300 different phrases such as “pet me,” “sing to me,” or even “I like your what you’re wearing today.” A toy biscuit is also included, and when you feed your dog it will make happy eating sounds or even ask for more biscuits. You can learn more about how it works over on the Tomy website. Keitai Wanko can be purchased for 3,780 yen (about $40) and is available in three breeds: toy poodle, chihuahua and Shiba Inu. In its announcement, Tomy (TSE:7867) notes that as many as 30% of Japanese people have some kind of pet. But of course there are some families that can not enjoy pets for some reason or another. The company hopes that Keitai Wanko could be an alternaitve for such families to teach children…

When the toy dog barks, you can bring the cell-phone close to its nose, and the noises are translated into language. The dog can say over 300 different phrases such as “pet me,” “sing to me,” or even “I like your what you’re wearing today.” A toy biscuit is also included, and when you feed your dog it will make happy eating sounds or even ask for more biscuits. You can learn more about how it works over on the Tomy website.

Keitai Wanko can be purchased for 3,780 yen (about $40) and is available in three breeds: toy poodle, chihuahua and Shiba Inu. In its announcement, Tomy (TSE:7867) notes that as many as 30% of Japanese people have some kind of pet. But of course there are some families that can not enjoy pets for some reason or another. The company hopes that Keitai Wanko could be an alternaitve for such families to teach children to take care of animals.

For real dogs

For those with real animals to pet, Tomy has an actual dog-to-human language translator and emotional analyzer called Bow-Lingual. That was released way back in September of 2002, co-developed by Tomy, Index Holdings, and Japan Acoustic Lab.

Bow-Lingual allows owners to communicate with dogs through a wireless mic built into the dog’s collar. The product sold over 300,000 units worldwide and received an Ig Nobel Prize in 2002. There is also a Bow-Lingual iPhone app if anyone wants to give it a try. We’ve not tested it (nor do we actually speak dog) so your mileage may vary!

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Sony TVs through the years [Timeline]

SCORE 2,660

Rick Martin 2013.03.19

Japanese electronics maker Sony (NYSE:SNE) has been seeing more than its fair share of troubles in recent years, leading up to the recent sale of its Tokyo office building a few weeks back. But it’s been a pretty long ride for Sony, and many people don’t realize exactly how far back the company’s history goes. I confess, I was a little surprised when today I saw the company’s first transistor television set on sale over on eBay. It’s an 8-inch model from all the way back in 1960! And it isn’t likely to win any retroactive awards for portability either. I clicked over to the Sony website and found an informative history of its television development, which I thought I’d scrape together and present as a fun timeline. Check it out above. The text is Sony’s so of course they’re going to toot their own horn a little bit here. But in fairness, there are a lot of television ‘firsts’ here, so perhaps it’s well-deserved! Feel free to share the graphic using the embed code below:

Japanese electronics maker Sony (NYSE:SNE) has been seeing more than its fair share of troubles in recent years, leading up to the recent sale of its Tokyo office building a few weeks back.

But it’s been a pretty long ride for Sony, and many people don’t realize exactly how far back the company’s history goes. I confess, I was a little surprised when today I saw the company’s first transistor television set on sale over on eBay. It’s an 8-inch model from all the way back in 1960! And it isn’t likely to win any retroactive awards for portability either.

I clicked over to the Sony website and found an informative history of its television development, which I thought I’d scrape together and present as a fun timeline. Check it out above. The text is Sony’s so of course they’re going to toot their own horn a little bit here. But in fairness, there are a lot of television ‘firsts’ here, so perhaps it’s well-deserved!

Feel free to share the graphic using the embed code below:

</p> <div class="video-container"> <div class="video"><iframe src='http://embed.verite.co/timeline/?source=0Ankqe-fbHOHIdDVwM2VzMTdQMEJ3WG43RzhydDBXSmc&font=PlayfairDisplay-Muli&maptype=toner&lang=en&height=650' width='100%' height='650' frameborder='0'></iframe></div> </div> <p>

Fabless printing startup Raksul partners with Stores.jp, fulfills printing needs for e-store owners

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