As more and more data tracking technology is developed, the advantages of keeping of a Personal Health Record, or PHR for short, become all the more apparent. The growing use of Bluetooth-enabled health care devices helps people easily track information, and visualize and manage it.
Tokyo-based startup Practechs has introduced an Android app that allows you to easily collect and review your various health-related data. The app is called Health Player, and it is available for free.
The app can act as a pedometer, counting your steps as well as your calories burned in a given day. You can input data manually or by connecting with other measuring instruments, recording things like body fat percentage, base body temperature, your menstrual cycle, blood pressure, and pulse. The app can leverage Felica-based NFC or Bluetooth communications, transferring collected data from various third party health care devices.
The startup expects to introduce an iOS app in late June. They plan to add more functions later on, like personalized content recommendations based on the collected metrics, reward systems that motivate users to keep exercising, or social content.
Around Asia, there are many players in this health space including DocDoc (health management), Doctorpage (for medical appointments), CompareClinic (online community focused medical topics) , Silverline (health and safety for the elderly in Singapore), MeetDoctor (improving healthcare though user interaction), or Dokter Gratis (doctor consultation through an app).
For those of you who would like to experiment a DIY data monitoring system, you could even try something spreadsheet-based like the so-called ‘data diet‘ which my colleague recently wrote about.
This is part of our cute Japanese apps series (RSS), examining a trend of ‘kawaii’ success stories emerging from Japan’s mobile space. If look at many of the popular mobile services used by Japanese girls, there is often some sort of customization feature. On the popular girls mobile blogging platform Decolog, which has a whopping 6.5 billion monthly page views, lets users customize their blogs using original photos or illustrations. This very flexible customization feature is one of the reasons for the service’s big success. Of course, these days the mobile homescreen is another area where girls want customization. Here is a list of five apps from Japan that allow users to do this in a very cute way. CocoPPa ¶ CocoPPa is a collaborative mobile customization platform that lets users all over the world create and collaborate on app icons and wallpapers, with many of its existing designs falling into the cute category. CocoPPa was released last July and since then it has been downloaded over 7.5 million times about half of that coming from the US. Readers may recall that the startup gave a pitch at the recent Infinity Ventures Summit in Sapporo. CocoPPa is availabe on iOS…
This is part of our cute Japanese apps series (RSS), examining a trend of ‘kawaii’ success stories emerging from Japan’s mobile space.
If look at many of the popular mobile services used by Japanese girls, there is often some sort of customization feature. On the popular girls mobile blogging platform Decolog, which has a whopping 6.5 billion monthly page views, lets users customize their blogs using original photos or illustrations. This very flexible customization feature is one of the reasons for the service’s big success. Of course, these days the mobile homescreen is another area where girls want customization. Here is a list of five apps from Japan that allow users to do this in a very cute way.
CocoPPa is a collaborative mobile customization platform that lets users all over the world create and collaborate on app icons and wallpapers, with many of its existing designs falling into the cute category. CocoPPa was released last July and since then it has been downloaded over 7.5 million times about half of that coming from the US. Readers may recall that the startup gave a pitch at the recent Infinity Ventures Summit in Sapporo.
CocoPPa is availabe on iOS and Andoird, and on the web.
Touch Icon Creator is a very simple app that allows users to create original app icons using pictures in their photo library. So for example, you can create app icons with a photo of friends or family. I can also imagine this being useful for people who read celebrity blogs on the major blogging platform Ameblo. Mainstream users may not read online news media very often, but I think many read blogs by friends and celebrities. Users can create shortcuts on their homescreen and set customized photos that appropriately match the blog.
Icon Whip provides over 30 varieties of cute, original icons such as Hello Kitty or cookie shaped icons. The icons all have a sort of hand-drawn style, and that makes your homescreen look very unique. Some icons can be unlocked by sharing them Twitter or Facebook, and over on the Deco Market, there are premium icons that can be bought.
+Icon is for those who really wants to unleash their creativity. The app offers things like frames and symbols so that you can create your own icon very easily. There are also designs provided in collaboration with popular apparel brands like X-girl and Milkfed.
This one is for all the cat lovers out there. Nuko Shortcut Icon allows you to change your homescreen icons to Japanese-style cats illustrations. Nuko apparently means ‘cats’ (Neco in Japanese) in the internet world, although I had to look this up.
The app is available on Android with both free and paid versions. There are over 41 icons provided in the paid version.
If you have spent any time reading tech blogs today, you’ve likely stumbled across Mary Meeker’s/KPCB’s annual report on internet trends. It’s packed with lots of great info, and I encourage you to check it out. Or if you don’t have time for 117 slides check out this summary over on AllThingsD. But looking a little closer, I was curious to find that Meeker released another report today entitled Immigration in America and the Growing Shortage of High Skilled Workers (see the full slide deck here). I thought perhaps this might be of greater interest to readers here on SD Japan, as many of the problems faced by the US are faced by other countries too, including Japan. Readers may recall that at last week’s Infinity Ventures Summit, we heard Rakuten’s CEO Hiroshi Mikitani say: The Japanese market is shrinking, and you have to go compete in the international market. But because Japan’s system is so closed, many talented engineers leave Japan. In the US there are over 200,000 or 300,000 engineers. We are lacking in volume, and could bring engineers from overseas. But then there are visa issues to handle. ¶ Regarding this latter labor issue, Meeker provides a…
Rakuten’s CEO Hiroshi Mikitani has noted that Japan could bring more engineers from abroad
If you have spent any time reading tech blogs today, you’ve likely stumbled across Mary Meeker’s/KPCB’s annual report on internet trends. It’s packed with lots of great info, and I encourage you to check it out. Or if you don’t have time for 117 slides check out this summary over on AllThingsD.
But looking a little closer, I was curious to find that Meeker released another report today entitled Immigration in America and the Growing Shortage of High Skilled Workers (see the full slide deck here). I thought perhaps this might be of greater interest to readers here on SD Japan, as many of the problems faced by the US are faced by other countries too, including Japan.
Readers may recall that at last week’s Infinity Ventures Summit, we heard Rakuten’s CEO Hiroshi Mikitani say:
The Japanese market is shrinking, and you have to go compete in the international market. But because Japan’s system is so closed, many talented engineers leave Japan. In the US there are over 200,000 or 300,000 engineers. We are lacking in volume, and could bring engineers from overseas. But then there are visa issues to handle. ¶
Regarding this latter labor issue, Meeker provides a chart that clearly projects Japan’s shrinking labor force (in green). Of course while many other countries will experience this problem too, Japan with its famously aging population is the first country where the labor force is already on a serious downslide. And as such, it will be urgently pressed to find a solution long before other nations have to. But on the other hand, given how slowly regulations change, there’s no guarantee that Japan will react any quicker than other countries.
Meeker’s report outlines the problem of American immigration policies, as well as the growing discrepancy between visas issued to foreign students and H–1B employment visas issued. While foreign student visas are on the rise, employment visa are not – meaning that skilled foreign workers who could contribute to the American economy are often sent back to their home country, and aren’t given a chance to contribute to the US economy. Likewise, American tech companies cannot hire the skilled workers they need to stay competitive, largely because if the cap on H–1B visas. The report notes that only 85,000 are issued annually, but there is a demand for about 150,000 each year. As a result, US companies are often forced to move overseas and hire there. Mark Pincus of Zynga is quoted a saying:
The denial of US visas has forced us to routinely apply for visas in Canada or Ireland … We prefer that talented workers be able to work in our American offices as it would be best for our company, the people and the economy. ¶
If I think about many of the entrepreneurs I’ve met here in Japan, I think many of them still see Silicon Valley as the place to be – and indeed a few standouts with global ambitions have made the jump to Silicon Valley (see recent admissions into 500 Startups App Socially and Whill for starters) or other markets. Of course the vast majority of entrepreneurs remain here in Japan, but even for the ones who do that, a global outlook is needed. As I referenced in the Mikitani quote in my opening remarks, the Japanese market is shrinking, and companies need to look for customers and users abroad. We have already highlighted some Japanese companies who are doing this well.
To emphasize this point, lets look back to Meeker’s report to a slide on the top ten global Internet companies (see below). While 8 of the top ten are American, 81 percent of the users for those services are outside the US. It shows that if you want to be a big player, you need to think beyond your own borders. So for example, Line has the right approach with its global ambitions, while companies like Mixi have suffered because they didn’t look beyond the domestic market.
This is something that even (traditionally) insular Chinese companies like Baidu and Tencent are coming to realize. But unlike China, Japan (and Japanese companies) has a cultural, societal, and environmental advantages when it comes to attracting workers, in my view [1]. It’s an attractive destination for entrepreneurs, and many companies – particularly mobile ones – are trying to set up shop here. We know this because many of them come speak to us.
If more entrepreneurs and skilled workers were able to come here, not only would it contribute directly to the economy, but it would result in a richer, more diverse tech ecosystem, where people of many different backgrounds could learn from one another. While there is not yet any kind of visa for entrepreneurs, there is one for highly skilled workers. Governments have established some special economic zones that offer tax breaks for startups (Tokyo, Osaka, and Fukuoka are progressing), but changes will need to be quick and drastic if Japan hopes to overcome this issue.
I say this as someone who has lived and worked about five years in China and almost five years in Japan. Japan is still seen as a cool, clean, futuristic place, one that despite its failings is still far more culturally open. But regrettably regulations are still not changing as fast as they should. China on the other hand is a place that many people go to, but very few stay long term. ↩
See the original story in Japanese. pLucky is the Tokyo-based startup behind the user behavior analysis tool Slash-7. The company announced today that it has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from CyberAgent Ventures. We figure that it’s worth about 20 million yen ($200,000). Slash-7 aims to gives website owners sophisticated data analysis for reasonable rates. Many executives at Japanese companies are becoming increasingly interested in making the most of big data analysis to improve their business. But for website managers, it’s a time consuming task and may also result in additional costs or a possible delay spilling over into your regular projects. The Slash-7 tool is based on Google BigQuery, a database engine for analyzing large amounts of data. It gives you access to ‘cohort analysis‘, helping measure user engagement over time. This allows users to monitor user retention rates by traffic source or measure conversion rates for a specific user group before or after a promotional campaign. The startup was launched back in 2011 by Nobuhiro Hayashi. He has been working in the web industry for almost 10 years, and previously worked at notable Japanese startups, including Tonchidot.
pLucky is the Tokyo-based startup behind the user behavior analysis tool Slash-7. The company announced today that it has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from CyberAgent Ventures. We figure that it’s worth about 20 million yen ($200,000).
Slash-7 aims to gives website owners sophisticated data analysis for reasonable rates. Many executives at Japanese companies are becoming increasingly interested in making the most of big data analysis to improve their business. But for website managers, it’s a time consuming task and may also result in additional costs or a possible delay spilling over into your regular projects.
The Slash-7 tool is based on Google BigQuery, a database engine for analyzing large amounts of data. It gives you access to ‘cohort analysis‘, helping measure user engagement over time. This allows users to monitor user retention rates by traffic source or measure conversion rates for a specific user group before or after a promotional campaign.
The startup was launched back in 2011 by Nobuhiro Hayashi. He has been working in the web industry for almost 10 years, and previously worked at notable Japanese startups, including Tonchidot.
When you’re trying to make a persuasive presentation, you are unlikely to be sitting in front of a computer, just clicking through your slides. Rather, you want to be standing, facing the audience, with energy in your voice and animated movements or gestures. To give you an additional tool for your presentation arsenal, stationary and office supplies manufacturer Kokuyo has announced a new ring-shaped device that can help. Using Kokuyo’s presentation remote, Kokuyoseki, people can easily click through their slides. By putting the device on your index finger, you can use your thumb to click its buttons. A simple click of the ‘Next’ or ‘Back’ button works as a page turner, and a long press allows for presentations slides to start or end. With the black out button the screen turns black, so that you can put your presentation on hold to have discussions. Kokuyoseki supports both PowerPoint for Windows and Mac, as well as Keynote 1. The device is 32 mm in diameter and weighs about 12 grams with the battery, usually good for about 15 hours. The device can be enabled by inserting a receiver in your computer’s USB port, and it doesn’t require any drivers to be…
When you’re trying to make a persuasive presentation, you are unlikely to be sitting in front of a computer, just clicking through your slides. Rather, you want to be standing, facing the audience, with energy in your voice and animated movements or gestures.
To give you an additional tool for your presentation arsenal, stationary and office supplies manufacturer Kokuyo has announced a new ring-shaped device that can help.
Using Kokuyo’s presentation remote, Kokuyoseki, people can easily click through their slides. By putting the device on your index finger, you can use your thumb to click its buttons. A simple click of the ‘Next’ or ‘Back’ button works as a page turner, and a long press allows for presentations slides to start or end. With the black out button the screen turns black, so that you can put your presentation on hold to have discussions.
Kokuyoseki supports both PowerPoint for Windows and Mac, as well as Keynote 1. The device is 32 mm in diameter and weighs about 12 grams with the battery, usually good for about 15 hours. The device can be enabled by inserting a receiver in your computer’s USB port, and it doesn’t require any drivers to be installed.
The ring comes in two sizes, a larger size for your finger, and a smaller that can be fitted on a laser pointer. Kokuyoseki will be available for 4,935 yen (or about $49) starting June 12th.
Note that some of the long press controls are unavailable on Mac PowerPoint.↩
I was a little surprised a few weeks back when I stumbled across OldPhotosJapan.com, a site featuring remarkable photos from an era that most people would think predates photography itself. Many of the pictures collected are from the Meiji and Showa periods, some going back as far as the 1860s. The site was created by Tokyo-based, Dutch photojournalist Kjeld Duits, who I had a chance to catch up with yesterday to find out more about this project. What I discovered out was that this endeavor is more than just a pet interest or a hobby, but in fact, its actually a business too. Kjeld also operates MeijiShowa.com, a site where interested parties and clients can license these photos. While a lot of the photos are accessible to those who want to dig for them, Kjeld’s value add is that he can go out and acquire interesting old photos at auctions or other sales, and then license in much the same way that he used to license his own photos. He elaborates a little more about how this who idea initially came about: I had no idea there were photos of Japan from that period. I fell in love with the…
I was a little surprised a few weeks back when I stumbled across OldPhotosJapan.com, a site featuring remarkable photos from an era that most people would think predates photography itself. Many of the pictures collected are from the Meiji and Showa periods, some going back as far as the 1860s.
The site was created by Tokyo-based, Dutch photojournalist Kjeld Duits, who I had a chance to catch up with yesterday to find out more about this project. What I discovered out was that this endeavor is more than just a pet interest or a hobby, but in fact, its actually a business too. Kjeld also operates MeijiShowa.com, a site where interested parties and clients can license these photos. While a lot of the photos are accessible to those who want to dig for them, Kjeld’s value add is that he can go out and acquire interesting old photos at auctions or other sales, and then license in much the same way that he used to license his own photos.
He elaborates a little more about how this who idea initially came about:
I had no idea there were photos of Japan from that period. I fell in love with the photos, but I thought that’s something you only see at museums. It didn’t even occur to me that I could buy them. […] I later found a book with these kinds of photos at a temple in Kyoto, and as my new year’s resolution that year, I decided to find out if it would be possible to buy these photos. ¶
And after just a few days I had already found a way; I found a place and started buying them. It was only later that I realized, “Hey, I license my own photographs, maybe I should start licensing these photographs.” Most of the places that do these are large agencies like Getty Images, or museums who tend to be bureaucratic. ¶
Subsequently he built the OldPhotosJapan site to see if there was any public interest. And sure enough, people bought them.
So far Kjeld’s strategy is to use OldPhotosJapan to drive traffic to the licensing site, MeijiShowa. And while the traffic is still relatively modest at 1000 unique views per day, ostensibly those who find the site arrive there due to a very specific keyword search. Kjeld declined to disclose any sales figures, but he is making a living from this and his other web endeavors.
I was surprised to find that he actually handles the web development and design on his own (he’s self-taught), and for MeijiShowa in particular this looks to be an impressive feat. The database of photos is rich with meta data, easily sortable and browsable with related items listed for convenience.
Photos on MeijiShowa have lots of metadata, and are easy to browse
So far Kjeld says that his clients come from both Japan and overseas, ranging from documentary film companies (the BBC is a client, for example), to restaurants who want an interesting backdrop on their wall. Kjeld also cited the example of a client from Sweden who licensed one of the photos to use on his bedroom wall (see photo below).
OldPhotosJapan originally began back in 2007, with MeijiShowa following in 2010. and Kjeld says he plans to make a Japanese version of the latter available soon, most likely in the fall of this year. Considering that about 60% of his clients currently come from Japan, this should certainly be a big help for business.
Readers here in Japan might be familiar with some of Kjeld’s other work, most notably JapaneseStreets.com, another photography project, but with a fashion focus. Currently his company, DUITS, functions as a licensing company that oversees three branches: the aforementioned OldPhotosJapan and JapaneseStreets, as well as focusing on more traditional journalism as well. He notes:
[The first two are] small niche markets that aren’t really of interest to large or even medium-sized companies. They’re just big enough for a small company like ours. But selling to tiny markets like this is possible now because of the internet.
It’s really encouraging to see this kind of entrepreneurial activity in the journalism space, especially here in Japan. Kjeld has put forth a pretty big effort, and it will be interesting to see how the business progresses in the future.
A client used one photo for his bedroom. An unsual, but very cool, use case
Junya Mori
The app can act as a pedometer, counting your steps as well as your calories burned in a given day. You can input data manually or by connecting with other measuring instruments, recording things like body fat percentage, base body temperature, your menstrual cycle, blood pressure, and pulse. The app can leverage Felica-based NFC or Bluetooth communications, transferring collected data from various third party health care devices.
Yukari Mitsuhashi
Rick Martin
