Mobile content company Furyu may be a one of those rare companies that is better known among younger girls than by business people or industry insiders. Because aside from its mobile content and media business, the company also develops ‘purikura’ machines, or photo booths. Japanese women of all generations have experienced the fun of these photo booths at one time or another.
Recently such booths in Japan are a one-stop solution for cuteness. There are photoshop-like features that enhance your skin, enlarge your eyes, and more. The photos can be decorated using stamps and frames, and the newer machines comes with photo collage features as well. Furyu leverages its mobile content business in these photo booths, providing cute character stamps and decorations.
One example is its CameLion character which is available at specific photo booths called ‘Girl’s Photographer‘. The CameLion character is learning to be a professional photographer, and works sort of like a guide for those using the photo booth machine. Furyu just released a puzzle game app called ‘CameLion’s Game and Book’ on both iOS and Android.
Furyu was founded back in year 2007 and has operated a famous mobile emoji portal called Muteki Deco Ranking (‘Muteki’ means ‘invincible’). Due to the widespread shift from featured phones to smartphones in Japan, the company has optimized its portal for Android. There are over 60,000 decorative stamps that can be used when texting. Muteki Deco Ranking is available for a monthly fee of 294 yen (or about $3).
When it comes to the mobile culture in Japan, micro-payments are here to stay. It’s important to remember that it’s not only mobile gamers opening their wallets. Young girls do not hesitate to pay 300 yen every month as long as their appetite for ‘kawaii’ is fulfilled.
Tokyo-based distributed computing company Skeed announced [pdf] yesterday that the company’s founder and chief innovation officer Dr. Isamu Kaneko has passed away due to heart attack on Saturday. He was 42 years old. Dr. Kaneko has been working as an assistant professor at the University of Tokyo, where he invented P2P file-sharing software Winny in 2003. In 2004, there were many file leak incidents at Japanese companies which may have been caused by people using the software. He was previously arrested under the suspicion of abetting copyright disputes despite the fact that he just invented the software. In 2011, the Japanese supreme court finally judged that he was not guilty. He recently co-founded Skeed, which focuses on developing P2P-based content delivery technology. His colleague recently pitched at ICT Spring 2013, an annual tech conference that took place in Luxembourg last month. Our thoughts are with his family and colleagues. Rest in peace.
Tokyo-based distributed computing company Skeed announced [pdf] yesterday that the company’s founder and chief innovation officer Dr. Isamu Kaneko has passed away due to heart attack on Saturday. He was 42 years old.
Dr. Kaneko has been working as an assistant professor at the University of Tokyo, where he invented P2P file-sharing software Winny in 2003. In 2004, there were many file leak incidents at Japanese companies which may have been caused by people using the software. He was previously arrested under the suspicion of abetting copyright disputes despite the fact that he just invented the software. In 2011, the Japanese supreme court finally judged that he was not guilty.
He recently co-founded Skeed, which focuses on developing P2P-based content delivery technology. His colleague recently pitched at ICT Spring 2013, an annual tech conference that took place in Luxembourg last month.
Our thoughts are with his family and colleagues. Rest in peace.
Last week we told you a little about TeamLab’s social instrument technology being implemented during Nippon Television Network’s 60th anniversary special. That event took place this past weekend, and the idea was to turn the scheduled musical performance from boy-band Arashi into a nation-wide interactive rhythm game where fans could use their mobile phones, computers, or even their TV remote controls to keep up with the beat visualized on screen. It appears that in terms of participation the game was a success. The network claims that 1.3 million viewers took part in the game – which is more than 1% of the entire Japanese population. (Of course, given how fabricated Japanese pop is these days, I don’t think it’s beyond belief that this number might be fabricated too!) Admittedly, the game play was ridiculously simple, but it was certainly a fun step in making live TV broadcasts more interactive. I wonder if we might see something like this appear in a Superbowl halftime show in the future? TeamLab has been responsible for some amazing digital feats in the past, and we encourage you to check out their website to learn more about past exhibitions and projects. Update July 10: We…
Last week we told you a little about TeamLab’s social instrument technology being implemented during Nippon Television Network’s 60th anniversary special. That event took place this past weekend, and the idea was to turn the scheduled musical performance from boy-band Arashi into a nation-wide interactive rhythm game where fans could use their mobile phones, computers, or even their TV remote controls to keep up with the beat visualized on screen.
It appears that in terms of participation the game was a success. The network claims that 1.3 million viewers took part in the game – which is more than 1% of the entire Japanese population. (Of course, given how fabricated Japanese pop is these days, I don’t think it’s beyond belief that this number might be fabricated too!)
Admittedly, the game play was ridiculously simple, but it was certainly a fun step in making live TV broadcasts more interactive. I wonder if we might see something like this appear in a Superbowl halftime show in the future?
TeamLab has been responsible for some amazing digital feats in the past, and we encourage you to check out their website to learn more about past exhibitions and projects.
Update July 10: We followed up with the folks at TeamLab to find out their reactions to the performance. While I was a little skeptical about the numbers Nippon Television Network was claiming, TeamLab says they’re accurate, and points us to further stats from the live event over at ntv.co.jp/musicday/result. We’ve translated it below.
So what’s the next step for this interactive TV technology? A TeamLab rep says they’d love to further evolve it, and they’ve gotten lots of new ideas as a result of this particular experience. As for future events, TeamLab tells me their door is always open to new clients and interesting new projects!
If you like strange and wonderful gadgets from Japan, chances are you have probably already seen some of Thanko’s products. The USB necktie fan and the ridiculous smartphone self-shot extension stick are just a couple of the unusual devices that you can buy on Thanko’s website. But now the company has launched a new website aimed at bringing these items to fans the world over. RareMonoShop.jp went live this week, and if you reside outside Japan you can now order a wide array of useless junk awesome stuff from their website. While most of the items are pretty off-the-wall, I admit some of them actually look useful – I wouldn’t mind picking up a ‘lying-on-your-back desk’ for example. In its announcement, Thanko explains a little more about its expansion: Till now, we were operating within the domestic market due to distribution-related issues. But after working out the details of an overseas payment system based on “PayPal” and product delivery using EMS and international mail, we have now opened the new service for the global market. The new shop will offer a 10% discount on purchases over $50 dollars for the rest of July (coupon code SP10), so if there’s anything…
If you like strange and wonderful gadgets from Japan, chances are you have probably already seen some of Thanko’s products. The USB necktie fan and the ridiculous smartphone self-shot extension stick are just a couple of the unusual devices that you can buy on Thanko’s website.
But now the company has launched a new website aimed at bringing these items to fans the world over. RareMonoShop.jp went live this week, and if you reside outside Japan you can now order a wide array of useless junk awesome stuff from their website. While most of the items are pretty off-the-wall, I admit some of them actually look useful – I wouldn’t mind picking up a ‘lying-on-your-back desk’ for example.
In its announcement, Thanko explains a little more about its expansion:
Till now, we were operating within the domestic market due to distribution-related issues. But after working out the details of an overseas payment system based on “PayPal” and product delivery using EMS and international mail, we have now opened the new service for the global market.
The new shop will offer a 10% discount on purchases over $50 dollars for the rest of July (coupon code SP10), so if there’s anything on the site that you’d like to buy, now is the time to get it.
Panasonic Cycle Tech announced that it will launch an electric bicyle designed for three people — a parent and two small children. It’s called Gyutto. In Japan, especially in Tokyo where trains dominate as daily transportation, many moms turn to electric bicycles for getting around. If you walk around the streets of Tokyo, you’ll notice many women on bicycles with a child in the front or back. With the Gyutto’s sleek and modern design, moms can look stylish while getting her errands done too. The electric bicycle has an 8.9Ah battery which provides enough power to go for about 26 kilometers. It also has a feature that counts and displays your total calories burned. Gyutto comes in three color variations and is available for 133,000 yen (or about $1,330). The bicycle looks pretty sharp, it would be a great addition to any family — suitable for both moms and dads. In Japan, the very first electric bicycle appeared back in 1993. The market has grown ever since, and in 2010, the number of shipments exceeded 380,000 nationwide — outweighing even motorcycles in popularity. The 2011 Tohoku earthquake had an impact on the market as well. People needed affordable transportation and…
Panasonic Cycle Tech announced that it will launch an electric bicyle designed for three people — a parent and two small children. It’s called Gyutto. In Japan, especially in Tokyo where trains dominate as daily transportation, many moms turn to electric bicycles for getting around.
If you walk around the streets of Tokyo, you’ll notice many women on bicycles with a child in the front or back. With the Gyutto’s sleek and modern design, moms can look stylish while getting her errands done too.
The electric bicycle has an 8.9Ah battery which provides enough power to go for about 26 kilometers. It also has a feature that counts and displays your total calories burned. Gyutto comes in three color variations and is available for 133,000 yen (or about $1,330). The bicycle looks pretty sharp, it would be a great addition to any family — suitable for both moms and dads.
In Japan, the very first electric bicycle appeared back in 1993. The market has grown ever since, and in 2010, the number of shipments exceeded 380,000 nationwide — outweighing even motorcycles in popularity. The 2011 Tohoku earthquake had an impact on the market as well. People needed affordable transportation and turned to electric bicycles. In 2012, the number of electric bicycles sold grew by 24% in comparison to the year before.
Read the original article in Japanese There are two common paths that people take to success: either you climb the ladder in a company, or you start your own company and scale it. And while it’s easy for employees to envision success in large companies, but can be harder to imagine a way to find success with your own startup. Two venture capital companies have put forth a solution to the latter problem with a new one day program called Spinout. Aspiring entrepreneurs make a business plan in a day, and them pitch a demo investors at the end [1]. On the program webpage you can see messages from eight entrepreneurs who decided to quit their corporate jobs to begin their own startup. I’d like to introduce those voices here since they are all inspirational. CEO of Nanapi, Kensuke Furukawa, formerly of Recruit Nanapi is a lifestyle how-to website. Furukawa started the company at the age of 28 and now he is 32 years old. I just thought I wanted to become a person who could start a company and scale it up. And I couldn’t do that while I was in a larger company, so I just quit to…
There are two common paths that people take to success: either you climb the ladder in a company, or you start your own company and scale it. And while it’s easy for employees to envision success in large companies, but can be harder to imagine a way to find success with your own startup.
Two venture capital companies have put forth a solution to the latter problem with a new one day program called Spinout. Aspiring entrepreneurs make a business plan in a day, and them pitch a demo investors at the end [1]. On the program webpage you can see messages from eight entrepreneurs who decided to quit their corporate jobs to begin their own startup. I’d like to introduce those voices here since they are all inspirational.
CEO of Nanapi, Kensuke Furukawa, formerly of Recruit
Nanapi is a lifestyle how-to website. Furukawa started the company at the age of 28 and now he is 32 years old.
I just thought I wanted to become a person who could start a company and scale it up. And I couldn’t do that while I was in a larger company, so I just quit to start my own.
Founder and COO of OhMyGlasses, Ikuma Mutobe, formerly of Softbank and UBS Securities
OhMyGlasses is an online glasses retailer. He started the company at the age of 26 and now he is 30 years old.
The biggest reason why I started my own company is I believed that I could run an online shop for glasses. You know you only have one shot in your life so I thought starting up my own company would give me the best chance.
CEO of Wantedly, Akiko Naka, formerly of Goldman Sachs and Facebook
Wantedly is a social recruiting website where users can find potential employees using Facebook. She started the company at the age of 26 and is now 28 years old.
I really like my life filled with unpredictable things. And I thought starting up my own company would certainly make my life interesting, so I just did it. It really can be unpredictable at times, but it’s also very exciting. You never know if you are going to fail or succeed, but looking at it long term I know it will be really fun. If you want to start something but are a little hesitant, just take action and you will see some results. You have to move if you want to make your world fun.
CEO of CFO, Daisuke Sasaki, formerly of Google
CFO develops a personal accounting service. Sasaki started the company at the age of 31 and he is now 32 years old.
While I was doing marketing projects for SMBs, I figured out there are really few Japanese people who actually start their own businesses. It was a big problem for Japan, I thought. I figured it would be good if I could start my own business – and so I did. Working at Google was really fun but I started my own company to make things a little more fun.
CEO of Vasily, Yuki Kanayama, formerly of Yahoo Japan
Vasily is the developer of a fashion coordination app called iQon. He started the company at the age of 30 and is now 34 years old.
Entering into Yahoo Japan was an important step towards setting up my own company. I thought that to prepare for my own venture, it was crucial to learn more about enterprises, their resources and how they work.
CEO of CrowdWorks, Koichiro Yoshida, formerly of Pioneer and Reed Exhibitions Japan
CrowdWorks is one of the largest crowdsourcing sites in Japan. Yoshida started the company at the age of 37 and is now 38 years old.
The poem “The Road Not Taken” [provides a good lesson]. […] I felt that I didn’t want to take a path that someone already traveled. And taking the path that nobody has taken looked very exciting to me. Didn’t you think life had infinite possibilities when you were a student? When you become an adult, if you still want your life to have such infinite possibility, you have to create it via your own actions.
CEO of Bizreach, Swimmy Minami, former of Morgan Stanley
Bizreach is a job recruiting site where you can search for executives. Swimmy started the company at the age of 32 and is now 37 years old [2].
I actually didn’t think I wanted to start my own company until I quit my previous job. When I was looking for a new job I didn’t understand what was going on in the internet space even though the ‘age of Internet innovation’ was happening [all around me].
I thought I could start a company that could solve problems and inefficiencies around me. Having a business that can impact society is great. If you can be a self-starter guy, you can do whatever you want and it doesn’t really matter whether you are an entrepreneur or employee.
CEO of UzaBase, Ryosuke Niino, formerly of Mitsui and UBS Securities
UzaBase offers a software solution called ‘Speeda’. It is an information platform for corporate and industrial analysis tailored towards knowledge workers. He started the company at the age of 30 and he is now 35 years old.
I don’t want to live a life where I later regret that I didn’t try something. I was really nervous too, because family was the biggest concern as I could totally ruin their lives. But it was really exciting to create an awesome job and there was no other way that could instill such excitement in me.
If there are two ways and you can’t decided which to go, take the harder way. This is now one of our company’s core principals.
The event will be held on July 28th, so if you’d like to apply you can do so here. It is somewhat similar to Incubate Camp, a two day business plan camp held by Japanese VC, Incubate Fund. ↩
Yukari Mitsuhashi
One example is its CameLion character which is available at specific photo booths called ‘Girl’s Photographer‘. The CameLion character is learning to be a professional photographer, and works sort of like a guide for those using the photo booth machine. Furyu just released a puzzle game app called ‘CameLion’s Game and Book’ on both iOS and Android. 
Masaru Ikeda
Tokyo-based distributed computing company 
Rick Martin
Takeshi Hirano
Nanapi
OhMyGlasses is an online glasses retailer. He started the company at the age of 26 and now he is 30 years old.
Vasily
CrowdWorks
