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A missed opportunity for Japan’s startup ecosystem

Rick Martin 2014.05.29

From KPCB’s internet trends report released yesterday, comes an interesting factoid: 60% of the top 25 tech companies [were] founded by 1st and 2nd generation Americans. (p.148, see table above) I thought this would be a good time to revisit the question we asked this time last year: As the race for high-skilled immigrants begins, does Japan want to compete? To help address that question, here’s a quote from Japanese PM Shinzo Abe from a recent TV interview, cited/translated by The Japan Times: What are immigrants? The U.S. is a country of immigrants who came from all around the world and formed the (United States). Many people have come to the country and become part of it. We won’t adopt a policy like that. That strategy may prove unwise.

tech-companies-immigrants — from KPCB Internet Trends report (click to enlarge)

From KPCB’s internet trends report released yesterday, comes an interesting factoid:

60% of the top 25 tech companies [were] founded by 1st and 2nd generation Americans. (p.148, see table above)

I thought this would be a good time to revisit the question we asked this time last year:

As the race for high-skilled immigrants begins, does Japan want to compete?

To help address that question, here’s a quote from Japanese PM Shinzo Abe from a recent TV interview, cited/translated by The Japan Times:

What are immigrants? The U.S. is a country of immigrants who came from all around the world and formed the (United States). Many people have come to the country and become part of it. We won’t adopt a policy like that.

That strategy may prove unwise.

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So you’re the new Japanese prime minister, eh? There’s an app for that!

Masaru Ikeda 2013.03.23

On Friday the Japanese prime minister’s office unveiled smartphone apps for Android and iOS, with aim of giving the country’s leader more reach to among Japanese nationals. It uses a smartphone app framework called News Agent, which was developed by Tokyo-based smartphone app developer Brave Soft. The end result gives smartphone users easy access to announcements from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, as well as a stream of news photos from summits and diplomatic conferences he has been attending. The app has no especially impressive features from a technical point of view, and often redirects you to the PMO’s Facebook page or Abe’s own Facebook page. However, for the younger generation who don’t subscribe to physical newspapers or watch TV news shows, it could be a good touch point for them to stay up to speed on Japanese politics. In addition, when the government has an important announcement, it will be published on the app as an official update from the prime minister, and you’ll get a notification as well. Last October, the PMO has set up an account on the Line messaging platform, which gives access to potentially over 40 million Japanese people, almost one-third of Japan’s entire population. On…

On Friday the Japanese prime minister’s office unveiled smartphone apps for Android and iOS, with aim of giving the country’s leader more reach to among Japanese nationals. It uses a smartphone app framework called News Agent, which was developed by Tokyo-based smartphone app developer Brave Soft. The end result gives smartphone users easy access to announcements from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, as well as a stream of news photos from summits and diplomatic conferences he has been attending.

The app has no especially impressive features from a technical point of view, and often redirects you to the PMO’s Facebook page or Abe’s own Facebook page. However, for the younger generation who don’t subscribe to physical newspapers or watch TV news shows, it could be a good touch point for them to stay up to speed on Japanese politics. In addition, when the government has an important announcement, it will be published on the app as an official update from the prime minister, and you’ll get a notification as well.

Last October, the PMO has set up an account on the Line messaging platform, which gives access to potentially over 40 million Japanese people, almost one-third of Japan’s entire population.

On a related note, here’s some mobile apps published by governmental offices in other countries:

USA: The White House app ( iOS / Android )
UK: Official Number 10 app ( iOS )
Korea: Presidential Office “Cheong Wa Dae” app ( iOS / Olleh / TStore )

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Japanese prime minister takes on jumping monkey role in new iPhone game

Rick Martin 2013.02.21

Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe bounced back into the public eye this past December when he became the leader of Japan for the second time after a five-year absence. But I’m not sure if he could have ever foreseen becoming the star of his own iPhone game, but that’s exactly what has happened in a popular new title Jump! Mr. Abe from Riko Design. The game is an extremely simple one, where the user must bounce Mr. Abe on a trampoline as high as possible. He starts off with small jumps in front of the National Diet Building, but if you can time his jumps correctly he flies even higher, beyond Tokyo Tower, and past the newly erected Tokyo Sky Tree. Switch to 20-jump mode, and you can send Mr. Abe to even greater heights, past iconic landmarks like the Statue of Liberty, the Notre Dame Cathedral, and Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia (apparently the game developer isn’t a stickler for accurately representing the scale of the buildings!). What’s interesting about Jump! Mr Abe is that this very casual game appears to have been a simple reinvention of Riko Design’s other recent title Jumping Monkeys, which uses the exact same type of…

Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe bounced back into the public eye this past December when he became the leader of Japan for the second time after a five-year absence. But I’m not sure if he could have ever foreseen becoming the star of his own iPhone game, but that’s exactly what has happened in a popular new title Jump! Mr. Abe from Riko Design.

The game is an extremely simple one, where the user must bounce Mr. Abe on a trampoline as high as possible. He starts off with small jumps in front of the National Diet Building, but if you can time his jumps correctly he flies even higher, beyond Tokyo Tower, and past the newly erected Tokyo Sky Tree.

Switch to 20-jump mode, and you can send Mr. Abe to even greater heights, past iconic landmarks like the Statue of Liberty, the Notre Dame Cathedral, and Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia (apparently the game developer isn’t a stickler for accurately representing the scale of the buildings!).

What’s interesting about Jump! Mr Abe is that this very casual game appears to have been a simple reinvention of Riko Design’s other recent title Jumping Monkeys, which uses the exact same type of game play. I’m not sure if the developer is making any sort of hidden political commentary here by putting Mr. Abe into a role it previously reserved for monkeys — but it’s a fun casual title that many kids might like nonetheless, I think.

Currently the game is the 9th ranked free title on the Japanese app store, and but ranks first in the family category and fifth in gaming. Check it out over on the app store.

Shinzo Abe

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