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The pen is mightier than the finger: New Puzzle & Dragons branded stylus to go on sale

Rick Martin 2013.07.29

If you’ve played Japan’s most popular mobile game, Puzzle & Dragons, for any real length of time, you may find that occasionally you might forget the color of the orb beneath your finger as you move it. (Or perhaps its just me and my own fat fingers?) Despite my own aversion to using a stylus, this is a game that could likely be greatly improved by using one. And now one Japanese company, MetaMoJi, through a collaboration with AppBank has created a P&D branded version of its Su-Pen stylus that will go on sale in a few weeks. This is actually a colorful version of MetaMoJi’s Su-Pen, with multi-colored Puzzle & Dragons orbs decorating the pen’s body. AppBank is the operator of the official Pazudora-ya store, which is where the new pen will go on sale on August 9th. It will retail for 1980 yen (or about $20). MetaMoji is best known for its 7notes and Note Anytime apps handwriting recognition apps, which also make use of the company’s Su-Pen stylus for a better writing experience. On a related note, the aforementioned AppBank has also recently assisted a prominent overseas company improve their reach here in Japan, lending their services…

If you’ve played Japan’s most popular mobile game, Puzzle & Dragons, for any real length of time, you may find that occasionally you might forget the color of the orb beneath your finger as you move it. (Or perhaps its just me and my own fat fingers?)

Despite my own aversion to using a stylus, this is a game that could likely be greatly improved by using one. And now one Japanese company, MetaMoJi, through a collaboration with AppBank has created a P&D branded version of its Su-Pen stylus that will go on sale in a few weeks.

This is actually a colorful version of MetaMoJi’s Su-Pen, with multi-colored Puzzle & Dragons orbs decorating the pen’s body. AppBank is the operator of the official Pazudora-ya store, which is where the new pen will go on sale on August 9th. It will retail for 1980 yen (or about $20).

MetaMoji is best known for its 7notes and Note Anytime apps handwriting recognition apps, which also make use of the company’s Su-Pen stylus for a better writing experience.

On a related note, the aforementioned AppBank has also recently assisted a prominent overseas company improve their reach here in Japan, lending their services to Finnish developer Supercell, creating Japanese tutorials for its Clash of Clans game and promoting it on the AppBank site.

Supercell’s other partner in promoting the game was GungHo, creating a cross promotion with special Clash of Clans characters within the Puzzle & Dragons game.

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Reaching out to women: Shiseido does it well

Yukari Mitsuhashi 2013.07.29

One of my favorite makeup and skincare brands is Shiseido. The cosmetics company has a 140 years of history, and is the number one cosmetics brand in Japan, and fifth worldwide. I like the brand not because I’m a devoted Shiseido products user, but more because of the company’s great digital initiatives both online and offline. The most recent such effort from Shiseido is the launch of its Makeup Simulator app, which is used by over 11,000 beauty consultants at Shiseido stores on ‘Beauty tablets’ (iPads). By looking into the screen as you would look into a mirror, the app replicates your face without makeup, using that representation as a base to try on various makeup products. The app cleverly eliminates the hassle of removing your own makeup to try on products. Shiseido’s first skin analysis product was invented back in 1984 and it has been enhanced and upgraded ever since. There are handy skin sensors installed in its Beauty Tablets as well, allowing skin condition to be measured anywhere in the store. The results can be saved, making continuous advising possible. To see many of Shiseido’s unique digital-enabled services, you can visit Shiseido – The Ginza located in Ginza,…

One of my favorite makeup and skincare brands is Shiseido. The cosmetics company has a 140 years of history, and is the number one cosmetics brand in Japan, and fifth worldwide. I like the brand not because I’m a devoted Shiseido products user, but more because of the company’s great digital initiatives both online and offline.

The most recent such effort from Shiseido is the launch of its Makeup Simulator app, which is used by over 11,000 beauty consultants at Shiseido stores on ‘Beauty tablets’ (iPads). By looking into the screen as you would look into a mirror, the app replicates your face without makeup, using that representation as a base to try on various makeup products. The app cleverly eliminates the hassle of removing your own makeup to try on products.

Shiseido’s first skin analysis product was invented back in 1984 and it has been enhanced and upgraded ever since. There are handy skin sensors installed in its Beauty Tablets as well, allowing skin condition to be measured anywhere in the store. The results can be saved, making continuous advising possible. To see many of Shiseido’s unique digital-enabled services, you can visit Shiseido – The Ginza located in Ginza, Tokyo.

But if you can’t make it there in person, Shiseido offers part of its simulation app over on its website. By uploading your photo on Beauty Check, the simulator analyses the balance of your face, and then according to the type of look you want to try on, it makes suggestions from different Shiseido product lines such as Integrate or Maquillage.

Shiseido is also well known for its social media activities. For example, Majolica Majorca is a makeup line for younger women, popular both inside and outside of Japan. The company operates social accounts on Facebook and Pinterest in both Japanese and English. As you might expect, the company is active on Line too, opening that account back in July of 2012.

There are many apps and services that specifically target females, especially here in Japan. There is much to be learned from Shiseido’s many digital initiatives to better understand how to sell to the female demographic.

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Japan’s ANA enlists Tokyo Otaku Mode to help revive tourism

Rick Martin 2013.07.28

When Japanese startup Tokyo Otaku Mode passed 10 million Facebook fans, I jokingly noted that their efforts in promoting Japan and its culture have yielded far better results than those of the Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry. Well, now it looks like another organization has taken notice of TOM‘s efforts, and is enlisting its help in trying to boost the amount of incoming tourists to Japan. TOM recently announced a partnership with All Nippon Airways to help promote its ‘Is Japan Cool?’ campaign. That effort is similar to Tokyo Otaku Mode in that it emphases things like cosplay and ‘kawaii’, with the goal of bringing international travelers to Japan. But it will now get a boost from TOM’s huge fan base, as the startup has set up a special landing page to feature ‘Is Japan Cool?’ Content. The startup declined to disclose any financial details of the partnership, but it is good to see the company serving a need, and ostensibly generating some revenue as a result. TOM previously also partnered with one of Japan’s most famous convenient stores, Lawson, in helping to build awareness of that brand as it expands to regions around Asia.

japan-ana-otaku-mode — Artwork from ‘Is Japan Cool? – Dreams‘

When Japanese startup Tokyo Otaku Mode passed 10 million Facebook fans, I jokingly noted that their efforts in promoting Japan and its culture have yielded far better results than those of the Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry. Well, now it looks like another organization has taken notice of TOM‘s efforts, and is enlisting its help in trying to boost the amount of incoming tourists to Japan.

TOM recently announced a partnership with All Nippon Airways to help promote its ‘Is Japan Cool?’ campaign. That effort is similar to Tokyo Otaku Mode in that it emphases things like cosplay and ‘kawaii’, with the goal of bringing international travelers to Japan. But it will now get a boost from TOM’s huge fan base, as the startup has set up a special landing page to feature ‘Is Japan Cool?’ Content.

The startup declined to disclose any financial details of the partnership, but it is good to see the company serving a need, and ostensibly generating some revenue as a result.

TOM previously also partnered with one of Japan’s most famous convenient stores, Lawson, in helping to build awareness of that brand as it expands to regions around Asia.

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Japanese social gifting startup launches purchase behavior analysis solution

Junya Mori 2013.07.27

See the original story in Japanese. Earlier this week KDDI Mugen Labo, held a demo day event which included a presentation from Giftee, a past graduate from its program. The startup allows you to send friends an e-voucher which they can then redeem at certain retailers. To give a gift, all you need is a connection to that person on a social network, and you can easily send presents to friends without even asking for their physical mail addresses. During their demo day presentation, the company unveiled a new voucher issuing system for businesses. This SaaS solution allows them to issue one-time validity e-vouchers to their customers, who can redeem it at local stores. For retailers, this new solution lets you check the validity of a voucher using the barcode scanner of a POS register at a shop. Extra equipment isn’t required to operate the service. Companies can easily distribute vouchers and analyze user behavior. When companies connect the system with their own CRM systems, they can narrow their target of who can receive e-vouchers according to certain attributes or purchasing histories. If you collect purchasing data of your target users, you can compare their behaviors before and after giving…

See the original story in Japanese.

Earlier this week KDDI Mugen Labo, held a demo day event which included a presentation from Giftee, a past graduate from its program. The startup allows you to send friends an e-voucher which they can then redeem at certain retailers. To give a gift, all you need is a connection to that person on a social network, and you can easily send presents to friends without even asking for their physical mail addresses.

During their demo day presentation, the company unveiled a new voucher issuing system for businesses. This SaaS solution allows them to issue one-time validity e-vouchers to their customers, who can redeem it at local stores.

For retailers, this new solution lets you check the validity of a voucher using the barcode scanner of a POS register at a shop. Extra equipment isn’t required to operate the service. Companies can easily distribute vouchers and analyze user behavior.

When companies connect the system with their own CRM systems, they can narrow their target of who can receive e-vouchers according to certain attributes or purchasing histories. If you collect purchasing data of your target users, you can compare their behaviors before and after giving away the voucher.

Giftee was initially launched back in 2010 by three founders who all previously worked with Accenture. The startup received seed funding of 18 million yen (approximately $180,000) from KDDI Mugen Labo, Digital Garage, Kakaku.com, NetPrice, Inspire, and other angel investors back in 2011. Subsequently the company also raised an unknown amount of funds (thought to be in the hundreds of thousands) from Digital Garage and Sunbridge Venture Partners back in 2012.

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Japanese housewife creates clever inflatable umbrella for tots

Rick Martin 2013.07.26

One of the reasons that I really like writing about Japan is that there is a steady flow of awesome design concepts from here that few other countries can match. Some of them are incredibly simple and elegant, and My 1st Umbrella is a perfect example of this. Umbrellas can be terribly and pokey dangerous items, especially for kids, and parents might be concerns about children getting sharp parts in their eye, or jamming their fingers in the moving components. So one clever Japanese entrepreneur has come up with an absolutely brilliant solution. Her inflatable umbrellas are great for young children, as they are light, easy to carry, and most of all, entirely safe. It looks almost like a bath toy, in fact. Another clear advantage is portability. One umbrella can be deflated in about ten seconds, quickly folded up and put into a bag or purse. Interestingly the creator of the product, Hiroko Yoshida, used to be a housewife, and is now the CEO of My1st. So far her umbrella has been featured on Japanese TV and on the popular publication Nikkei Trendy. If you would like to pick one up for your own little one, My 1st Umbrella…

One of the reasons that I really like writing about Japan is that there is a steady flow of awesome design concepts from here that few other countries can match. Some of them are incredibly simple and elegant, and My 1st Umbrella is a perfect example of this.

Umbrellas can be terribly and pokey dangerous items, especially for kids, and parents might be concerns about children getting sharp parts in their eye, or jamming their fingers in the moving components. So one clever Japanese entrepreneur has come up with an absolutely brilliant solution. Her inflatable umbrellas are great for young children, as they are light, easy to carry, and most of all, entirely safe. It looks almost like a bath toy, in fact.

Another clear advantage is portability. One umbrella can be deflated in about ten seconds, quickly folded up and put into a bag or purse.

Interestingly the creator of the product, Hiroko Yoshida, used to be a housewife, and is now the CEO of My1st. So far her umbrella has been featured on Japanese TV and on the popular publication Nikkei Trendy.

If you would like to pick one up for your own little one, My 1st Umbrella is available at various retailers around Japan.

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