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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 is available at various retailers around Japan.

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Japan’s latest photo meme is a miniature woman, not intimidated by large cup sizes

Yukari Mitsuhashi 2013.07.26

Photo via 1101.com It’s really hard to predict what kind of product will be popular with consumers. But recently here in Japan a very small ‘gacha gacha‘ toy been getting lots of attention, selling three million units since initially going on sale in July of 2012. It is a small, simple figure of a girl, and she goes by the name of ‘Cup’s Fuchiko-san’. ‘Fuchi’ means edge in Japanese, and Fuchiko is a playful name for this diminutive girl who can be hung or placed on the edge of any cups or glass. Fuchiko was created by a well-known manga artist, Katsuki Tanaka, in collaboration with a toy manufacturer Kitan Club. Fuchiko wears a typical blue work uniform, and comes in various versions in different poses. There are even official mooks (a Japanese portmanteau of ‘magazine’ and ‘book’) on Fuchiko, as well as short movies. She appears in animations, most recently in a short movie premiered before movies to promote good manners in movie theaters. Cup’s Fuchiko-san gradually became an internet phenomenon, and the online buzz definitely contributed to its growing fame. Three contests have been held to date asking people to tweet unique photos of their own little Fuchiko with…

Photo via 1101.com

It’s really hard to predict what kind of product will be popular with consumers. But recently here in Japan a very small ‘gacha gacha‘ toy been getting lots of attention, selling three million units since initially going on sale in July of 2012. It is a small, simple figure of a girl, and she goes by the name of ‘Cup’s Fuchiko-san’. ‘Fuchi’ means edge in Japanese, and Fuchiko is a playful name for this diminutive girl who can be hung or placed on the edge of any cups or glass.

Fuchiko was created by a well-known manga artist, Katsuki Tanaka, in collaboration with a toy manufacturer Kitan Club. Fuchiko wears a typical blue work uniform, and comes in various versions in different poses. There are even official mooks (a Japanese portmanteau of ‘magazine’ and ‘book’) on Fuchiko, as well as short movies. She appears in animations, most recently in a short movie premiered before movies to promote good manners in movie theaters.

Cup’s Fuchiko-san gradually became an internet phenomenon, and the online buzz definitely contributed to its growing fame. Three contests have been held to date asking people to tweet unique photos of their own little Fuchiko with a designated hashtag. Below are some photos that were selected as winners, and you can see more over on Kitan Blog. Over 600 photos were submitted through Twitter for one of the contests, a truly great response that turned into a wonderful internet meme.

Photo via @hirosan415

Photo via. @okome3

Photo via @DokudanjoTom

Photo via @nancy_UUU

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Now with 10 million users, Line Play is a problem for Ameba Pigg

SCORE 1,133

Rick Martin 2013.07.25

Having already reached the very impressive milestone of 200 million registered users earlier this week [1], Line Corporation has announced today that its Line Play virtual world application has over 10 million users around the globe, reaching that goal in just 8 months. Line Play is very much following in the footsteps of CyberAgent’s virtual world Ameba Pigg, which itself has 15 million users. It features the same kind of cute avatars which can be customized according to your preference, and a similarly styled virtual environment where you can decorate your own room and visit the rooms of others. There are even games that you can play right within the app. One would think that Line Play has a clear upper hand having been born on mobile – in contrast to Ameba Pigg which is scrambling to adjust to mobile. Of course Line’s global mindset as a company, in contrast the the more insular CyberAgent certainly won’t hurt either [2]. From now until August 4, Line will be holding special fan appreciation events within the app to mark the occasion, including bonus gem and ‘gacha’ events. If you have yet to try out Line Play, you can get it for…

Line Play is very much following in the footsteps of CyberAgent’s virtual world Ameba Pigg, which itself has 15 million users. It features the same kind of cute avatars which can be customized according to your preference, and a similarly styled virtual environment where you can decorate your own room and visit the rooms of others. There are even games that you can play right within the app.

One would think that Line Play has a clear upper hand having been born on mobile – in contrast to Ameba Pigg which is scrambling to adjust to mobile. Of course Line’s global mindset as a company, in contrast the the more insular CyberAgent certainly won’t hurt either [2].

From now until August 4, Line will be holding special fan appreciation events within the app to mark the occasion, including bonus gem and ‘gacha’ events. If you have yet to try out Line Play, you can get it for free on the App Store or on Google Play. Or to get a better idea of the look and feel of this mobile virtual world, check out the promo video below.

For more information on the growth of Line and its vast repertoire of apps, including Line Play, please check out our interactive Line Timeline which chronicles its growth from its launch back in 2011 up until the present day.

Some readers were asking us how many of these 200 million were active users. Line tells us they don’t provide worldwide monthly active user numbers, but says that for Japan, monthly active users were about 80.4% as of December 2012. ↩
CyberAgent previously tried to expand Ameba Pigg beyond Japan, pushing its Pico World service abroad. But regrettably that initiative fell flat and was closed up last December. ↩

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Business reporting tool Gamba now integrates with GitHub, BitBucket, and more

Masaru Ikeda 2013.07.25

Yokohama-based startup Gamba announced today that its business reporting tool has been integrated with four code- and task-tracking tools: GitHub, BitBucket, Pivotal Tracker and Google Tasks. Some of our readers may recall that we featured Gamba in our coverage of Samurai Venture Summit. Their app app was launched back last December by Masahiro Morita who previously work with Rakuten as a business development producer. To date it has acquired more than 1,000 corporate accounts in Japan ranging from listed companies to SMEs. For sales representatives or engineers, the app provides an easy way to share your updates with colleagues or management, at the beginning and the end of business hours. For management who has difficulty finding time to speak with employees face-to-face, it provides information on the progression of tasks and what are employees focusing on. In terms of differentiation from similar services, the app lets users post just an excerpt of their daily updates, which keeps things from being too troublesome. If you there are any additional details that you want to share with colleagues, that information will be submitted to the integrated third-party services mentioned above. In this way, coworkers get a brief update first can later explore…

Yokohama-based startup Gamba announced today that its business reporting tool has been integrated with four code- and task-tracking tools: GitHub, BitBucket, Pivotal Tracker and Google Tasks.

Some of our readers may recall that we featured Gamba in our coverage of Samurai Venture Summit. Their app app was launched back last December by Masahiro Morita who previously work with Rakuten as a business development producer. To date it has acquired more than 1,000 corporate accounts in Japan ranging from listed companies to SMEs.

For sales representatives or engineers, the app provides an easy way to share your updates with colleagues or management, at the beginning and the end of business hours. For management who has difficulty finding time to speak with employees face-to-face, it provides information on the progression of tasks and what are employees focusing on.

In terms of differentiation from similar services, the app lets users post just an excerpt of their daily updates, which keeps things from being too troublesome. If you there are any additional details that you want to share with colleagues, that information will be submitted to the integrated third-party services mentioned above. In this way, coworkers get a brief update first can later explore more details if needed.

I had a chance to speak with Morita, and he explained how they plan to improve the business moving forward.

We actually received many requests from users who expected us to launch mobile apps. We’re currently working on those, and the iOS app will go live next month, with Android following later on. Subsequently we’ll to add a paid service and exploring series A funding in October.

Regarding possible overseas service expansion, he believes there is a need for this kind of task tracking and reporting beyond Japan too. And in that case, possible competitors would include IDoneThis.com, a notable task tracking tool based in San Francisco.

The company aspires to acquire 5,000 corporate accounts. Here in Japan, we have seen more than a few possible competitors including Chatwork, Co-work, and Talknote.

Gamba is backed by Tokyo-based startup incubator Samurai Incubate.

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Japan’s Fotofig lets you make a 3D Mini-Me with your smartphone camera

Rick Martin 2013.07.25

In recent months there are more and more great 3D printing projects popping up here in Japan. But here’s a fun consumer services that aims to make the process a little but easier. Fotofig lets you create a miniature human figure simply by sending in photos of a somebody taken from different angles. It’s a figure created from photos, hence the clever name ‘Fotofig’. You need to capture every side of your subject, getting a clear image from the front, the back, and from the left and the right. The service then creates a digital composite that can then be printed as a plaster figure. Created by House of Art, the Fotofig process is now in beta, accepting orders from customers who would like to create their own ‘Mini Me’ or perhaps a model of their child. The size of the figures range from 15cm to 25cm, ranging in price from 39,800 yen (about $400) to process the data and print a 15cm figure, to 64,800 for a 25cm size. To process the data only, it will require 29,800 yen. An optional pedestal is also available, as is extra finishing. Given Japan’s fascination with smartphone photo services, I expect we…

You need to capture every side of your subject, getting a clear image from the front, the back, and from the left and the right. The service then creates a digital composite that can then be printed as a plaster figure.

Created by House of Art, the Fotofig process is now in beta, accepting orders from customers who would like to create their own ‘Mini Me’ or perhaps a model of their child.

The size of the figures range from 15cm to 25cm, ranging in price from 39,800 yen (about $400) to process the data and print a 15cm figure, to 64,800 for a 25cm size. To process the data only, it will require 29,800 yen. An optional pedestal is also available, as is extra finishing.

Given Japan’s fascination with smartphone photo services, I expect we will continue to see even more services like Fotofig that involve 3D printing in the future.

Other places in Japan that have offered similar 3D figure services, such as Omote 3D pop-up store.

(Source: Fotofig, via the always excellent VS Media)

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Japanese online learning platform to create a new generation of car designers

Yukari Mitsuhashi 2013.07.25

Photo via Car Design Academy Online education platforms are getting a lot of attention these days, and that includes here in Japan. There are platforms like Dot Install or Qiita for programmers, and services like Schoo that use online videos to teach a variety of subjects. But there another online school that has launched in Japan which is a little different from the rest. It’s called Car Design Academy. As the name of the school suggests, this is an online school where students can learn the many methods and techniques for designing cars. In the domestic car industry — and perhaps even outside of Japan too — nurturing the next generation of car designers is a serious challenge. This school was built to address this very problem, and to create new talents with design skills for the car industry. The supervisor and instructor of the class is world famous car designer, Noriyoshi Kurihara. He joined Honda back in 1975 where he began his career designing two-wheel vehicles. He went on to design for Renault, Porche, and many domestic and international manufacturers. He established DCI, his first design company, in 1985, and in 2001, he founded Nori where he designs and…

Photo via Car Design Academy

Online education platforms are getting a lot of attention these days, and that includes here in Japan. There are platforms like Dot Install or Qiita for programmers, and services like Schoo that use online videos to teach a variety of subjects. But there another online school that has launched in Japan which is a little different from the rest. It’s called Car Design Academy.

As the name of the school suggests, this is an online school where students can learn the many methods and techniques for designing cars. In the domestic car industry — and perhaps even outside of Japan too — nurturing the next generation of car designers is a serious challenge. This school was built to address this very problem, and to create new talents with design skills for the car industry.

The supervisor and instructor of the class is world famous car designer, Noriyoshi Kurihara. He joined Honda back in 1975 where he began his career designing two-wheel vehicles. He went on to design for Renault, Porche, and many domestic and international manufacturers. He established DCI, his first design company, in 1985, and in 2001, he founded Nori where he designs and works consulting jobs.

At Car Design Academy, students can learn about sketching techniques and the kind of styling design necessary in designing cars. The class will consist of texts and videos, and there will be assignments given to students in every class. Upon submitting their assignments, students’ work will be evaluated by designers at Nori Inc, including Kurihara.

The program at Car Design Academy will consist of a total of 24 classes beginning on August 5th. The fee is 250,000 yen (or about $2500), but the first 30 students to sign up receive a discounted price of 198,000 yen. For more information about the world’s first online car design school, you can check out its Facebook page. There are lots of great car design photos shared, so it’s definitely worth a look.

Japanese housewife creates clever inflatable umbrella for tots

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