As we announced last week, today our team at SD Japan transitions to our new home on the web, TheBridge.jp. We still have a few things to take care of [1], but I thought I’d give you a quick update to let you know where things stand.
The new website – as you can see – is now live, and we encourage you to look around and give the tires a kick. It was built with a mobile first approach, not because we’re hippies (we’re not, I swear), but because we’ve noticed that about half of you read on mobile devices. So we hope you like it.
As for the formalities, the company name will be ‘The Bridge Co., Ltd’, and I’ll continue to lead the English edition as editor. My colleague Takeshi Hirano, the co-founder of the company (pictured above, bottom left), is the editor of the the Japanese edition.
We’ll update our social presences shortly, and our weekly newsletter will remain relatively unchanged. As always, we’d love it if you could tell your friends about us.
We’d like to say thanks to everyone who has supported our efforts under the flag of SD Japan, and we thank you in advance for your patience as we step into this new brand.
You’ll notice there are still a few pages we need to translate. We’re working on it, so please bear with us! ↩
At this year’s CEATEC Japan event NTT Docomo showed off the news that its NotTV service for smartphones has obtained rights to broadcast House of Cards in Japan. The Emmy award winning show is being brought to Japan with Japanese subtitles. Sounds like good news right? Let’s look at the details. One episode of House of Cards will be broadcast via NotTV at 11 PM every Saturday night, starting tonight, October 5. This means you will need to either stay up until midnight to watch the show here in Japan, or set NotTV on your smartphone to record each Saturday night at 11 PM. What happens if you miss an episode, or you forget to record the show? You might think you can watch old episodes streaming on demand or download, right? Wrong. The episode of the week will be rebroadcast on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday at different times, then after that time the episode will no longer be available to watch. If you’re not a NotTV subscriber but want to watch House of Cards in Japan, the other way it will be available in Japan is via satellite broadcast on the Imagica BS channel. Some background about NotTV: NotTV…
House of Cards, advertised on a Tokyo train
At this year’s CEATEC Japan event NTT Docomo showed off the news that its NotTV service for smartphones has obtained rights to broadcastHouse of Cards in Japan. The Emmy award winning show is being brought to Japan with Japanese subtitles. Sounds like good news right? Let’s look at the details.
One episode of House of Cards will be broadcast via NotTV at 11 PM every Saturday night, starting tonight, October 5. This means you will need to either stay up until midnight to watch the show here in Japan, or set NotTV on your smartphone to record each Saturday night at 11 PM.
What happens if you miss an episode, or you forget to record the show? You might think you can watch old episodes streaming on demand or download, right? Wrong. The episode of the week will be rebroadcast on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday at different times, then after that time the episode will no longer be available to watch.
NotTV is a proprietary 1Seg-like broadcast service, which certain Docomo Android smartphones can tune into. A 420 yen monthly subscription (about $4) is required to tune in, and when we checked in back in June there service had more than a million paying customers. But because NotTV is a broadcast service it requires towers to be within range to receive the signal, meaning NotTV is not available in all prefectures of Japan.
Contrast this to Hulu.jp’s deal bringing The Walking Dead to Japan. The Walking Dead series is initially broadcast on the International Fox cable channel with Japanese subtitles a couple of weeks after US broadcast, and is made available on Hulu.jp for streaming on the following day. The previously broadcast episodes are available to watch on demand, on a variety of devices.
I guess that Docomo missed House of Cards producer and starring actor Kevin Spacey’s recent speech on giving control to the viewers (see below), where Spacey advises the TV/media industry to make their shows available in any form the viewers want, praising Netflix as an example to follow. I’m glad to see Hulu Japan is picking up the slack in Japan, letting viewers watch the shows they want, when they want, on the screen they want.
Last weekend at the Microsoft Japan office in Tokyo, the eighth edition of the Samurai Venture Summit took place. This is a semi-annual startup exhibition event run by Samurai Incubate. Here’s a quick rundown of the entrepreneurs that caught our eye at the event. Quick Money Recorder Quick Money Recorder (or ‘Okanereco’ in Japanese) is a personal finance app (for iOS and Android) that allows you to record your daily expenses on mobile. Our readers may recall similar apps such as Dr. Wallet, Zaim, Money Forward, ReceReco, and Money Tree. But this app recently ranked number one in the Japanese App Store’s finance app category, and is currently ranked second. Smart Idea’s Shohei Ejiri, an ex-Nokia Japan employee and the creator of the app, says the appeal of the app is that it lets you input an expense in as little as two seconds. The app was developed in Vietnam, where system development is very cost effective. Flip Friday When a new fashion season arrives for retailers, there are usually many items left unsold. Retailers look for discounters to buy up leftovers, but it’s difficult since the stock is already out of season or not current. Flip Friday has a…
Last weekend at the Microsoft Japan office in Tokyo, the eighth edition of the Samurai Venture Summit took place. This is a semi-annual startup exhibition event run by Samurai Incubate. Here’s a quick rundown of the entrepreneurs that caught our eye at the event.
Quick Money Recorder
Smart Idea’s Shohei Ejiri
Quick Money Recorder (or ‘Okanereco’ in Japanese) is a personal finance app (for iOS and Android) that allows you to record your daily expenses on mobile. Our readers may recall similar apps such as Dr. Wallet, Zaim, Money Forward, ReceReco, and Money Tree. But this app recently ranked number one in the Japanese App Store’s finance app category, and is currently ranked second.
Smart Idea’s Shohei Ejiri, an ex-Nokia Japan employee and the creator of the app, says the appeal of the app is that it lets you input an expense in as little as two seconds. The app was developed in Vietnam, where system development is very cost effective.
When a new fashion season arrives for retailers, there are usually many items left unsold. Retailers look for discounters to buy up leftovers, but it’s difficult since the stock is already out of season or not current.
Flip Friday has a warehouse in Los Angeles, buying branded fashions from local retailers for discount prices. The company will deliver them to Japan, selling them to fashion concious folks for affordable rates using its fashion e-commerce site.
The company was originally launched as an incubated startup at D2C, a joint venture of NTT Docomo and ad agency Dentsu.
When the earthquake hit Japan in 2011, many people not only lost their family members, but also photos and photobooks of family as well. Watching the news about the tragedy, Mr. and Mrs. Ota wanted to invent something to help people get over losing memorable photos.
The startup has developed a photobook app that allows users to keep videos or photos in a well-organized format. If you lose your device, there’s no need to worry about data loss since everything is stored in the cloud. Albums are also provided in e-pub format, so users can browse photos with an e-pub compatible browser even if the startup were to shut down.
The company is backed by Tokyo-based incubator Movida Japan.
Similar to ApexPeak which recently launched in Singapore, Paid provides advanced payments on your billings to your clients. It can also take over your invoicing or billing work, as well as payment collection. In this way, you don’t need to worry about possible delays in collections or demands for payments.
Tokyo-based Raccoon, the company behind the service, has been a middleman service in the fashion industry, giving fashion retailers a chance to deal with well-established suppliers.
Also presenting was Japanese entrepreneur Yorihiko Paul Kato, who is based in Singapore. He has produced a movie filmed in Hong Kong, Seoul, and Osaka, staring up-and-coming actors from those countries. The movie, entitled Fly Me To Minami will be showing from December and early-bird ticket buyers can put their names in the end credits. Minami, literally meaning the south in Japanese, is an alias for the southern district of central Osaka.
Some of our readers may recall when we wrote about Wild Card, a platform that tries to make job hunting a little easier. Another Japanese company looking to tackle the same market, with its recently released Almen. Launched in September, Almen matches job seekers and employers by holding small drinking parties. Anyone over the age of 20 with a Facebook account can use the service. Instead having a formal (and often awkward) job interviews, Almen gives both parties an opportunity to reveal their true colors with a little help from alcohol. A normal job interview process begins by selecting candidates from many resume submissions, but Almen skips this entirely and lets job seekers to apply to employer interviews directly. For employers, Almen restricts party attendance to the president of the company. So targeted employers for this kind of service are small to mid-size businesses. This could be good for their business, since many companies of smaller sizes lack qualified applicants, since candidates often seek stability by applying to larger companies. In addition to the job seekers and employers, restaurants can apply to use Almen too. Restaurants can provide service for 3,500 yen (or about $36) per person, with 500 yen…
Some of our readers may recall when we wrote about Wild Card, a platform that tries to make job hunting a little easier. Another Japanese company looking to tackle the same market, with its recently released Almen. Launched in September, Almen matches job seekers and employers by holding small drinking parties. Anyone over the age of 20 with a Facebook account can use the service.
Instead having a formal (and often awkward) job interviews, Almen gives both parties an opportunity to reveal their true colors with a little help from alcohol. A normal job interview process begins by selecting candidates from many resume submissions, but Almen skips this entirely and lets job seekers to apply to employer interviews directly.
For employers, Almen restricts party attendance to the president of the company. So targeted employers for this kind of service are small to mid-size businesses. This could be good for their business, since many companies of smaller sizes lack qualified applicants, since candidates often seek stability by applying to larger companies.
In addition to the job seekers and employers, restaurants can apply to use Almen too. Restaurants can provide service for 3,500 yen (or about $36) per person, with 500 yen going to Almen as commission.
JIA, the company behind Almen, hopes to acquire 300,000 job-seekers and 1,000 recruiting companies within its first year. Here’s a short introductory video to Almen below.
See this story in Japanese San Francisco-based Square, the mobile payments service established by Jack Dorsey, looks like it will be planting a firm foothold in Japan soon, partnering with Uniqlo on a pop-up store in Ginza on Friday, October 11. Square officially came to Japan back in May of this year, as you may recall. The aforementioned space will be used to spotlight Uniqlo’s Ultra Light Down jackets, but it will also feature Square’s mobile payment technology as Uniqlo staff will be equipped with iPad’s on site to accept credit card payments. So in this way, customers won’t have to bother with queuing at the register, but can swipe their credit card with any store employee. This marks the first time that a big retailer in Japan is using Square in this way, and Uniqlo has plans to to introduce the technology at other stores later on. With a huge brand like Uniqlo now under its belt, Square should make quick progress convincing other retailers, big and small, to get on board as well. In addition to providing Square mobile payments at this pop-up store, Uniqlo will also feature something it’s calling ‘Uniqlo Color Magic’, which is most likely…
San Francisco-based Square, the mobile payments service established by Jack Dorsey, looks like it will be planting a firm foothold in Japan soon, partnering with Uniqlo on a pop-up store in Ginza on Friday, October 11. Square officially came to Japan back in May of this year, as you may recall.
The aforementioned space will be used to spotlight Uniqlo’s Ultra Light Down jackets, but it will also feature Square’s mobile payment technology as Uniqlo staff will be equipped with iPad’s on site to accept credit card payments. So in this way, customers won’t have to bother with queuing at the register, but can swipe their credit card with any store employee.
This marks the first time that a big retailer in Japan is using Square in this way, and Uniqlo has plans to to introduce the technology at other stores later on. With a huge brand like Uniqlo now under its belt, Square should make quick progress convincing other retailers, big and small, to get on board as well.
In addition to providing Square mobile payments at this pop-up store, Uniqlo will also feature something it’s calling ‘Uniqlo Color Magic’, which is most likely their Magic Mirror display (from Sharp) that they introduced at US locations last year. You can see an example of how that works in the video below.
Readers may recall when we previously featured the work of Japanese digital media company Kayac back in March. Their augmented reality Hatsune Miku pizza boxes for Dominos Japan were a great example of digital marketing. Now Kayac has another fun production, this time producing a fun iPhone attachment and app combo in cooperation with Chatperf and their Scentee mobile add-on that plugs into your headphone jack. Their ‘Hana Yakiniku’ (roughly translated as ‘nose barbecue meat’) is a small device/app kit intended to improve your eating experience by emitting the delicious smell of barbecue. 3 flavors: ribs, butter potatoes, and cow tongue For for example, lets say you’re on a diet and can only eat small salads or some white rice or something – in that case, Hana Yakiniku would enhance your bland food with a tastier smell. Currently it comes in three flavors: ribs, butter potatoes, and cow tongue (common at barbecue restaurants in Japan). If you’re eager to try this one out, you’ll have to wait a little while longer. Hana Yakiniki doesn’t go one sale until November 15. But when it does it will be pretty affordable, selling for the price of 3,654 yen (or about $36). Cartridge…
Readers may recall when we previously featured the work of Japanese digital media company Kayac back in March. Their augmented reality Hatsune Miku pizza boxes for Dominos Japan were a great example of digital marketing.
Now Kayac has another fun production, this time producing a fun iPhone attachment and app combo in cooperation with Chatperf and their Scentee mobile add-on that plugs into your headphone jack. Their ‘Hana Yakiniku’ (roughly translated as ‘nose barbecue meat’) is a small device/app kit intended to improve your eating experience by emitting the delicious smell of barbecue.
3 flavors: ribs, butter potatoes, and cow tongue
For for example, lets say you’re on a diet and can only eat small salads or some white rice or something – in that case, Hana Yakiniku would enhance your bland food with a tastier smell. Currently it comes in three flavors: ribs, butter potatoes, and cow tongue (common at barbecue restaurants in Japan).
If you’re eager to try this one out, you’ll have to wait a little while longer. Hana Yakiniki doesn’t go one sale until November 15. But when it does it will be pretty affordable, selling for the price of 3,654 yen (or about $36). Cartridge refills can be purchased for 100 yen for a three-pack. You’ll be able to order yours over on Amazon Japan.
If you’d like an explanation of how Hana Yakiniku works, check out the (rather cringeworthy) demo video below [1].
While this is a pretty fun idea, the voiceover and copywriting in their promo video (much like the Hatsune Mike promo previously) is pretty awful. ↩
Rick Martin
Kevin Korpi
Masaru Ikeda
Yukari Mitsuhashi
