The Tokyo Bureau of Transportation announced several months ago that it would start its first 24-hour bus service in Tokyo, connecting Roppongi and Shibuya, two busy commercial districts that never sleep. Coinciding with the launch on December 20th, the bureau announced today it will offer in-bus wi-fi service to passengers for free.
Looking ahead to the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2020, this might be part of the government’s efforts to make the city more usable for foreign visitors, given that international data roaming charges are so high. Many public transit operators in Japan are deploying in-train or in-bus wi-fi equipment to serve passengers better. But most of them require a subscription to a wi-fi service provider, and that’s likely troublesome for most visitors coming to Japan.
The bureau’s in-bus wi-fi service is available for any passengers, and allowing them to enjoy internet browsing for up to 180 minutes in a single session.
Deployment of the equipment will be completed on all 1,452 buses by next March.
See the original article in Japanese Tunecore Japan, the Japanese version of the US-based music distribution service, started providing its music to users of Spotify, one of the world’s biggest music streaming services. Musicians on Tunecore Japan are now able to make their songs available to Spotify’s 24 millions users in 28 countries. On Tunecore, users can reach listeners in 111 countries. The Japanese version started the service in October 2012, enabling users to list their songs on other online retailers such as iTunes Store, Amazon MP3, music.jp, Oricon Music Store, and Tapnow Music Store. Now that Spotify is added to this list, Tunecore’s reach extends even further. The fee for musicians to serve their songs on Tunecore Japan starts from 1480 yen (about $15) for a single song and 4980 yen for an album. It pays the musician all sales revenue and deducts only the service fees of music retailer. Spotify provides more than 20 millions tracks for free streaming, with approximately 20,000 tracks added every day. It has 24 millions non-paying users. It has launched its service in Singapore and Malaysia, but has not begun service in Japan yet. However this new alliance between Spotify and Tunecore Japan…
Tunecore Japan, the Japanese version of the US-based music distribution service, started providing its music to users of Spotify, one of the world’s biggest music streaming services. Musicians on Tunecore Japan are now able to make their songs available to Spotify’s 24 millions users in 28 countries.
On Tunecore, users can reach listeners in 111 countries. The Japanese version started the service in October 2012, enabling users to list their songs on other online retailers such as iTunes Store, Amazon MP3, music.jp, Oricon Music Store, and Tapnow Music Store. Now that Spotify is added to this list, Tunecore’s reach extends even further.
The fee for musicians to serve their songs on Tunecore Japan starts from 1480 yen (about $15) for a single song and 4980 yen for an album. It pays the musician all sales revenue and deducts only the service fees of music retailer.
Spotify provides more than 20 millions tracks for free streaming, with approximately 20,000 tracks added every day. It has 24 millions non-paying users. It has launched its service in Singapore and Malaysia, but has not begun service in Japan yet. However this new alliance between Spotify and Tunecore Japan makes it easier for musicians in Japan to distribute their songs overseas.
Iichro Noda, the CEO of Tunecore Japan, explained:
Developers of smartphone apps started targeting the global market because apps can be easily distributed around the world. For the same reason, I thought it possible to bring more a global perspective to musicians as well. There are many services musicians have to go though to distribute their music to listeners. I want to reduce them and build a sort of infrastructure for supplying music.
When Noda initially got the idea to start a music-related service, Tunecore was the closest thing to what he envisioned as an ideal service. After spending time in the US for direct negotiations, Tunecore Japan was launched, largely thanks to his own bold actions in acquiring the license to operate the service in Japan.
It will be good to see it expanding possibilities for musicians in Japan.
Japan’s Kakaku just announced the launch of a new website called All For Me, an online service for semi-custom bras. This sort of better-fitting commerce has been getting some hype in the overseas market with companies like True&Co and Brayola. Now this sort of service is available for Japanese women as well. In many ways, it’s like Shoes of Prey, the online custom-made shoes service. Kakaku’s new website seems to be more design-focused rather than providing the perfect fit. There are over 1.6 million combinations available and users can mix and match different patterns and colors to make their dream bra. There are 17 different bra sizes available too, which is a good start for the service. To deliver great quality in both bra design and quality, every bra is manufactured in Japan. For women who are uncertain about sizes, All For Me provides a free rental service so that users can try them out at home. As far as we can tell, the aforementioned Shoes of Prey is doing pretty well among Japan’s female demographic. One of the main reasons for this is because they provide a solution to size problems that many women have. This sort of solution…
Japan’s Kakaku just announced the launch of a new website called All For Me, an online service for semi-custom bras. This sort of better-fitting commerce has been getting some hype in the overseas market with companies like True&Co and Brayola. Now this sort of service is available for Japanese women as well. In many ways, it’s like Shoes of Prey, the online custom-made shoes service.
Kakaku’s new website seems to be more design-focused rather than providing the perfect fit. There are over 1.6 million combinations available and users can mix and match different patterns and colors to make their dream bra. There are 17 different bra sizes available too, which is a good start for the service.
To deliver great quality in both bra design and quality, every bra is manufactured in Japan. For women who are uncertain about sizes, All For Me provides a free rental service so that users can try them out at home.
As far as we can tell, the aforementioned Shoes of Prey is doing pretty well among Japan’s female demographic. One of the main reasons for this is because they provide a solution to size problems that many women have. This sort of solution might be more needed than cute designs for a bra service, so it will be interesting to see how the company’s strategy plays out as the service expands.
All For Me’s semi-customized bras are available for 9,980 yen (or about $98). Payment can be made by various credit cards or at convenience stores.
Back in July we mentioned that Tokyo-based translation startup Gengo would be relocating its head office to Shibuya. Today we were lucky enough to have the company’s CTO Matthew Romaine give us a brief tour of the place, as well as provide some brief updates on how business is going recently. So far Gengo has nearly 9000 translators translating content into 35 languages for both retail and enterprise customers. And while about 30 people out of their current 45 total staffers are located in the Tokyo office, Gengo has 12 people in their US office and makes use of a video ‘wormhole’ to keep in touch with them [1]. Since I visited the office just this morning, I even had a chance to chat with some Gengo folks in San Mateo. For a startup specializing in harnessing the power of remote workers, it’s not really surprising that they also appear to have no serious difficulties with working virtually within the company too. The Bridge: So how are things going here at Gengo these days? Matthew: Since we launched we have done over 120 million words of translation in the past four or five years that we have been around. And…
Back in July we mentioned that Tokyo-based translation startup Gengo would be relocating its head office to Shibuya. Today we were lucky enough to have the company’s CTO Matthew Romaine give us a brief tour of the place, as well as provide some brief updates on how business is going recently.
So far Gengo has nearly 9000 translators translating content into 35 languages for both retail and enterprise customers. And while about 30 people out of their current 45 total staffers are located in the Tokyo office, Gengo has 12 people in their US office and makes use of a video ‘wormhole’ to keep in touch with them [1]. Since I visited the office just this morning, I even had a chance to chat with some Gengo folks in San Mateo. For a startup specializing in harnessing the power of remote workers, it’s not really surprising that they also appear to have no serious difficulties with working virtually within the company too.
The Bridge: So how are things going here at Gengo these days?
Gengo meeting room
Matthew: Since we launched we have done over 120 million words of translation in the past four or five years that we have been around. And every year it is more and more. And we’re doing a few million words a week now, so it’s quite exciting. Our translator pool is growing, and we’re finding interesting new ways of working with them. They love the community aspect of Gengo, and they love the tools and learning opportunities that we provide them.
We’ve been making PDFs and educational materials, because 70% to 80% of our translators are not professionals, but they are bilingual and able to pass our tests. So we have put together some materials on how to use time more efficiently, how to deal with new words in a language – because languages are always changing – and so we have a team that’s focused on creating those kinds of materials, and building that sense of community with our translators.
The Bridge: Who is a typical Gengo translator?
Matthew: It’s pretty spread out. It’s everyone from very smart college students learning a new language to retired professional translators who have a little spare time. In fact, we’re currently doing a series on our translators, the ones willing to be a little more public, on our blog. You’ll meet one translator in Africa, one in the Middle East, really all over the world. […] We plan to introduce more and more of them over time. We definitely are focused a lot on our translators because they are so core to our platform.
The Bridge: And what’s your main focus these days?
Matthew: We raised out series B funding earlier this year, so we’re currently focused on improving the product, growing the team, and building sales. […] We’re very excited about the opportunities in this space. I think it’s great that some other startups or businesses in similar industries have been raising funds very successfully, which is great for us too, because it helps build awareness and validation.
Actually yesterday, I was at an event for a crowdsourcing industry group. Crowdsourcing itself as a concept and a business is starting to build awareness, we’re obviously a very specific vertical, but there are others like Odesk, Freelancer.com, and here in Japan we have Crowdworks, Lancers, Realworld. […] And so the industry’s body’s plan is to band together to present proposals to ministries and government bodies to build valid use cases because past precedent is so important in Japan. So getting good examples of success stories to show big companies, then it’s possible to show where crowdsourcing can add value to your company.
The Bridge: Thanks Matthew!
Another meeting roomAnother meeting roomBasketball Jones!Gengo sofa!Morning stand-up meetingSwag corner, to help promote other startups around townWormhole cameraMatt talking to US team through the wormhole
Gengo has some members in Europe and China as well. ↩
Touchten Games is a startup gaming studio based in Jakarta. Since its launch back in 2009, it has introduced 17 gaming titles for Android and iOS platforms. During my recent visit to Jakarta for Startup Asia, Touchten’s co-founder and CEO Anton Soeharyo told me that his company has raised an undisclosed sum of series B investment from CyberAgent Ventures and other investors. Prior to launching the company, Anton attended Tokyo’s Waseda University where he learned much about Japanese culture and business. After graduating, he returned to Jakarta and launched the company. He explains: Our titles have a Japanese flavor because I love Japan so much, like Ramen Chain and the Sushi Chain. We hope our efforts will help people around the world know more about the Japanese culture. Remarkably Touchten’s Ramen Chain app was copied by a pirate developer and published as ‘Daren Ramen Shop’ back in October. It seems like it has already been removed from the appstore, but it was not a good situation for Touchten. On the bright side though, it did indicate that there was big potential for such a title in the South East Asian regions, since pirates deemed it worthy of imitation. Anton recently…
Touchten Games is a startup gaming studio based in Jakarta. Since its launch back in 2009, it has introduced 17 gaming titles for Android and iOS platforms. During my recent visit to Jakarta for Startup Asia, Touchten’s co-founder and CEO Anton Soeharyo told me that his company has raised an undisclosed sum of series B investment from CyberAgent Ventures and other investors.
Prior to launching the company, Anton attended Tokyo’s Waseda University where he learned much about Japanese culture and business. After graduating, he returned to Jakarta and launched the company. He explains:
Our titles have a Japanese flavor because I love Japan so much, like Ramen Chain and the Sushi Chain. We hope our efforts will help people around the world know more about the Japanese culture.
Remarkably Touchten’s Ramen Chain app was copied by a pirate developer and published as ‘Daren Ramen Shop’ back in October. It seems like it has already been removed from the appstore, but it was not a good situation for Touchten. On the bright side though, it did indicate that there was big potential for such a title in the South East Asian regions, since pirates deemed it worthy of imitation.
Anton recently married a Japanese national whom he has been with for quite some timenow. So he’s now enjoying good fortune in both his private life and his work life. Hopefully he can grow his business further and bridge the two startup ecosystems in Japan an Indonesia.
For those who are interested in getting in touch with him, startup incubator Samurai Incubate will be holding an evening meet-up event on December 12th in partnership with the Tech in Asia blog. Anton will give you a speech at that event, and will be available afterwords if you’d like to chat.
Japan, for all its futuristic technology, is still very much a nation that loves paperwork, especially at the office. People work with paper documents all the time, and for such people, scanning serves an important role for record-keeping purposes. One product that aims to make scanning a little easier is the ‘Mouse-Gata Scanner’ (which roughly translates into ‘Mouse-form scanner’). The product was released back in November of 2012, and has received positive reviews ever since. It even once nabbed the top spot in Kakaku.com’s scanner category. As the name suggests, this mouse scanner can be used as a computer mouse as well as a scanner, switching between the two functions simply by pressing a button. All it takes to scan a document is to turn on the accompanying software on your computer, and roll the mouse on top of the area you wish to scan. The mouse can moved freely, allowing you to scan things like a newspaper article or a single product within a catalog. The scanned data can be adjusted by trimming and fixing contrast, or you can erase unnecessary parts. And if all that wasn’t enough, the mouse scanner also has an OCR feature, so the scan…
Japan, for all its futuristic technology, is still very much a nation that loves paperwork, especially at the office. People work with paper documents all the time, and for such people, scanning serves an important role for record-keeping purposes.
One product that aims to make scanning a little easier is the ‘Mouse-Gata Scanner’ (which roughly translates into ‘Mouse-form scanner’). The product was released back in November of 2012, and has received positive reviews ever since. It even once nabbed the top spot in Kakaku.com’s scanner category.
As the name suggests, this mouse scanner can be used as a computer mouse as well as a scanner, switching between the two functions simply by pressing a button. All it takes to scan a document is to turn on the accompanying software on your computer, and roll the mouse on top of the area you wish to scan. The mouse can moved freely, allowing you to scan things like a newspaper article or a single product within a catalog. The scanned data can be adjusted by trimming and fixing contrast, or you can erase unnecessary parts.
And if all that wasn’t enough, the mouse scanner also has an OCR feature, so the scan can be saved not only as image data (in seven formats including PDF and JPEG) but also as text.
Mouse-Gata-Scanner is only available for Windows for now, and can be purchased over on Amazon for about 5,800 yen (or $57). The product has an average of 4.5 stars with over 60 reveiews submitted.
King Jim is a manufacturer located in Chiyoda, Tokyo. The company has released a series of neat products including a rolling cleaner for tablets iColocolo and a digital notebook called Mamemo. The company’s website is available in English.
Masaru Ikeda
Junya Mori
Yukari Mitsuhashi
Rick Martin
