THE BRIDGE

Yukari Mitsuhashi

Yukari Mitsuhashi

Yukari is a tech writer based in Tokyo, with previous experience working with a few startups in Japan. She also supervised the Japanese caption and narration of the movie “Social Network”. She aspires to contribute to Japanese startup scene by what she does best: writing. Find her on Twitter, at @yukari77.

http://www.techdoll.jp

Articles

Japan’s WOVN.io, multilingual support platform for websites, secures $1.1 million funding

SHARE:

See the original story in Japanese. WOVN.io instantly turns a website into a multilingual environment just by adding a single Javascript code to a website source. Tokyo-based Minimal Technologies, the company behind the service, announced in July that it has partnered with Recruit Communications, and it also told The Bridge that the service has been adopted into more than 4,500 websites in the US, Japan, Brazil, Spain, and other countries. The company announced today that it has fundraised 130 million yen ($1.1 million) from Opt Ventures and Nissay Capital. Opt Ventures is the investment arm of Japan’s largest online ad agency Opt (TSE:2389) while Nissay Capital is that of Japan’s leading insurance company Nissay, or Nippon Life Insurance Company (TSE:6271). In a previous interview, the company said WOVN.io earns 90% of its revenue stream from their enterprise plan users. They plan to use the latest funds to strengthen their position as a marketing tool to help businesses expand globally. WOVN++, the SEO-enabled library launched in late July in beta, is also part of the strategy. Thanks to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics effect, there are now more websites available in English. I expect that WOVN.io will accelerate this trend and help…

wovn_featuredimage

See the original story in Japanese.

WOVN.io instantly turns a website into a multilingual environment just by adding a single Javascript code to a website source. Tokyo-based Minimal Technologies, the company behind the service, announced in July that it has partnered with Recruit Communications, and it also told The Bridge that the service has been adopted into more than 4,500 websites in the US, Japan, Brazil, Spain, and other countries.

The company announced today that it has fundraised 130 million yen ($1.1 million) from Opt Ventures and Nissay Capital. Opt Ventures is the investment arm of Japan’s largest online ad agency Opt (TSE:2389) while Nissay Capital is that of Japan’s leading insurance company Nissay, or Nippon Life Insurance Company (TSE:6271).

In a previous interview, the company said WOVN.io earns 90% of its revenue stream from their enterprise plan users. They plan to use the latest funds to strengthen their position as a marketing tool to help businesses expand globally. WOVN++, the SEO-enabled library launched in late July in beta, is also part of the strategy.

Thanks to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics effect, there are now more websites available in English. I expect that WOVN.io will accelerate this trend and help make more content from Japan available to the global audience.

Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by Kurt Hanson

Japan’s Ontenna hairclip device translates sound to vibration for hearing impaired

SHARE:

See the original story in Japanese. At first glance this tiny device looks like an ordinary accessory, but this product is a little more specialized than it appears. Ontenna is a device that, when clipped to the user’s hair just like a hair pin, can convey the character of nearby sounds to the wearer using light and vibration. The device is being developed as an aid for people who have lost or were born without their hearing. Sound conveyed through vibration and light to the user’s hair When I was a kid, I had a few classmates at the school in the US I was going to who were deaf. Everyone in the class knew how to say a few things in sign language like “What?” and “Thanks.” One thing I remember particularly well was the disaster drills. The alarm would go off and it was so loud you had to cover your ears, but they couldn’t hear it at all. They only could tell that something was going on by looking around at their surroundings. What if someone was alone in a situation like that? There’s no way to know. Ontenna may be able to fix that problem. The…

Ontenna-intro-620x390
Ontenna, a new interface that allows sound to be felt from your hair

See the original story in Japanese.

At first glance this tiny device looks like an ordinary accessory, but this product is a little more specialized than it appears. Ontenna is a device that, when clipped to the user’s hair just like a hair pin, can convey the character of nearby sounds to the wearer using light and vibration. The device is being developed as an aid for people who have lost or were born without their hearing.

Sound conveyed through vibration and light to the user’s hair

When I was a kid, I had a few classmates at the school in the US I was going to who were deaf. Everyone in the class knew how to say a few things in sign language like “What?” and “Thanks.” One thing I remember particularly well was the disaster drills. The alarm would go off and it was so loud you had to cover your ears, but they couldn’t hear it at all. They only could tell that something was going on by looking around at their surroundings.

What if someone was alone in a situation like that? There’s no way to know. Ontenna may be able to fix that problem. The concept behind Ontenna is a device that can allow the user to feel sound through their hair kind of like how cats can sense movement in the air with their whiskers.

By translation sounds in the 30dB to 90dB range into 256 different levels of vibration and light, the pattern and quality of sounds can be expressed through light and vibration. Through this, the rhythm, pattern, loudness, and other qualities of sounds can be conveyed to the user. Just by clipping the device to your hair, deaf people will now be able to feel the sounds that they couldn’t hear at all before.

Chance encounter at the university culture festival

The developer of Ontenna is Tatsuya Honda, a UI designer who began his first job at a manufacturer. Prior to that, he was majoring in information and security in the School of Systems Information Science at Future University Hakodate in Hokkaido, Japan. Having a strong interest in art and design since from then on, in his graduate thesis research he was a member of the design office aiming to solve problems in society with the power of design and technology.

For Honda, the deciding factor with Ontenna was a chance encounter at his university’s culture festival. He happened to see a deaf person at the festival and decided to show the person around the university campus using gestures. Afterwards, upon parting, Honda was handed a business card, and invited to go to an onsen (public bath and spa) sometime (Hakodate is well-known for its onsen).

Honda explained:

The person I had just met was the president of an NPO called Hakomimi.net, Hakodate Sound Visualization Research Society. I became very interested in deaf communication and I joined the research society. I studied sign language, volunteered as a sign language interpreter, and established a sign language circle at my university.

Thus Honda found himself exploring a new research theme, using technology and design to convey sound to deaf people, and beginning research at a 4th year university student in 2012 on what would become the Ontenna prototype.

With funding from government grants and 3D printing, 200 prototypes were made

Ontenna-products-image-620x390

Last year, still continuing his research as a graduate student, he was selected by the MITOU Program, a bi-annual software engineering promotion program run by the Governmental IT Promotional Agency of Japan. Using the funding gained through this, and by making use of 3D printing, he has produced over 200 prototypes. The result being an Ontenna that can be worn as a hair clip with very little difficulty or discomfort.

Honda’s project has come this far with cooperation and help from many deaf people. Even now, the most recent prototype is being tested through daily use for the purpose of collecting feedback. Though they have cleared many hurdles to get to this point, they say that still the most difficult problems to solve have been the shape of the device, and where it should be clipped.

The very first prototype of Ontenna was just a simple rectangular box in the shape circuit board. After receiving feedback from users voicing concerns about the angular sharpness of the device, the design has gradually come to the soft rounded form of the latest model. As for how to wear the device, feedback suggested an aversion to attaching the device directly to the skin because of possible irritation or discomfort. The next step was to try and have users attach the Ontenna to their clothes, but the result was that it was sometimes difficult to feel the vibrations.

Honda continued:

Fingertips, arms… we tried a lot of different body parts. Deaf people use their arms and hands to communicate in sign language, so wearing the device in one of those places proved to be cumbersome. Through lots of trial and error, we finally came to the conclusion that wearing the device in your hair, which could easily sense vibration and wouldn’t directly touch the skin, was the best option.

There are two types of Ontenna models one which is worn in the hair like a clip, and the other which is worn as an earring. Originally there was only the hair clip model, but for deaf people who are old and may not have much hair, that model wasn’t practical, so they created another version which when clipped on the ear feels just like wearing a regular earring.

Ontenna-earings-620x390
The Ontenna earring model

“I felt like I could hear the sound of cicadas for the first time.”

Another difficulty during the development process was dealing with the strength of the vibration. An experiment was done with both deaf participants and those with normal hearing. With an Ontenna attached to both right and left sides, participants would indicate using a button which side a sound was coming from. In the experiment, it was found that with deaf participants, they could signal immediately which direction the stimulus sound came from and that the vibrations were very well tuned.

If the vibration is too strong it would cause some discomfort, but if it’s too weak it would be difficult to notice. With the current Ontenna model, it is built so that all sounds in the user’s surrounding environment are conveyed, which means if you were to go to a busy, crowded place like Shibuya, the device would constantly be vibrating. Dealing with different environments while still trying to convey sound with the appropriate level of vibration is something they’re still working to solve.

Positive feedback has been coming in from deaf users who wear the device at home or around town in their daily activities. By wearing Ontenna, users have aid they can now tell the difference between the sound of the intercom and the telephone, or realize for example if the cord to vacuum cleaner got pulled out of the outlet (see video above). For these users, by being able to sense sounds, a variety of difficulties are being overcome.

Honda added:

One girl who had tried Ontenna said something that really left a big impression on me. ‘At school I was taught that cicadas make a long buzzing sound, but I never knew what kind of rhythm or pattern that sound had until now. Once I put on Ontenna I felt like I could hear the sound of cicadas for the first time.’ I was really happy to hear that.

Could Ontenna be a part of the 2021 Deaflympics?

Ontenna-developer-Honda-620x450
Tatsuya Honda, the researcher behind Ontenna

Questions from deaf people as well as the parents of children with hearing disabilities wanting to know when they’ll be able to buy Ontenna have been increasing.

That said, Ontenna is still a project that Tatsuya Honda in a collaborative effort has designed and developed at the research level. He still sees mass production as being a ways off, but while keeping an eye on future business cooperation, hopes to get Ontenna into the hands of as many deaf and hearing disabled people as possible, as soon as possible.

One long term goal with Ontenna has to do with the Deaflympics planned to be held in 2021. Not quite as well known as the Paralympics, the Deaflympics are Olympic Games for deaf people.

Honda concluded:

In the far future, I think it would great if athletes at the 2021 Deaflympics used Ontenna in competition. For example, track and field players could use Ontenna when working on the timing and rhythm of their strides to possibly improve their record. If Ontenna can be a part of these athletes setting new records, that would be so wonderful.

Translated by Connor Kirk
Edited by Masaru Ikeda

Japan’s weight-loss advisory startup FiNC raises $5.3 million

SHARE:

See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based FiNC is taking the lead in Japan’s healthcare startup community. The company has been providing online weight-loss advice solutions since March of 2014, allowing users to receive a 60-day dietary program from experts via smartphone. The company announced today that it has fundraised 650 million yen (about $5.3 million) as loans from financial institutions including Mizuho Bank and Japan Finance Corporation, as well as receiving funds from angel investors. This follows the company’s previous funding in September of 2014. New angel investors joining this time include former Japan national soccer team coach Takeshi Okada, Japanese mobile telco eAccess founder Sachio Senmoto, former Yahoo Japan COO Hiroaki Kitano, and Tokyo-based business consultancy Pronova CEO Etsuko Okajima. [1] FiNC will use the funds to strengthen hiring new people and develop wearable devices as well as other solutions using artificial intelligence (AI). Coinciding with this, FiNC announced that it has launched a 60-day group weight-loss program in partnership with Wellness Frontier, the company behind the Joyfit sports club chain in Japan, where users can use any branch of the chain for two months. The program lets users join a mobile app group where they can encourage…

finc_featuredimage

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based FiNC is taking the lead in Japan’s healthcare startup community. The company has been providing online weight-loss advice solutions since March of 2014, allowing users to receive a 60-day dietary program from experts via smartphone.

The company announced today that it has fundraised 650 million yen (about $5.3 million) as loans from financial institutions including Mizuho Bank and Japan Finance Corporation, as well as receiving funds from angel investors. This follows the company’s previous funding in September of 2014.

New angel investors joining this time include former Japan national soccer team coach Takeshi Okada, Japanese mobile telco eAccess founder Sachio Senmoto, former Yahoo Japan COO Hiroaki Kitano, and Tokyo-based business consultancy Pronova CEO Etsuko Okajima. [1] FiNC will use the funds to strengthen hiring new people and develop wearable devices as well as other solutions using artificial intelligence (AI).

Coinciding with this, FiNC announced that it has launched a 60-day group weight-loss program in partnership with Wellness Frontier, the company behind the Joyfit sports club chain in Japan, where users can use any branch of the chain for two months. The program lets users join a mobile app group where they can encourage each others on their efforts to reduce weight.

FiNC has acquired a variety of directors and shareholders from across industries, perhaps indicating high expectations from the Japanese society, not only for the startup but also for the entire healthcare startup community. It will be interesting to see what kind of devices or solutions will be introduced by this company in the future.

Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy


  1. eAccess was acquired by Softbank in 2012. Hiroaki Kitano is currently Senior Vice President of Softbank Mobile.

Japan’s outdoor leisure booking site Sotoasobi raises $1.6M from B Dash Ventures

SHARE:

See the original story in Japanese. These days e-commerce sites are commonplace, with almost everything available for purchase online with a click on a button. Since its launch back in August of 2004, Sotoasobi has been offering carefully-selected outdoor leisure packages for anyone including occasional adventure seekers. The company has fundraised 200 million yen (about $1.6 million) from Tokyo-based B Dash Ventures. Carefully-selected lineup We previously featured Sotoasobi back in July last year when the company rolled out a new website and appointed former Gaiax COO Yu Nakajima as new CEO. More than a year has passed since then, with the pace of bookings through the website doubled and over a thousand leisure plans from 30 kinds of activities available today. Regardless of the increased variety of tour plans readied, nothing has changed as to the concept of their business. Including Sotoasobi co-founder Takayoshi Yamamoto who has 15 years’ experience in the outdoor leisure industry as well as being a qualified guide for horse riding and rafting, the company has acquired mountain guides and round-the-world cyclists as curators to select and introduce interesting leisure plans. These curators actually visit leisure destinations to hear from plan organizers and publish articles about…

sotoasobi_featuredimage

See the original story in Japanese.

These days e-commerce sites are commonplace, with almost everything available for purchase online with a click on a button. Since its launch back in August of 2004, Sotoasobi has been offering carefully-selected outdoor leisure packages for anyone including occasional adventure seekers. The company has fundraised 200 million yen (about $1.6 million) from Tokyo-based B Dash Ventures.

Carefully-selected lineup

sotoasobi_featuredimage2
From a snorkeling tour in Okinawa arranged via Sotoasobi.

We previously featured Sotoasobi back in July last year when the company rolled out a new website and appointed former Gaiax COO Yu Nakajima as new CEO. More than a year has passed since then, with the pace of bookings through the website doubled and over a thousand leisure plans from 30 kinds of activities available today.

Regardless of the increased variety of tour plans readied, nothing has changed as to the concept of their business. Including Sotoasobi co-founder Takayoshi Yamamoto who has 15 years’ experience in the outdoor leisure industry as well as being a qualified guide for horse riding and rafting, the company has acquired mountain guides and round-the-world cyclists as curators to select and introduce interesting leisure plans. These curators actually visit leisure destinations to hear from plan organizers and publish articles about them in their own words and photos.

In order to provide good tour plans, Nakajima told us that knowing destinations like the back of one’s hand and having leisure activity professionals are key elements.

When it comes to outdoors, many people may have an image that excursion participants have to move about a lot while getting sweaty. However, there are also other types of plans, which let users enjoy nature with their senses on weekends in comfort. Examples include plans that allow one to ride a horse or go out to a treehouse for coffee there, in addition to a plan which takes one to an uninhabited island by sea kayak for BBQ and snorkeling. Our site offers the exceptional experiences one cannot find anywhere else.

Age-specific search interface

sotoasobi_featuredimage3

Since the content is well curated on the Sotoasobi website, it helps even outdoor beginners to find preferable tour plans regardless of background knowledge. That’s why their users are diverse generationwise, with particular concentration from singles in their 20s and 30s as well as family households. Elderly participants are also increasing, such as an 80-year-old member experiencing one’s first horse ride as well as an elderly couple who have been eager to fly in the sky together with a paraglider.

After Nakajima joined the team, Sotoasobi has been making great efforts to improve user interfaces. The company rolled out a new website design twice over the past year, adding an advanced search function so that users can more easily find a relevant tour option matching their needs.

The new search function is designed for family users, enabling them to find tour plans by specifying the minimum age of an accompanying minor, such as ranging from 0 year old to older than 16 years of age. In response to the recent increase in elderly users, the company has also added checkboxes in the search menu, such as ‘Participants aged over 60 allowed’ or ‘single participants allowed’ not to mention ‘pets allowed’ so that participants can better find their optimal options.

Strengthening human resources

The Sotoasobi team
The Sotoasobi team. Yu Nakajima stands in the upper left.

Sotoasobi will use the latest funds to strengthen recruiting new curators and further improve their website plus develop a booking management tool which will be availed to leisure plan providers. The company plans to double the number of their curators, while polishing up the expertise of neighborhood guides and outdoor activities.

As part of their main portal, the company recently launched a new blog site called Outfitter. It provides visitors with useful information such as the most-recommended trekking shoes for female mountaineers and the best gears for sea kayaking.

They comprise a ten-person team which includes curators, but they are hiring designers and engineers as well as someone who can keep updating the aforementioned blog site. Looking forward, they aim to expand services to help more people enjoy nature.

See also:

Translated by Chieko Frost via Mother First
Edited by Masaru Ikeda and “Tex” Pomeroy

Japan’s Clear, study notes organizer app for students, raises $1 million

SHARE:

See the original story in Japanese. Serving 500,000 students around the country Clear is a study notes organizer app and has attracted over 500,000 students in Japan. Tokyo-based Arcterus, the company behind the app, has fundraised 130 million yen (about $1 million) from Japanese system integration company Startia (TSE:3303), Dentsu Digital Fund, Korea’s BonAngels, and others. The company will use the funds to add new app functions as well as aiming to expand globally. Students have started adapting their smartphone for their studies. Japan’s Recruit Marketing Partners recently unveiled a list of trending keywords that includes the Japanese word “sumaben” meaning studying via smartphone. Over 3 million notes are published and shared The Clear app allows students to publish their handwritten study notes and share them with other users. There are over 3 million published notes available on the platform so far. Clear has two main usage styles: When students get something they can’t understand at school classes, they can try to figure out by looking at notes by classmates rather than relying on Google search or study-aid books. Finding well-summarized notes to better understand materials upon preparing for exams at school. Goichiro Arai, CEO of Arcterus, says that the…

clear_featuredimage

See the original story in Japanese.

Serving 500,000 students around the country

Clear is a study notes organizer app and has attracted over 500,000 students in Japan. Tokyo-based Arcterus, the company behind the app, has fundraised 130 million yen (about $1 million) from Japanese system integration company Startia (TSE:3303), Dentsu Digital Fund, Korea’s BonAngels, and others. The company will use the funds to add new app functions as well as aiming to expand globally.

Students have started adapting their smartphone for their studies. Japan’s Recruit Marketing Partners recently unveiled a list of trending keywords that includes the Japanese word “sumaben” meaning studying via smartphone.

clear_screenshots

Over 3 million notes are published and shared

The Clear app allows students to publish their handwritten study notes and share them with other users. There are over 3 million published notes available on the platform so far. Clear has two main usage styles:

  1. When students get something they can’t understand at school classes, they can try to figure out by looking at notes by classmates rather than relying on Google search or study-aid books.
  2. Finding well-summarized notes to better understand materials upon preparing for exams at school.

Goichiro Arai, CEO of Arcterus, says that the Clear app aims to be a study notes version of GitHub or online recipe app Cookpad. Compared to being taught by teachers, private tutors, or study-aid books, the app helps students enrich their understanding of their studies.

The company gets feedback from students such as: “The app has motivated me to study harder,” and “It has lowered a psychological hurdle in studying.”

The app helps to connect and motivate students across the country by allowing them to share and comment on handwritten study notes.

Expanding into Southeast Asia and North America

Arcterus wants to liven up the learning field with the app while ensuring the quality and boosting the sharing of study notes. In addition to serving students in Japan, the company wants to expand into other Asian countries in 2015, followed by expansion into North and South American markets in 2016. They launched the Clear app in Thailand back in April, receiving positive responses from the market as the number of users and shared study notes have been both increasing.

In a previous interview with the team of Penpal Schools, a Texan online penpal-based studying platform that has acquired over 7 million students from more than 70 countries, I was so surprised to learn that many students feel lonely studying at school even when they study together in a classroom. Arai agreed and said that is why many students come together at a diner and study together after school.

Arai concluded:

Studying for exams is likely to make you feel lonely. In class, you need to concentrate on grasping a new concept, which can be a lonely task. By compiling an extensive database of shared study notes, we aim to help students from around the world succeed in their studies.

Translated by Chieko Frost via Mother First
Edited by Masaru Ikeda and Kurt Hanson
Proofread by “Tex” Pomeroy

Bad sense of direction? This app helps you reach your destination in unfamiliar cities

SHARE:

See the original story in Japanese. Working on the weekends or whenever they have free time, Team Houchimin is, from the content of their services to their name itself, quite a unique group. Their service Waaaaay!, a mobile navigation app (available for Android / iOS) designed for people with bad sense of direction, was released at the end of January 2014 and  now has more than 600,000 downloads (as of early August 2015). Now the team has released a guide app geared for travelers called Pilot. Usable wherever you are, even in offline mode Pilot can help travelers with things such as discovering new destinations to getting information about local establishments without using roaming data or having to get a SIM card. Being able to function in offline mode is a very big difference between this and already existing apps such as Google Maps or Navitime. Also, it’s often said that one of the biggest struggles of travelers is battery life. By not using battery-draining background operations like GPS and network transmission, Pilot is able to dramatically prolong battery life. Pilot has 3 main features. The first is its large amount of content. Within the app you can search from…

Pilot-app-banner
Pilot, a guide app for travelers.

See the original story in Japanese.

Working on the weekends or whenever they have free time, Team Houchimin is, from the content of their services to their name itself, quite a unique group. Their service Waaaaay!, a mobile navigation app (available for Android / iOS) designed for people with bad sense of direction, was released at the end of January 2014 and  now has more than 600,000 downloads (as of early August 2015). Now the team has released a guide app geared for travelers called Pilot.

Usable wherever you are, even in offline mode

pilot_screenshots

Pilot can help travelers with things such as discovering new destinations to getting information about local establishments without using roaming data or having to get a SIM card. Being able to function in offline mode is a very big difference between this and already existing apps such as Google Maps or Navitime. Also, it’s often said that one of the biggest struggles of travelers is battery life. By not using battery-draining background operations like GPS and network transmission, Pilot is able to dramatically prolong battery life.

Pilot has 3 main features. The first is its large amount of content. Within the app you can search from over 6,000 restaurants, tourist spots, shopping malls, and other destinations in the supported cities.  For places that are particularly popular with travellers, the app can be used to see photos, price range, business hours and other information.

The second is the ability to search for information regarding train transfers between you and where you’re trying to go by locally storing the data for every train station within the city you are visiting.

The third main feature is, similar to Waaaaay!, rather than looking at a map, travellers can arrive at their destinations just by looking at the direction and the remaining distance. By inputting your desired destination, the app will display the direction to and the remaining distance from the destination. Follow the direction displayed in the app, and when the remaining distance is zero, you know you’ve arrived.

Also useful for travellers who like to wing it

Pilot-wireframe-620x465
A wireframe mockup for Pilot

Pilot was born from a collection of more than 6,500 cases of user feedback from Waaaaay! With Waaaaay!, there was a search history feature that would save the locations you had searched before, so you could access those saved searches without being connected to a network, but even so there were a lot of requests from users to make the service available even when mountain climbing or abroad.

Ryota Ayaki, a member of Team Houchimin, explained:

Unless there’s any obstacle that interrupts radio waves from satellites, GPS signals can be received and it can be used anywhere in the world. Even so, there were a lot of people who misunderstood that it would necessary to have cellphone reception to use GPS. To us, that was common sense, but that wasn’t the case for general society. There were already some navigation apps that had offline capabilities but none of them had really caught on yet, so we thought maybe we can compete in this territory too.

In January of this year, one member of the team traveled to India to collect local data and information on New Delhi and make a prototype. By entering the place you want to go in the form at the top of the screen, the app will tell you the direction and the distance to that point. Other than the feature allowing users to search locally, the rest of the prototype was mostly the same as Waaaaay! Even so, by actually using the app, they recognized that it wasn’t enough to help foreign travelers.

With Waaaaay!, while there are some destinations that users will know to search for like Roppongi Hills or Shibuya Station, for travelers who are overseas, if you haven’t really planned out your trip in detail you might not know what to search for in the first place. So with Pilot they have decided to focus on two areas based on their findings from experiments in unfamiliar locations, bringing the most popular destinations among foreign travelers to the front, and providing guidance for using public transportation.

Starting in familiar territory with a Tokyo version

The direction of the new app was decided around Summer of last year. After which development began in December 2014 through the implementation of Android Wear as well as the improvements made to Waaaaay! itself. According to an acquaintance, in addition to the aforementioned India version, the team has also developed versions of the app for Singapore, Hong Kong, and Barcelona, working out all the kinks and making improvements.

For now, the team has decided to focus their efforts on territory that is familiar to them, the Tokyo area, in an effort to offer a more finely tuned and accurate user experience through trial and error. They have collected data on popular destinations by hand, and for transportation guidance purposes have purchased public transportation data and information for every station and train line in Japan from ekidata.jp. However the one area that is lacking in regards information is the sorting of that data. They have developed a train line guidance feature that combines latitude and longitude data with train line data, and additionally they have increased the speed of their search algorithm and UI display in order to create a more fluid user experience.

Going forward they are planning on developing versions of the app for other cities based on the feedback they will gather from the Tokyo release. Kyoto, London, Taipei, New York, and Paris are all possible candidates. The Tokyo version of the app will be free to use, but they are considering putting a price on future releases. Also they say they’re planning to try promoting the Tokyo release to English speaking users.

When it comes to design and development, Team Houchimin is in their element, but this time with Pilot, their challenge will be that this is not just about reading a map. Their original release of the app featured the actual title misspelled as “Pirot”. Even now there still is one part inside the application that shows the spelling mistake, which may just be for our brief entertainment. Anyway I’m really looking forward to trying this this app out once the international version is released. You can download Pilot and try it for yourself here.

woops-Pilot-turns-into-Pirot
Good thing someone caught this mistake before it was too late!

Translated by Connor Kirk
Edited by Masaru Ikeda

Japan’s WOVN.io helps websites improve search engine visibility in any language

SHARE:

See the original story in Japanese. WOVN.io instantly turns a website into a multilingual environment only by adding a single Javascript code to the website source. They started providing a premium edition in February, followed by participating in the pitch competition at Echelon in Singapore this July as the only team from Japan. We were told that the service has been adopted into more than 4,500 websites in the U.S., Japan, Brazil, Spain and other countries. Tokyo-based Minimal Technologies, the Japanese startup behind WOVN.io, recently made two announcements: partnering with Recruit Communications, a marketing-focused subsidiary under Japan’s Recruit Holdings (TSE:6098), and launching SEO-enabled library WOVN++ in beta. Based on a partnership with Recruit Communications, WOVN.io will be implemented into various media websites provided by Recruit Holdings group companies. Coinciding with leveraging the company’s in-house online dictionary, the solution will be used to translate 12 websites into several languages, starting with English, Chinese and Korean, in 2015 Q3. In our previous articles covering WOVN.io, we have heard many voices from users concerned about how the solution will have an impact on SEO results. To address this issue, the company introduced a library called WOVN++ in Ruby and PHP, which creates a static HTML source code rather than dynamically generating a translated webpage so…

wovn.io

See the original story in Japanese.

WOVN.io instantly turns a website into a multilingual environment only by adding a single Javascript code to the website source. They started providing a premium edition in February, followed by participating in the pitch competition at Echelon in Singapore this July as the only team from Japan. We were told that the service has been adopted into more than 4,500 websites in the U.S., Japan, Brazil, Spain and other countries.

Tokyo-based Minimal Technologies, the Japanese startup behind WOVN.io, recently made two announcements: partnering with Recruit Communications, a marketing-focused subsidiary under Japan’s Recruit Holdings (TSE:6098), and launching SEO-enabled library WOVN++ in beta.

Based on a partnership with Recruit Communications, WOVN.io will be implemented into various media websites provided by Recruit Holdings group companies. Coinciding with leveraging the company’s in-house online dictionary, the solution will be used to translate 12 websites into several languages, starting with English, Chinese and Korean, in 2015 Q3.

In our previous articles covering WOVN.io, we have heard many voices from users concerned about how the solution will have an impact on SEO results. To address this issue, the company introduced a library called WOVN++ in Ruby and PHP, which creates a static HTML source code rather than dynamically generating a translated webpage so that translated pages are also scanned for search engine results.

Minimal Technologies CEO Takaharu Hayashi said that typical Japanese companies are less likely to forget SEO measures when establishing a media site or an e-commerce site which targets overseas markets.

Hayashi explained:

Even Google does not have much market share in China or Korea as well as in Japan; China is dominated by Baidu and Korea by Naver, where different SEO measures may be required respectively. WOVN++ can work well with these different local search engines, driving user traffic from many other countries. We will focus on optimizing our solution to more search engines in the Southeast Asian region.

One can use the WOVN++ library in beta regardless of which service plan subscribed to. Going forward, the company wants to support an additional feature allowing users to display their website in the upper level of search results.

WOVN.io earns 90% of its entire revenue stream from their enterprise plan users. Currently payable in Japanese yen, however, the company recently registered a branch office in California to enable accepting payments in US dollars; they can now improve the new feature to better serve users in Japan and the rest of the world.

Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by Masaru Ikeda and “Tex” Pomeroy

Japan’s Factelier starts global shipping, serving the world with quality apparel products

SHARE:

See the original story in Japanese.Kyushu-based fashion e-commerce website Factelier creates made-in-Japan quality apparel products by partnering directly with well-established Japanese factories. By eliminating the middlemen in fashion distribution by working directly with manufacturers, the resulting products can be purchased at a third of the department store prices. See also: Skipping the middleman: Japanese startup goes to the source for high-quality shirts Japanese ecommerce service boasts 70% returning users The website rolled out an English-language interface and started global shipping earlier this week. International users can purchase Factelier’s products on the website and receive them in more than 120 countries by paying the extra flat-rate shipping fee of 2,800 yen (about $22.5). Since before the roll-out of the English-language interface, Factelier has been receiving orders from more than 100 countries including Asian countries like Taiwan, China, Indonesia and Thailand, in addition to the U.S., UK and France. When one visits the website from outside Japan, a language switcher widget will pop up onscreen so that the preferred language (English or Japanese) can be selected. Japan is known globally for its high-level offerings, from customer service to product quality. Living in Los Angeles, I often realize the brand value of made-in-Japan and from-Japan products. So there is a high demand for Japanese apparel products worldwide. Factelier is planning to add more supporting…

factelier_featuredimage

See the original story in Japanese.
Kyushu-based fashion e-commerce website Factelier creates made-in-Japan quality apparel products by partnering directly with well-established Japanese factories. By eliminating the middlemen in fashion distribution by working directly with manufacturers, the resulting products can be purchased at a third of the department store prices.

See also:

The website rolled out an English-language interface and started global shipping earlier this week. International users can purchase Factelier’s products on the website and receive them in more than 120 countries by paying the extra flat-rate shipping fee of 2,800 yen (about $22.5).

Since before the roll-out of the English-language interface, Factelier has been receiving orders from more than 100 countries including Asian countries like Taiwan, China, Indonesia and Thailand, in addition to the U.S., UK and France. When one visits the website from outside Japan, a language switcher widget will pop up onscreen so that the preferred language (English or Japanese) can be selected.

Japan is known globally for its high-level offerings, from customer service to product quality. Living in Los Angeles, I often realize the brand value of made-in-Japan and from-Japan products. So there is a high demand for Japanese apparel products worldwide.

Factelier is planning to add more supporting languages in the future.

Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

Adaptive learning startup Polyglots launches newsreader app for Japanese-language learners

SHARE:

See the original story in Japanese. Our readers may recall that Tokyo-based Polyglots secured a seed round funding from East Ventures in March. The company is best known for developing an English newsreader app under the same name, allowing Japanese users to learn English while reading news updates with many useful features such as managing unfamiliar English words in the app. The app has attracted more than 200,000 Japanese users to date since its launch one year ago. Polyglots launched a new newsreader app called Mondo on Friday, aiming to help people learn Japanese. The app targets foreigners living in Japan, Japanese-language learners around the world, as well as people interested in Japanese culture. Adopting adaptive learning technologies to Japanese-language learners Kanji (Chinese characters) and ambiguity in expressions are the hardest parts in learning Japanese. To overcome these obstacles, practice makes perfect so users have to read as many Japanese sentences as possible. Similarly to the Polyglots app, the Mondo app allows Japanese-language learners to choose their favorite news category and read news articles in Japanese, leveraging useful features like the in-app dictionary and vocabulary notebook. News articles can be sorted by the difficulty of context and the estimated time…

mondo_featuredimage

See the original story in Japanese.

Our readers may recall that Tokyo-based Polyglots secured a seed round funding from East Ventures in March. The company is best known for developing an English newsreader app under the same name, allowing Japanese users to learn English while reading news updates with many useful features such as managing unfamiliar English words in the app. The app has attracted more than 200,000 Japanese users to date since its launch one year ago.

Polyglots launched a new newsreader app called Mondo on Friday, aiming to help people learn Japanese. The app targets foreigners living in Japan, Japanese-language learners around the world, as well as people interested in Japanese culture.

Adopting adaptive learning technologies to Japanese-language learners

mondo_screenshots

Kanji (Chinese characters) and ambiguity in expressions are the hardest parts in learning Japanese. To overcome these obstacles, practice makes perfect so users have to read as many Japanese sentences as possible. Similarly to the Polyglots app, the Mondo app allows Japanese-language learners to choose their favorite news category and read news articles in Japanese, leveraging useful features like the in-app dictionary and vocabulary notebook.

News articles can be sorted by the difficulty of context and the estimated time to finish reading so that users can easily choose one to fit their free time. The smart scroll feature lets users read articles more quickly to help them quickly acquire Japanese reading skills.

Aiming to attract tens of millions of people worldwide

By connecting the Polyglots app with user and data profiles, Polyglots wants to become a comprehensive communication platform for linguistics, where Japanese users learning English and non-Japanese speakers learning English can connect to each other. Beyond the online community based on the app, the company plans to bring users offline activities, such as local guides at destinations around the world.

Polyglots Founder and CEO Junya Yamaguchi elaborated:

junya-yamaguchi
Junya Yamaguchi

As the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 approaches, I think the understanding of Japanese culture in the world is still insufficient. By keeping people around the world informed with the real images of Japan, we want more people to become interested in Japan and visit some day.

The company is considering offering sightseeing services to foreign visitors to Japan while partnering with local governments and media companies in Japan. Its name is derived from Zenmondo, a cryptic dialogue between a Zen monk and his disciple. The company aims to acquire 100,000 users for the Mondo app, followed by attracting tens of millions of people worldwide with two services in several years.

Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by Kurt Hanson

Meet Meal, Japanese app that helps you keep food diary with minimal effort

SHARE:

See the original story in Japanese. “Wouldn’t that be cool if there was a service for this?” Until recently that was where a lot of ideas began and ended, but now we’re seeing an increase in app developers who didn’t stop there. “If there isn’t a service for this, I guess I’ll just make it myself.” became the new impetus for developers such as Rika Goto, an engineer working at Tokyo creative collective Kayac (TSE:3904). While working as a full-time employee, Goto spent weekends designing and programming for four months to release her iOS app Meal. “It has to be simple enough for my parents to use.” Meal is a “life log” app that creates a running record of pictures of your breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day. The application’s primary functions are taking pictures and importing photos from your smartphone’s photo albums. Photos taken are organized and displayed in calendar form so users can easily look back and reminisce on what they ate last week or last month. Photos that have been imported from a photo album will be sorted automatically by the application based on the photo’s timestamp into either breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Goto’s biggest fixation when…

meal_screenshots

See the original story in Japanese.

“Wouldn’t that be cool if there was a service for this?” Until recently that was where a lot of ideas began and ended, but now we’re seeing an increase in app developers who didn’t stop there.

“If there isn’t a service for this, I guess I’ll just make it myself.” became the new impetus for developers such as Rika Goto, an engineer working at Tokyo creative collective Kayac (TSE:3904). While working as a full-time employee, Goto spent weekends designing and programming for four months to release her iOS app Meal.

“It has to be simple enough for my parents to use.”

Meal is a “life log” app that creates a running record of pictures of your breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day. The application’s primary functions are taking pictures and importing photos from your smartphone’s photo albums. Photos taken are organized and displayed in calendar form so users can easily look back and reminisce on what they ate last week or last month. Photos that have been imported from a photo album will be sorted automatically by the application based on the photo’s timestamp into either breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

Goto’s biggest fixation when it came to developing meal was “it has to be simple enough for my parents to use.” Trimming superfluous features down to the very minimum, her entire focus was set on developing an app for looking at pictures of the food we eat everyday.

When you’re developing an application, there’s a tendency to get excited about it and just keep adding more features, but with meal, I was determined to trim it down to its most simple form, even if people say ‘uh, is this is all it can do?’

“Just try to make it, whatever the programming language.”

Meal is so simple to use the app itself doesn’t need any words, which is why it was released in English only. Within five days of release in late June it is already being embraced by users in 23 different countries with feedback pouring in. One such user shared, “I didn’t used to eat breakfast very often, but seeing that breakfast space left blank was actually kind of sad so I started eating three meals a day.”

The idea to create Meal came from Goto’s daily life. She said:

I like eating, and I take pictures of what I eat, but I would never really organize those pictures or share them on social media or anything, so they just starting filling up my photo library. I looked at all my pictures of food and thought it was a shame they were just sitting there, so that’s where I got the idea to make Meal.

Goto’s motto when making something new is, “Just try to make it, whatever the programming language.” Meal was Goto’s first time using Objective-C, but recalls developing Meal being quite enjoyable. She thinks of a programming language as a means to turning an idea into something real, and that trying to make what it is you want to make might be the quickest way to learn a new language.

For now, Meal’s objective is to reach 5,000 downloads in three months. Goto has a lot of ideas for the app such as sharing your meal calendar with friends and managing it via the web, but plans to hold off on those for now, listen to user feedback and requests, and continue brushing up meal as things progress.

Translated by Connor Kirk
Edited by Masaru Ikeda