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Japan’s Voltage boasts 22M users of its dating-sim games for women

Rick Martin Rick Martin
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Japanese app developer Voltage has announced this week that its catalogue of dating simulation apps [1] for women (there are about 60 in total) has surpassed 22 million users. The milestone was reached back in February, according to the company (PDF). Included in the company’s repertoire are Sudden Kiss for a Promise, Office Secrets (also available in English if you’d like to try), as well as Gossip Girl, a title based on the popular American TV show. We interviewed Voltage representative Emiri Okawa last year at the Tokyo Game Show, as you may recall (see below). An explanation on translation: Voltage calls this genre of apps love/romance drama apps. We’ll opt for ‘dating simulation’, in the interests of clarity.  ↩

voltage-22-million

Japanese app developer Voltage has announced this week that its catalogue of dating simulation apps [1] for women (there are about 60 in total) has surpassed 22 million users. The milestone was reached back in February, according to the company (PDF).

Included in the company’s repertoire are Sudden Kiss for a Promise, Office Secrets (also available in English if you’d like to try), as well as Gossip Girl, a title based on the popular American TV show.

We interviewed Voltage representative Emiri Okawa last year at the Tokyo Game Show, as you may recall (see below).

  1. An explanation on translation: Voltage calls this genre of apps love/romance drama apps. We’ll opt for ‘dating simulation’, in the interests of clarity.  ↩

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Tokyo Metro’s new subway app for tourists can mislead

SCORE 1,337 Rick Martin Rick Martin
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Tokyo Metro has launched a new English language app called ‘Tokyo Subway Navigation for Tourists’. I just wanted to take a moment to show why I would not recommend it to any tourist. Here’s a sample search and result for how to get from Shibuya to Ebisu: Most train apps will tell you that the best way is to take the Yamanote Line, operated by JR East, for one stop and you’ll be there in about three minutes. But Tokyo Metro has not included JR trains, either because it can’t or doesn’t want to. Whatever the case, its a disservice to consumers. No app should ever suggest this route to anyone. Otherwise the app looks sharp, bringing interactivity to the popular Tokyo Metro map, as well as language support for English, Chinese (simplified and traditional), Korean, and Japanese. Considering the shortcomings of the above application, it would be nice to see third party developers be better enabled to contribute in this space. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications does have an open data strategy, which is said to include public transportation such as trains and buses, but I’m not sure of its current progress. I don’t see any information…

Tokyo Metro has launched a new English language app called ‘Tokyo Subway Navigation for Tourists’. I just wanted to take a moment to show why I would not recommend it to any tourist.

Here’s a sample search and result for how to get from Shibuya to Ebisu:

tokyo-metro-subway-tourists

Most train apps will tell you that the best way is to take the Yamanote Line, operated by JR East, for one stop and you’ll be there in about three minutes. But Tokyo Metro has not included JR trains, either because it can’t or doesn’t want to. Whatever the case, its a disservice to consumers.

No app should ever suggest this route to anyone.

Otherwise the app looks sharp, bringing interactivity to the popular Tokyo Metro map, as well as language support for English, Chinese (simplified and traditional), Korean, and Japanese.

Considering the shortcomings of the above application, it would be nice to see third party developers be better enabled to contribute in this space. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications does have an open data strategy, which is said to include public transportation such as trains and buses, but I’m not sure of its current progress. I don’t see any information for developers about APIs on Tokyo Metro’s or Japan Railways’s websites in English, and that should really change.

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Google’s Pokemon Challenge would have been awesome on Google Glass

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April Fools is often a very difficult day to spend on the internet. But I usually don’t mind Google’s tricks and web treats, and this year is no exception. Check out their Pokemon Challenge, an update to Google Maps that dares you to catch all 150 Pokemon that have been scattered throughout the world map. I’ve tried playing it for a while, and so far I have caught 22 of the 150 Pokemon, all in the Tokyo area. If you’d like to check it out, make sure you have the newest version of Google Maps on your mobile, hit the search bar, and press start. As I mentioned before in my hypothetical Nintendo product post, something like this would be way better if it were on Google Glass!

pokemon-challenge

April Fools is often a very difficult day to spend on the internet. But I usually don’t mind Google’s tricks and web treats, and this year is no exception. Check out their Pokemon Challenge, an update to Google Maps that dares you to catch all 150 Pokemon that have been scattered throughout the world map.

I’ve tried playing it for a while, and so far I have caught 22 of the 150 Pokemon, all in the Tokyo area. If you’d like to check it out, make sure you have the newest version of Google Maps on your mobile, hit the search bar, and press start.

As I mentioned before in my hypothetical Nintendo product post, something like this would be way better if it were on Google Glass!

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Line moving in on CocoPPa’s territory with new homescreen customization app

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We’re written about the success of Japanese homescreen customization app CocoPPa on this site many times in the past. Now it seems that Japan’s Line Corporation wants a piece of that action, today announcing its own homescreen decoration app called Line Deco: LINE DECO allows users to add a personal touch to the home screen of their smartphones by using customizable wallpapers, icons, and more. In addition to offering items based on LINE characters, the service also allows users to upload and use original decoration items they create themselves. Sound familiar? Yes, I’m sure CocoPPa thinks so too. The app is available for both iOS and Android, in English, Japanese, and Korean to start. 3000+ decoration items will be free until the end of April, to celebrate the app’s launch.

We’re written about the success of Japanese homescreen customization app CocoPPa on this site many times in the past. Now it seems that Japan’s Line Corporation wants a piece of that action, today announcing its own homescreen decoration app called Line Deco:

LINE DECO allows users to add a personal touch to the home screen of their smartphones by using customizable wallpapers, icons, and more. In addition to offering items based on LINE characters, the service also allows users to upload and use original decoration items they create themselves.

Sound familiar? Yes, I’m sure CocoPPa thinks so too.

The app is available for both iOS and Android, in English, Japanese, and Korean to start. 3000+ decoration items will be free until the end of April, to celebrate the app’s launch.

line-deco

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Fashion coordination app ‘Wear’ hits number 1 on Japanese App Store thanks to new commercials

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Start Today, the company behind Japanese fashion commerce site Zozotown, began running television commercials for its fashion coordination app Wear (wear.jp) back on March 19th. And as we have so frequently seen here in Japan, that investment has – at least momentarily – paid off, as Wear has held the top overall iOS app position for the majority of this week. The Android version of Wear has also moved up the rankings significantly, reaching fourth position in the lifestyle category. The Wear commercials feature famous model Emi Suzuki (above), and if you’d like to check them out, you can find them all here.

emi suzuki

Start Today, the company behind Japanese fashion commerce site Zozotown, began running television commercials for its fashion coordination app Wear (wear.jp) back on March 19th. And as we have so frequently seen here in Japan, that investment has – at least momentarily – paid off, as Wear has held the top overall iOS app position for the majority of this week. The Android version of Wear has also moved up the rankings significantly, reaching fourth position in the lifestyle category.

The Wear commercials feature famous model Emi Suzuki (above), and if you’d like to check them out, you can find them all here.

wear-ios
Wear on iOS
Wear on Android
Wear on Android

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Line Mall listed 100,000 items for sale in two weeks, sold 20% of them

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Japanese mobile giant Line Corporation announced today that its recently released Line Mall mobile commerce application has been downloaded 1.2 million times in its first two weeks [1]. There have been 100,000 items made available for sale during that period, in during which Line has decided not to take any commission from sellers here in Japan. The company says that of those items, more than 20,000 have sold. This is a beta period of sorts for Line Mall, which is set to make its official launch later in the year. Line (Japanese) As of March 19.  ↩

LINE_Hello_Friends_2013_Japan_0566

Japanese mobile giant Line Corporation announced today that its recently released Line Mall mobile commerce application has been downloaded 1.2 million times in its first two weeks [1]. There have been 100,000 items made available for sale during that period, in during which Line has decided not to take any commission from sellers here in Japan. The company says that of those items, more than 20,000 have sold.

This is a beta period of sorts for Line Mall, which is set to make its official launch later in the year.

Line (Japanese)

  1. As of March 19.  ↩

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After starting hot on iOS, Japanese profile exchange app ‘iam’ launches on Google Play

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Back in January we told you about Fogg Inc’s new profile exchange app ‘iam’, which at the time had just launched for iOS. Earlier this month it hit number one in the ‘lifestyle’ category of the Japanese app store, just after its version 1.5 release (see chart below). And now today the company has finally launched (pdf) an Android version of their app. If you’d like to try it out, you can get it for free over on Google Play The company previously stated they were aiming for 1.3 million downloads in total by the end of May.

iam

Back in January we told you about Fogg Inc’s new profile exchange app ‘iam’, which at the time had just launched for iOS. Earlier this month it hit number one in the ‘lifestyle’ category of the Japanese app store, just after its version 1.5 release (see chart below).

And now today the company has finally launched (pdf) an Android version of their app. If you’d like to try it out, you can get it for free over on Google Play

The company previously stated they were aiming for 1.3 million downloads in total by the end of May.

iam-app-annie
Source: App Annie

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Kayac releases mobile listening training app for English students in Japan

Rick Martin Rick Martin
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Japanese digital creative studio Kayac has just released an interesting mobile app to help English learners in Japan. It’s called Canary, and it’s intended to be a listening training app to be used for just a minute or two each day. Users will receive a video message from English speaking teachers [1], along with a text transcript. Given Japan’s preference for all things cute, the English speakers are (for the time being) female college students and models. Male speakers will be added soon. As for monetization, the app features a ‘berry’ virtual currency, which you can use to see more movies. The currency can be bought, or obtained by inviting friends or logging in regularly. Canary is available for both iOS and Google Play if you’d like to try it out. Similar to the English study platform Rare Job, teachers are based in the Philippines.  ↩

canary

Japanese digital creative studio Kayac has just released an interesting mobile app to help English learners in Japan. It’s called Canary, and it’s intended to be a listening training app to be used for just a minute or two each day. Users will receive a video message from English speaking teachers [1], along with a text transcript. Given Japan’s preference for all things cute, the English speakers are (for the time being) female college students and models. Male speakers will be added soon.

As for monetization, the app features a ‘berry’ virtual currency, which you can use to see more movies. The currency can be bought, or obtained by inviting friends or logging in regularly.

Canary is available for both iOS and Google Play if you’d like to try it out.

  1. Similar to the English study platform Rare Job, teachers are based in the Philippines.  ↩

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Puzzle & Dragons x Evangelion collaboration finally goes global

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The Puzzle & Dragons X Evangelion collaboration that began in Japan back on February 24 has now extended to global versions of the hit mobile game, including the US. It will likely be a smart tie-up for GungHo Online Entertainment, since the intricate artwork that helped make Puzzle & Dragons such a big hit at home will certainly be appreciated by anime fans abroad. You can read more about the collaboration on the P&D Facebook page.

puzzle-dragons-evangelion

The Puzzle & Dragons X Evangelion collaboration that began in Japan back on February 24 has now extended to global versions of the hit mobile game, including the US.

It will likely be a smart tie-up for GungHo Online Entertainment, since the intricate artwork that helped make Puzzle & Dragons such a big hit at home will certainly be appreciated by anime fans abroad.

You can read more about the collaboration on the P&D Facebook page.

puzzle-dragons-evangelion-2

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Filmmaker Freddie Wong gets lost in Puzzle & Dragons

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Filmmaker and famous YouTuber Freddie Wong has just released a fun short film over on his RocketJump channel called Cave Quest. The video puts him in the role of a cave explorer, who encounters one of the baddies from GungHo Online Entertainment’s Puzzle and Dragons along the way. Interestingly it’s shot at Bronson Caves, a location used for the old 1950s Adam West Batman series. This looks to be part of a GungHo promotional effort for Puzzle & Dragons, and given that Freddie has nearly seven million subscribers on that particular channel, it’s a smart tie-up for GungHo with over 160,000 views in just a day [1]. Check out the clip below, or the accompanying behind-the-scenes video. Puzzle & Dragons recently surpassed 3 million downloads in the North American market, and GungHo no doubt wants to grow that number further through efforts such as this one. ) Freddie thanks GungHo “for making the video possible.”  ↩

Filmmaker and famous YouTuber Freddie Wong has just released a fun short film over on his RocketJump channel called Cave Quest. The video puts him in the role of a cave explorer, who encounters one of the baddies from GungHo Online Entertainment’s Puzzle and Dragons along the way. Interestingly it’s shot at Bronson Caves, a location used for the old 1950s Adam West Batman series.

This looks to be part of a GungHo promotional effort for Puzzle & Dragons, and given that Freddie has nearly seven million subscribers on that particular channel, it’s a smart tie-up for GungHo with over 160,000 views in just a day [1]. Check out the clip below, or the accompanying behind-the-scenes video.

Puzzle & Dragons recently surpassed 3 million downloads in the North American market, and GungHo no doubt wants to grow that number further through efforts such as this one.

)

  1. Freddie thanks GungHo “for making the video possible.”  ↩

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