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Crowdfunding campaign underway for Kayac’s LED skirt that lights up your thighs

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See the original story in Japanese. After meeting the funding target for their Danbokko Kitchen crowdfunding campaign on 26 March, Tokyo-based creative agency Kayac is moving forward with a new project called Hikaru Skirt, or “illuminating skirt.” This crowdfunding campaign for a skirt that lights up your Zettai Ryoiki [1] with colorful LED’s, started on 2 April with a funding goal of 3.9 million yen (approximately $32,000). The Hikaru Skirt is a personalizable fashion item with LED lights built into the skirt. Changing the LED’s color to match your outfit or your mood is easy using the skirt’s companion smartphone app. The skirt’s lights can be turned on or off with the touch of a button, and it can even sync to music at parties or clubs. The previous model of Hikaru Skirt was featured in a video by idol group Moso Calibration and their new song Mahou no Juice (see the video in the bottom). While it is uncommon for Kayac to promote a product that has a single creator, the skirt has been getting considerable social media attention leading to the decision to branch out into the manufactured goods market. Kayac Creative Director Kiyoyuki Amano is taking the leadership…

hikaru-skirt_featuredimage

See the original story in Japanese.

After meeting the funding target for their Danbokko Kitchen crowdfunding campaign on 26 March, Tokyo-based creative agency Kayac is moving forward with a new project called Hikaru Skirt, or “illuminating skirt.” This crowdfunding campaign for a skirt that lights up your Zettai Ryoiki [1] with colorful LED’s, started on 2 April with a funding goal of 3.9 million yen (approximately $32,000).

The Hikaru Skirt is a personalizable fashion item with LED lights built into the skirt. Changing the LED’s color to match your outfit or your mood is easy using the skirt’s companion smartphone app. The skirt’s lights can be turned on or off with the touch of a button, and it can even sync to music at parties or clubs. The previous model of Hikaru Skirt was featured in a video by idol group Moso Calibration and their new song Mahou no Juice (see the video in the bottom).

use-app-to-adjust-lighting-620x349
Lighting under the skirt can be controlled by a dimmer in a mobile app.

While it is uncommon for Kayac to promote a product that has a single creator, the skirt has been getting considerable social media attention leading to the decision to branch out into the manufactured goods market. Kayac Creative Director Kiyoyuki Amano is taking the leadership role in the Hikaru Skirt project.

Along with the cosplay boom, an increasing interest in science fiction and anime fashion is emerging. Is it possible to create something that bridges the gap between cosplay and everyday fashion, takes advantage of technology and looks good, too? This was the question that gave way to the Hikaru Skirt.

Amano explained:

The technology wasn’t the basis for the skirt; it was more the question of how can we make personal style more enjoyable? That lead to its development. In designing the skirt it was really important to me that it look cute whether lit up or not. You can wear it to go with a one-piece or as a skirt; it’s fashion that fits into everyday style.

Supporting the campaign at the 16,000-yen level gets you one medium Hikaru Skirt – delivery set for this October. Supporting projects like these that have single creators reinforces the creative spirit of Kayac’s employees. We look forward to seeing more unique products from Kayac.

Translated by Connor Kirk
Edited by Masaru Ikeda and Kurt Hanson


  1. Zettai Ryoiki is originally a term from Japanese anime series Evangelion, “Absolute territory” in English, has come to refer to the section of skin exposed between the hem of a miniskirt and the top of knee high socks.

This social network app from Japan connects people working in the same office building

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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based internet service company Kayac (TSE:3904) launched a mobile app called Biru-Tomo (literally meaning ‘Building Friend’) earlier this week, connecting you with your neighbors as well as people working for different companies in the same building that your office resides in. The app is now available for iOS on the AppStore and for Android on Google Play. While there are many types of communities according to the environment, the Kayac team thinks that people working at different companies in the same office building can also create a local community. The app helps these people connect with each others and hold community events. It is said that new condominiums are struggling to acquire new residents these days, so more condo developers are adding values for potential customers by appealing that a community of residents can be formed on their properties. I’m not sure if this is also true for office buildings, but connecting office workers in the same building may also bring a good effect to building owners. A user has to be sign up using Facebook authentication upon registering a minimum of one building where he or she is based. In this way, the app will help provide for networking opportunities with office…

birutomo_featuredimage

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based internet service company Kayac (TSE:3904) launched a mobile app called Biru-Tomo (literally meaning ‘Building Friend’) earlier this week, connecting you with your neighbors as well as people working for different companies in the same building that your office resides in. The app is now available for iOS on the AppStore and for Android on Google Play.

While there are many types of communities according to the environment, the Kayac team thinks that people working at different companies in the same office building can also create a local community. The app helps these people connect with each others and hold community events.

It is said that new condominiums are struggling to acquire new residents these days, so more condo developers are adding values for potential customers by appealing that a community of residents can be formed on their properties. I’m not sure if this is also true for office buildings, but connecting office workers in the same building may also bring a good effect to building owners.

A user has to be sign up using Facebook authentication upon registering a minimum of one building where he or she is based. In this way, the app will help provide for networking opportunities with office workers at different companies and even find drinking buddies after hours in the same building.

Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

Japanese internet company Kayac files for IPO

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Japanese internet company Kayac‘s IPO application to the Tokyo Stock Exchange Mothers Market was approved today. The company has appointed Nomura Securities as an underwriter for this IPO and will be listed on 25 December. Since its launch in 1998, Kayac has been introducing humorous web services and mobile apps to attract users. They were incorporated in 2005, and subsequently started introducing social gaming apps via DeNA‘s mobile gaming platform Mobage after it opened to third party developers in 2010. Their smash hit gaming titles include Bokura no Koshien, a mobile baseball gaming app with a social networking feature. Kayac saw 2.8 billion yen (approximately $23.7 million) in revenue with an ordinary profit of 216 million yen ($1.8 million) and a net profit of 31 million yen ($262,000) last year. The company was named after their three co-founders: Masanori Kaihata, Daisuke Yanasawa, and Tomoyoshi Cuba. All these people have a 88.05% stake in the company. See also: Kayac releases mobile listening training app for English students in Japan Need more holiday sales? Japan’s Kayac has entire web services available for acquisition Japanese iPhone add-on enhances bland meals with BBQ smell On My Mobile: Kayac’s Kayo Matsubara

kayac_featuredimage

Japanese internet company Kayac‘s IPO application to the Tokyo Stock Exchange Mothers Market was approved today. The company has appointed Nomura Securities as an underwriter for this IPO and will be listed on 25 December.

Since its launch in 1998, Kayac has been introducing humorous web services and mobile apps to attract users. They were incorporated in 2005, and subsequently started introducing social gaming apps via DeNA‘s mobile gaming platform Mobage after it opened to third party developers in 2010. Their smash hit gaming titles include Bokura no Koshien, a mobile baseball gaming app with a social networking feature.

Kayac saw 2.8 billion yen (approximately $23.7 million) in revenue with an ordinary profit of 216 million yen ($1.8 million) and a net profit of 31 million yen ($262,000) last year. The company was named after their three co-founders: Masanori Kaihata, Daisuke Yanasawa, and Tomoyoshi Cuba. All these people have a 88.05% stake in the company.

See also:

Kayac releases mobile listening training app for English students in Japan

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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.  ↩

Need more holiday sales? Japan’s Kayac has entire web services available for acquisition

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We have previously featured Japan-based developer Kayac, the team behind the Dominos Japan Hatsune Miku augmented reality app among many other fun digital productions. Kayac was founded back in 2005, and has been known for its distinctive creative digital works ever since [1]. Kayac participates in April Fool’s day pranks just like other tech companies in Japan and around the world. But it also holds an interesting end-of-year sale, or ‘Nenmatsu-Sale’. During this sale, many of Kayac’s mobile apps and web services go on sale. It’s not just a discount on apps, but they are selling entire web services to anyone willing to acquire them. This year’s sale began on December 27th, with a total of 12 services are waiting to be acquired. One of the most expensive things up for sale is Kayac’s Q&A based music community service called ‘Ongakusuri’. It is available on iOS, Android, and on the web. Users on the site post their music-related questions, and other users can suggest music using Youtube videos. An example would be ‘Suggest songs that helps me with my long distance relationship’. Ongakusuri comes with a price tag of 15 million yen (or about $142,620). Other services on sale include…

Kayac-15thanniversary

We have previously featured Japan-based developer Kayac, the team behind the Dominos Japan Hatsune Miku augmented reality app among many other fun digital productions. Kayac was founded back in 2005, and has been known for its distinctive creative digital works ever since [1].

Kayac participates in April Fool’s day pranks just like other tech companies in Japan and around the world. But it also holds an interesting end-of-year sale, or ‘Nenmatsu-Sale’. During this sale, many of Kayac’s mobile apps and web services go on sale. It’s not just a discount on apps, but they are selling entire web services to anyone willing to acquire them. This year’s sale began on December 27th, with a total of 12 services are waiting to be acquired.

One of the most expensive things up for sale is Kayac’s Q&A based music community service called ‘Ongakusuri’. It is available on iOS, Android, and on the web. Users on the site post their music-related questions, and other users can suggest music using Youtube videos. An example would be ‘Suggest songs that helps me with my long distance relationship’. Ongakusuri comes with a price tag of 15 million yen (or about $142,620).

Ongakusuri

Other services on sale include Jsdo.it, a community for front-end engineers using HTML5, JavaScript, or CSS. This community, along with a social network for Flash creators called ‘Wonderfl’, can be purchased for 75 million yen. Fonta, a collaborative community where users upload their hand-written letters to create new fonts, is on sale for 300,000 yen.

Kayac also has nine smartphone apps up for sale for a more affordable price:

  • Music Party: an app that generates a playlist from playists on friend’s iPhones (1.5 million yen)
  • Lunch Chokin: lets you record and track your lunch spending (300,000 yen)
  • Calclock: a game where users try to complete a mathematical formula using the four digits on a clock (100,000 yen)

There are other unique but creepy (or ‘kimoi’ in Japanese) mobile apps such as Oshibori-Ningen and Kameleon Man on sale for 9,800 yen (or about $93). There is also a special offer where you can buy five Kimoi apps for 39,000 yen [2].

If you’re still looking to do some holiday shopping, Kayac’s list of products might be an interesting option.

Happy Holidays!


  1. The company celebrated its 15th anniversary this past August with a neat website.  ↩

  2. For this last price, the numbers 3 and 9 read ‘san-kyu’ in Japanese, which sounds like ‘thank you’.  ↩

Japanese iPhone add-on enhances bland meals with BBQ smell

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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…

hana-yakiniku-wide

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].


  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.  ↩

Japanese underwear Kickstarter project seeks your support. Don’t expect any support in return.

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One Japanese organization has a pretty awesome Kickstarter project going on right now, trying to put the ‘fun’ back in Fundoshi, a form of traditional Japanese underwear. The effort comes from the Japanese Fundoshi Association, teaming up with Kayac and ShareFun on an initiative to create Manga Fundoshi. The ‘Boom’ and ‘Thud’ designs come courtesy of Kayac, certainly fun underwear for anyone who considers their nether-regions worthy of such descriptors. For backers who give over $80, you’ll receive your Fundoshi award in a beautiful masu box. For more information, do check out the promotional video below. It’s worth watching not only because it tells you all you need to know about the project, but also because the presenter, Keiji Nakagawa, strangely changes his bow-tie multiple times [1]. You can’t help but root for this project to succeed, since it not only helps promote a bit of Japanese culture, but it’s also a healthier option than the briefs that most of us wear [2]. The ‘Manga Fundoshi’ project is seeking a modest sum of $4500 before its August 31st deadline, and has so far raised $860. If you’d like to get behind this effort, drop over to their Kickstarter page and…

manga-fundoshi-japanese-underwear

One Japanese organization has a pretty awesome Kickstarter project going on right now, trying to put the ‘fun’ back in Fundoshi, a form of traditional Japanese underwear. The effort comes from the Japanese Fundoshi Association, teaming up with Kayac and ShareFun on an initiative to create Manga Fundoshi.

The ‘Boom’ and ‘Thud’ designs come courtesy of Kayac, certainly fun underwear for anyone who considers their nether-regions worthy of such descriptors. For backers who give over $80, you’ll receive your Fundoshi award in a beautiful masu box.

fundoshi-masu-box

For more information, do check out the promotional video below. It’s worth watching not only because it tells you all you need to know about the project, but also because the presenter, Keiji Nakagawa, strangely changes his bow-tie multiple times [1].

You can’t help but root for this project to succeed, since it not only helps promote a bit of Japanese culture, but it’s also a healthier option than the briefs that most of us wear [2].

The ‘Manga Fundoshi’ project is seeking a modest sum of $4500 before its August 31st deadline, and has so far raised $860. If you’d like to get behind this effort, drop over to their Kickstarter page and pledge your support. (Big thanks to Tokyo Desu for pointing this one out.


  1. Bow-ties are cool.  ↩

  2. Of course, as a blogger my standard uniform is no pants at all. But that’s another story.  ↩

Domino’s Hatsune Miku app boosting pizza sales in Japan. We gave it a test run. [Video]

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Last week we mentioned a new augmented reality iPhone app from Domino’s Japan featuring virtual pop star Hatsune Miku. The app overlays a virtual song and dance performance right on top of your pizza box using the iPhone camera. Domino’s has reportedly even seen shortages of its new Hatsune Miku pizza boxes at some locations, with some stores reporting a 10x increase in sales. As we noted last week, Kamakura-based studio Kayac was involved in the planning and development of the application, and it certainly looks to be a successful campaign so far, in terms of publicity. Domino’s even has pink Hatsune Miku branded motorbikes for deliveries! In order to get a better idea of how the app works, I went ahead and ordered a pizza. These are the sacrifices we make for you, dear reader, so I hope you appreciate it! Check out Hatsune Miku’s augmented reality performance on pizza boxes in our video below.

dominos-pizza-hatsune-miku

Last week we mentioned a new augmented reality iPhone app from Domino’s Japan featuring virtual pop star Hatsune Miku. The app overlays a virtual song and dance performance right on top of your pizza box using the iPhone camera. Domino’s has reportedly even seen shortages of its new Hatsune Miku pizza boxes at some locations, with some stores reporting a 10x increase in sales.

As we noted last week, Kamakura-based studio Kayac was involved in the planning and development of the application, and it certainly looks to be a successful campaign so far, in terms of publicity. Domino’s even has pink Hatsune Miku branded motorbikes for deliveries!

In order to get a better idea of how the app works, I went ahead and ordered a pizza. These are the sacrifices we make for you, dear reader, so I hope you appreciate it!

Check out Hatsune Miku’s augmented reality performance on pizza boxes in our video below.

On My Mobile: Kayac’s Kayo Matsubara

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This is part of our ‘On My Mobile’ series (RSS), a modest attempt to better understand how folks in Japan use their smartphones. We recently featured the very fun Domino’s x Hatsune Miku smartphone application, which imposes an amazing augmented reality musical performance from a virtual pop star over top of your pizza. The folks behind that app are none other than Kamakura-based development studio Kayac, the same crew behind fun ideas like the Voice Driver Cup. I thought it might be interesting to see how some people at Kayac use their own mobile phones, and Kayo Matsubara was kind enough to oblige. As you can see, she’s a big fan of Facebook (as many Japanese people are these days). She tells me she’s also using the Withings Health Mate app a lot these days too, as well as the Moves app to track her physical activity. She also points to the Japanese service Sumally as one she enjoys very much. This is a unique encyclopedia of things (as my colleague Yukari describes) — comparable to Gdgt.com in some ways. Below you can see an interactive view of her iPhone’s homescreen, and you can mousehover to get a peek at…

This is part of our ‘On My Mobile’ series (RSS), a modest attempt to better understand how folks in Japan use their smartphones.


We recently featured the very fun Domino’s x Hatsune Miku smartphone application, which imposes an amazing augmented reality musical performance from a virtual pop star over top of your pizza. The folks behind that app are none other than Kamakura-based development studio Kayac, the same crew behind fun ideas like the Voice Driver Cup.

I thought it might be interesting to see how some people at Kayac use their own mobile phones, and Kayo Matsubara was kind enough to oblige. As you can see, she’s a big fan of Facebook (as many Japanese people are these days). She tells me she’s also using the Withings Health Mate app a lot these days too, as well as the Moves app to track her physical activity. She also points to the Japanese service Sumally as one she enjoys very much. This is a unique encyclopedia of things (as my colleague Yukari describes) — comparable to Gdgt.com in some ways.

Below you can see an interactive view of her iPhone’s homescreen, and you can mousehover to get a peek at the individual applications. Enjoy!