Japan Pulse

A cafe in Roppingi Hills urges passersby to follow its Twitter account: @hillscafespace

A year ago, Japan made up only 0.7 percent of Twitter’s global population. Over the course of 2009, however, estimates show the number of users in Japan grew by six to 10 times, with the current number standing somewhere around 4.5 million people. Japanese is now the second most-used language on the network after English – some 14% of of the 50 million tweets per day worldwide are in Japanese.

Naturally, much of that is the usual chitchat and link-sharing, but Japanese corporations and organizations are playing with the potential for word-of-mouth exposure, PR and retail growth. For smaller companies, Twitter allows them to bypass traditional channels and hawk their wares directly to consumers. The majors are using the micoblogging format to widen their reach and project a friendlier, more casual image.

Although Asian Fortune 100 companies lag behind the U.S. and Europe in sheer numbers of corporate Twitter accounts, those that are tweeting average more followers per account. And hundreds of Japanese companies are jumping on the bandwagon.

Many are taking tsubuyaku, the Japanese verb of choice for tweeting, rather literally. The word means mutter or murmer, and that is just what many seem to be doing, often to tens of thousands of followers.  While some big-name retailers, such as Muji, are announcing Twitter-only sales, others seem to be aiming simply to foster camaraderie and boost engagement through the so-called “casual tweet.” Udon chain Katokichi sends out personalized replies to messages about the noodle dish. Hamburger chain Mos Burger has about 30,000 followers on Twitter, but with a large portion of its posts commenting on the weather and the time of day, it’s not exactly pushing the hard sell. Tsutaya predictably sends followers  movie recommendations, but mixes those with chatter and quickie film quizzes, like “What was the name of the Jedi weapon in the Star Wars movies?”  Some restaurants, like are giving discounts to customers who tweet about their meal there on a sliding scale based on the number of followers the tweeter has.

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The links to legendary shogun Ieyasu Tokugawa

A new visual search tool called Hitotsunagi (Connecting People), developed by NTT Resonant, allows users to explore the relationships between Japanese celebrities and historical figures. Launched this week on Goo Labo (Goo Labs), an offshoot of portal site Goo, the tool makes use of a rich indexing technique developed by NTT Cyberspace Laboratory that extracts contextual relationships based on online data found in the news and blog entries.

A search on a famous name produces a bubble at the center of the screen around which a number of smaller bubbles pop up, linked to the central bubble; tags displays the nature of the surrounding connections. Clicking on one of the related people moves them into the focus of a new search.

The tool, which resembles Google’s Wonderwheel,  is impressively smooth and swift, though the results of our searches were a bit hit and miss. While historical figures like Ieyasu Tokugawa brought up images of paintings, searches for well-known, contemporary names such as Ryuichi Sakamoto came up blank. And according to Hitotsunagi, actor Shun Shioya, born in 1982, is the “father” of actress Misako Renbutsu, born in 1991. Oops.

Glitches aside, Hitotsunagi should be rather educational for Japanophiles wanting to put things quickly into perspective. NTT Resonant is keen on pushing the interface envelope, and it is indeed a fun tool to play with, but the devil in me would love to see relationship categories beyond family members and friends, such as rivals and ex-lovers, just to spice things up a bit.

The service will be available until Dec. 31, 2010, and currently only searches Japanese text. One wonders if the tool could be extended to the rest of the word. It would be an excellent global manifestation of Stanley Milgram’s Small World Experiment.

The QR code is breaking out of its box both physically and virtually as an increasing number of innovative new formats and uses are coming onto the scene. Take creative agency Set Japan, who have dreamed up some groovy artwork that incorporates the code itself. Its recent Frisk mints video a QR code is constructed by hand out of the tiny round mints themselves, demonstrating how codes can be displayed in 3-D.

Tokyo got its first QR code building in Tachikawa last December. Large black-and-white blocks displayed  in the building’s windows form a large code that’s linked to a Web site. That’s cool in itself, but the creators of the N Building concept, Teradadesign and Qosmo, have also integrated augmented reality to add yet another layer of information. With a special iPhone app, users can watch real-time tweets written by people inside the building, view information about the stores inside and download discount coupons.

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• 100% of people surveyed by Goo Research said they did not want a line on their palm indicating a tendency toward financial troubles.
• 75% of people surveyed say that they have reserved hotel rooms online; 75% of those have had problems booking online.
• 75% of survey respondents said they’re concerned about the personal information that can be gained from their garbage.
• 69% of people surveyed want to see more change in the sumo world.
• 65% of people use hand disinfectants.
• 60% of people are not interested in the latest trend of remaking or customizing their old clothes.
• 58% of people surveyed don’t want to borrow money. 7% thinks loans are useful.
• 58% of Onagawa, Miyagi Pref., residents are opposed to a nuclear power plant.
• 57% of people surveyed realize they’re going bald, but only 7% tried hair-growth products.
• 56% of housewives want to cut down on food expenses, much lower than last year’s 85%.
• 55% of people say they use almost the same password for different accounts.
• 39% of surveyed PC users purchased Windows 7, while 54% don’t feel the need to buy it.

We all imagine that the first country to embrace domestic humanoid robots en masse is going to be Japan. But which robot is going to be the first to capture the public’s imagination enough to become an indispensible household item? Fujisoft is pinning its hopes on the new humanoid robot named Palro, which was showcased this week.

Palro has two things going for it. Standing at a diminutive 39.8 cm in height and speaking in a helium-pitched voice, it’s unthreatening and cute. Perhaps the bigger plus, though, is that Palro can be programmed via an open source Ubuntu operating system.  Consumers can not only download new functions (for example, a dance program), but they can also create their own C++ programs  so its functionality isn’t limited to the original program.

Palro is equipped with moving arms and legs, a 3-megapixel camera, Wi-Fi capability and microphones. The tricks it performed at Fujisoft’s recent demo included acting on voice commands, reading out news and weather reports, and dancing. Palro will also be able to interact with household devices such as televisions or cameras. Nifty, yes, but crucial?

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The news that Amazon Japan will be offering the first Japanese manga on Kindle will be welcomed by a small cadre of dedicated e-reader fans. So what took so long? Part of the problem is that the Kindle’s default font only supports Latin-based letters so that device owners either have to use a hack to view Japanese characters or be able to read English. As the text in manga is displayed as an image, this ought to eliminate one problem, though users will still have to negotiate English menus to buy a title and be satisfied with monochromatic pictures.

So why isn’t Amazon too bothered with tailoring their device to suit the local market? Perhaps an answer to that question can be found in 2004 when Sony introduced LIBRIe, their first e-reader for the Japanese market. ITmedia News’ article explains that the product failed to spark the imagination of the Japanese public, who despite enjoying reading titles from their mobile phones, felt the technology wasn’t particularly aesthetically pleasing.

Due to poor sales, the Sony e-reader was withdrawn from the Japanese market in 2007, clearing the way for Amazon and other players. Despite this, in the U.K. and U.S., Sony’s e-readers are proving themselves strong competitors against the Kindle, both in terms of price and applications.

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• 98% of surveyed parents have at least heard of Internet filtering, though only 32.8% have actually used it.
• 96% of 2channel users view the site from home.
• 96% of Aichi Prefecture residents feel uneasy about food safety, up 12 percent from 2007.
• 74% of nationwide survey respondents have not secured large furniture or appliances in preparation of earthquakes.
• 74% of salarymen accept the “inevitability” of getting fired in light of the current recession.
• 69% of Internet users say they subscribe to shopping-related “mail magazines” (newsletters), followed by travel/leisure-related mail.
• 66% of gamers aged between 25 and 34 said “Dragon Quest” is the game title they immediately associate with the RPG genre.
• 63% of Japanese put a nameplate outside their places of residence.
• 55% of survey respondents say they don’t go see movies at theaters because it’s a hassle.
• 42% of office ladies surveyed in Tokyo said they’ve felt that they are taking the masculine role in relationships.
• 42％ of survey respondents created their New Year’s greeting cards on computers.
• 39% of surveyed office workers think cost-cutting measures have had an adverse affect on motivation.
• 34% of women say they don’t want a lover who is in debt.
• 33% of game users bought 5-9 video games last year.
• 32% of people surveyed nationwide are not paying into a pension plan.
• 27% of surveyed salarymen believe are optimistic about their company’s future; 24.2% are pessimistic.
• 25% of people shopping in department food sections are attracted to the smell of burning meat, followed by bread and curry.

The hype surrounding augmented reality (AR) technology is often dwarfed by coverage of 3D television,  but that may change once both are put into practice on a broad scale. AR could prove to change lives more profoundly, not only by locating subway stations or inviting Robert Downey Jr. into your cubicle, but also by providing information about anything or anyone at which you point your device.

The Sekai Camera iPhone app grabbed headlines in Japan last year, and several new Japanese applications may indicate what to expect in the coming decade. The Red Cross is using face-recognition software and anime hair to attract blood donors in Akihabara, and the pin@clip application is now being tested in Shibuya, allowing iPhone users to get real-time information on shopping and entertainment options in the buildings that users pass by.

Continue reading about augmented reality in Japan →