Fridge door opens both ways – right and left

There must be demand in Japan for fridges with doors opening both sides - right and left.

Notice the cheap price - the ones pictured above are is the range of $600 - $700.

Bose systems in public areas

The Yurakucho subway line in Tokyo is using "Bose" systems for station announcements.
Even though "Bose" is expensive, I've seen them often used in public areas in Japan.

Uniqlo Rocks!

Uniqlo rocks not only when it comes to its clothing design / quality / price but also its website and estore.

Check out the latest Uniqlo Calendar, featuring some great soft focused / lomographic moving pictures from around Japan.

http://www.uniqlo.com/calendar/

ICANN in for big money early next year

ICANN is in for big money early next year.

With the introduction of "your own name" in place of domain extensions such as .com, .org, etc. ICANN is in for big money.
The price for such domain will be $185,000 and ICANN is expecting 300-500 applications in the first quarter next year.

It is still unclear to me how will this works in Japan where regulations require companies to use a ".co.jp" domain name.

Will "google.co.jp" become "jp.google"?

http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE5576DM20090609

Pandemic drill using cell-phones.

Pandemic drill using cell-phones.

The Japanese government and the cellphone carrier "Softbank" plan an experiment to limit a virtual pandemic using cell-phones equipped with GPS.

http://www.japantoday.com/category/technology/view/japan-explores-using-cell-phones-to-stop-pandemics

Palm "Pre" key features on Toshiba "Biblio"?

Palm "Pre" – the iPhone killer wannabe – was launched on June the 6th in the US (http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE5550Y120090607).

It seems the key features on "Pre" - Touchscreen and Full Keyboard - are already available in Japan on Toshiba "Biblio" (http://gigazine.net/index.php?/news/comments/20090525_biblio/)

Swine Flu after Golden Week

With the end of the Golden Week and many people returning from traveling abroad, the possibility of the swine flu spreading in Japan is getting higher.

I expect many people will wear face masks in the trains (a common thing in Japan during the winter season) starting on Monday.
I’ve even heard rumors of some stores running out of face masks, but we’ve got ours in different styles - "3D Mask", "Multi-Masks", "For Kids" (Disney), etc. – and ready to protect ourselves against the flu.

If you travel to Japan in the next week or so, do what the locals do: wear a mask, and don’t forget to wash your hands often!

IT & Marketing Expo - Tokyo Big Site, May 13-15

Don’t miss the IT & Marketing Expo - next week at Tokyo Big Site!

A visit to the outstanding Expo facility that is Tokyo Big Site is always exciting - and next week there is an extra reason to go. The following IT & Marketing shows will be held under one roof between May 13 and 15:

- 14th DATA WAREHOUSE & CRM EXPO
http://www.dwh-crm.jp/en/

- 12th EMBEDDED SYSTEMS EXPO
http://www.esec.jp/en/

- 11th DATA STORAGE EXPO
http://www.dse-expo.jp/en/

- 6th INFORMATION SECURITY EXPO
http://www.ist-expo.jp/en/

- 4th RFID SOLUTIONS EXPO
http://www.ridex.jp/en/

- 3rd DIRECT MARKETING EXPO
http://www.dme-expo.jp/en/

- 3rd Web2.0 MARKETING FAIR
http://www.web20-expo.jp/en/

- 1st GREEN IT EXPO JAPAN
http://www.grix-expo.jp/en/

I've visited the show last year and I highly recommend it if you are interested in IT and / or Marketing.

Check out the on-line brochure (PDF) April 09 – March 10 Event Calendar at Tokyo Big Site:
http://www.bigsight.jp/download/public/eve_cal0904e.pdf

Japanese Minimalism Design does not apply to Web Sites

  

I have written a while ago a short comment about the Japanese Minimal approach when it comes to Interior Design. This however doesn’t seem to apply as well to Web Sites or Advertising Design in Japan.

Take "TOYS R US" for example, and compare between the US and the Japanese site.
- The US based www.toysrus.com is lighter with a clear blue-ish theme.
- The Japan based www.toysrus.co.jp is heavier with a mix of red-blue-orange-pink-and -green theme.

They both look fantastic! And they were designed keeping in mind the different audience.

If you are an International Company and want to enter the Japanese market, be prepared to establish your on-line presence in a heavier style than back home, including flash, many colors and sparkles.

Japanese Companies don't Use "Home Page" anymore

Compared with a few years ago, I’ve noticed that Japanese Companies don’t use anymore the term Ho-mu Pe-ji (Home Page) – written in Japanese as in the picture above – when referring to their Web Sites.
I say Amen to that!

I believe, the term Home Page was popular around '96 – '98, when most of us used to have our own personal Home Page, usually hosted on now defunct GeoCities.

I can still visualize mine – it had a cool design with a pencil and paper-like background. It won the admiration of my classmates. Ha!