Apple Launches “Summer of Music” in Japan

On August 9th, 2006, in Tokyo, Apple® launched the “Summer of Music” with free music from iTunes®, collectible iTunes Cards and exclusive live performances at Apple Retail Stores. All summer long, iTunes is offering free music, music videos and collectible iTunes Cards featuring free downloads from the hottest artists in Japan, including Ken Ishii, Simon Le Bon, Hifana, and the world premiere of a brand new video from Beck. Music fans at Summer Sonic received collectible iTunes Cards with free music downloads on August 12th in Tokyo and August 13th in Osaka. Apple’s seven retail stores in Japan are holding in-store performances with favorite local and international artists, including upcoming performances by PE’Z and She Wants Revenge.

**Reference: Apple.com

Mixi’s “Japanese MySpace” Heads for IPO

Mixi, the social networking site that dominates the market in Japan, headed for an initial public offering on September 14th, 2006. With only 5 million members, it doesn’t stack up against its US counterparts like Myspace, but its 7 billion monthly page views place it third in the Japanese market behind Yahoo and Google. What’s more, Mixi has grown fivefold over the past year. Mixi’s shares will likely sell for $13,300 each, with a market capitalization of $940 million. But since that valuation is 104 times bigger than the company’s forecasted earnings for the fiscal year ending March 2007, it seems that Mixi is ridiculously overhyped.

As mentioned previously on Mashable, Mixi is an invite-only network with some neat features - product reviews, blogging, photo hosting and a MySpace Music clone that lets you buy tracks from iTunes. However, MySpace and Windows Live Spaces are set to target Japan soon, while Korean phenomenon Cyworld recently launched there, too. In fact, Cyworld is also being hyped right now, with expansion into Vietnam and Germany planned this year. Meanwhile, Chinese social network WangYou is vying to be the “Chinese MySpace” - I suspect the cultural differences and language barriers may give these networks a boost in their home countries.

**Reference: 9/11/2006 Mashable.com

The Leading Cell Phone Comic Industry

It is now outdated to get excited over Japanese cell phones containing internet, camera, and credit card charging capabilities. Nowadays, Japanese cell phones are being utilized by consumers to read their favorite comics on the small screen. The carriers’ system allowing consumers to download as many comics they wish at a flat rate boosted profits drastically. The major Japanese cell phone carriers “au by KDDI”, “Vodafone”, and “NTT DoCoMo” began the service in August 2004. It took downloads ten months in the first year to surpass the one million mark, but now they exceed five million a month.

Furthermore, a cell phone friendly site called “Mahou No I-land”, began a business selling cell phone novels. The homepage allows users to create their own cell phone homepage for free and its membership currently exceeds 4.8 million. Viewers are capable of choosing their preferred genres and awards are given to authors of the most popular cell phone novels. Some cell phone novels were published after their success on this site are: “Tenshi ga Kureta Mono” by Chaco, “Mata Aitakute” by Sinka and “Teddy Bear” by Bea-Hime.

**Reference: 8/18/2006 Nikkan Kougyo Shimbun, 9/13/2006 Nikkei Sangyo Shimbun

Tokyo Girls Collection 2006 Autumn/ Winter!!

Xavel, the company that runs Japan’s largest cellular fashion site (girlswalker.com), recently held the Tokyo Girls Collection 2006 Autumn/ Winter fashion festival. Presenting major Japanese brands that offer an alternative to famous worldwide labels, the show gave guests a preview of the latest collections before they hit the stores. Guests could even buy the clothes they saw on the runway using their cellular phones, a new innovation in both e-commerce and fashion shows.

This is the 3rd time Xavel has presented the Tokyo Girls Collection in conjunction with girlswalker.com with the theme “a fashion fiesta aiming for 10,000 buyers.” Girlswalker.com is a cellular phone site that offers information on fashion and entertainment, a mail magazine, rankings, prizes, and fortune-telling, all aimed at young women. Hugely popular, the site receives 3 to 3.5 million hits a day. In addition to the fashion show, musicians presented the audience with their new songs in a mini-concert. The fusion of fashion and music drew a lot of enthusiasm from attendees. Idols and comedians participating in the event as special guests also helped hype the crowd.

**Reference: The Hollywood Reporter 3/28/06

Geek Odyssey

For decades, Akihabara has been a popular and sprawling shopping district in downtown Tokyo for buying all things electric, from Christmas lights to floor fans, at discount prices. In the heady days of the postwar economic boom, Akihabara also became a showcase for the washing machines, televisions and other glitzy consumer products pouring out of Japanese factories - products that were the electric dreams of the nation’s burgeoning middle class.

Today, the streets of Akihabara are as packed as in days of old, but computers and related electronics have edged out large appliances in the battle for shelf space. Scattered among the stores of major retailers -Llaox, Yamagiwa, Ishimaru and Sofmap- are the dozens of shops catering to fans of games, anime and other Japanese pop-culture products, from the mainstream to the adult content.

Among the shoppers are the otaku, or the geeks, who obsess over everything from Gundam figures to adult content anime. Last year, the Akihabara otaku became a media sensation with the release of “Train Man,” a hit romantic drama about a socially inept otaku who falls in love with a woman he meets on a computer train simulation - and woos with the help of his online pals. Supposedly based on a true story, the “real” otaku has yet to come forward.

Digital Hollywood Entertainment in Tokyo has also created a Media Site called “Akiba Keizai Shimbun” (http://akiba.keizai.biz) to promote the otaku spirit. Covering the latest trends from animation to computer-related employment, this site will be updated everyday. Digital Hollywood Entertainment is expecting more than a million viewers each month.

**Reference: 10/16/2006-10/22/2006 Variety Magazine, 8/24/2006 Keizai Sangyo Shimbun

Disney and Anime Production

Toei Animation and Walt Disney Co. will co-produce an animated series to broadcast in 80 different countries through Disney-owned CATV (Cable TV). They will also be working together on DVD distribution. The number of Japanese anime companies forming a joint –ventures with international broadcasting corporations is increasing. Disney’s move may further impel other companies in the industry. The anime these two studios plan to air is a combination of live action and CG called “Robodies.” The animated shorts will be Toei Animation’s first series that utilizes CG animation and will reach an audience of over 280 million homes.

**Reference: 8/2006 Nihon Keizai Shimbun

Japan’s B.O. Bounty

“Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest” topped 10 billion yen ($85 million) in Japan on Oct. 25, its 95th day of release, to become the country’s box office leader, according to distributor Buena Vista. The Japanese market has now produced at least one 10+ billion yen picture every year since Hayao Miyazaki’s “Spirited Away” started the streak in 2001. In other Japanese B.O. news, the comedy “Kisarazu Cat’s Eye: Sayonara Game” topped the weekend B.O. chart at $2.56 million following its Thursday debut on 244 screens.

**Reference: Animation Insider

Digital Content Industry Grows 11.8%

Digital Content Association of Japan (DCAj) issued the “Digital Content White Paper 2006” (direct translation) in August covering the market size of the digital content and media content industries in Japan.

According to the white paper, the digital content market size in 2005 was 2.52 trillion yen. This is an 11.8% increase over a market size of 2.26 trillion yen in 2004. An estimate of size broken down by category puts profits from still images at 708.8 billion yen, a 30.4% increase from last year. Profits from music increased 3.1% to 786.4 billion yen, and profits from games increased 8.8% to 495 billion yen. Books, pictures and the text generated 537.3 billion yen in profits, a 7.4% increase.

Fukushima from DCAj’s Information & Research Division claims that, "Content circulating on the Internet and in the portable phone market present a tremendous amount of business opportunities.” Market size for this year is estimated to increase 14.3% to 2.89 trillion yen.

**Reference: 8/11/2006 Nikkei Net

GPS and Cell Phones!

Services offered by combining global positioning systems (GPS) and portable telephones have increased. GPS information gathering systems now allow cell phone users to message one another, gather information, and use wildly popular social networking services (SNS) to exchange user created content based on their location. In a related story, KDDI and an SNS operating company launched a cell phone-only SNS service called “EZ Gree” on October 16th. The new system allows consumers to converse using their cell-phone camera for real-time video chat, while utilizing GPS locations. All members of EZ Gree are capable of joining in on the networking and there is no membership fee.

**Reference: 5/5/2006 Variety Magazine