I used to work at Toyota, so I keep my eye on them for nostalgia's sake, less and less so these days.
Watanabe's recent moves to align Toyota with both Isuzu and Subaru are going to be important in the long run.
More experience with diesels will be important as well. Diesel has a horrible image in Japan whereas clean/new tech diesels are all over Europe.
Low-Key Chief Asserts Himself as a Leader at Toyota - New York Times
Profile of CLAMP in the NY Times.
Window Snyder is in Japan this week. She presented on Tuesday at the Email Security Conference and is attending PacSec. We lined up an interview for her with Nikkei ITPRO.
Masayoshi Son has a commentary in the WSJ in relation to his new efforts with Softbank Japan.
He couches his commentary in terms of new "competition" in the Japanese mobile market, and while I don't disagree, it's a tad disingenuous. Softbank is one of the largest companies in Japan.
Phone service is almost 70% more expensive than in the U.S. I wanted to bring competitive pricing to this market. This was not easy; two companies hold over four-fifths of the mobile-phone market share. Competing with these players is a big boy's game. Everyone is happy and profitable, and to make a change you must be passionate about price competition.
Masayoshi Son and Softbank ARE the big boys in Japan. Yes, NTT and KDDI are network owners, but Softbank-owned Yahoo! BB has shown that you don't need to own the network in order to dominate broadband in Japan.
Plus he calls out the fact that his ads feature Cameron Diaz. What's up with that?
I'm for competition, options, choice. I'm even a Softbank mobile customer. But in this commentary, Son makes himself and his company out to be the underdog in Japan. Those who live in Japan and are blanketed by Son and his properties (Yahoo! Japan, Yahoo! BB, Softbank and all their media properties) know that he is no underdog.
So awesome! Mozilla Taiwan volunteers spread the word about Firefox in downtown Taipei.
Ghost in the Shell: Solid State Society is finally out on DVD here in Japan. I was able to grab a copy at Tsutaya this weekend and enjoyed it.
Those of you who enjoyed the cyberpunk Ghost in the Shell TV series will enjoy this movie-length DVD but note Production I.G spend no time explaining the characters so you have to have seen the TV series or the movies in order to know the characters and personalities.
What I like about the GitS series is (besides the awesome artwork, vision of the future, and action scenes) that it deals directly with issues that are affecting present-day Japan, in this case the aging society of Japan and the low birth rate (plus it's an interesting view of the future of the Internet.) GitS is a great balance between plotline, character development, action, and ideas. Plus they have Tachikomas which are just cool!
A few other reviews with screenshots are available at cyberpunkreview, Japanator and not remotely belgium.
If you don't have enough of Mozilla Japan's mascot, Foxkeh, in your life, then you should download the new extension for Firefox which features Foxkeh all over the browser.
Another XULrunner project has launched- this time backed by the founders of Skype:
From a more technological point of view, we deliver TV to you using P2P and the client software itself is based on XULRunner. We use tons of open source software, and a lot of W3C technologies. We’ll target the same main platforms as XULRunner: Windows, Mac and Linux. It is pretty cool to see the Mozilla platform used in this new way, and it is quite an adventure being part of it.
also from the Venice Project blog:
We are in the process of launching a secure P2P streaming technology that allows content owners to bring TV-quality video and ease of use to a TV-sized audience mixed with all the wonders of the Internet. All content on The Venice platform is provided by content owners directly, and it's all protected with the highest standard of encryption and we are working within the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) framework to ensure that it complies with appropriate content protection and ownership regulations.
Welcome to The Venice Project
I don't like McInerney, and I don't particularly like this article, The Death of (the Idea of) the Upper East Side -- New York Magazine, except that it articulates my long-held fears that I won't ever live in Manhattan again.
This MetaFilter quote struck home with me:
"Manhattan is the new Upper East Side; Park Slope is the new Village; Queens is the new Brooklyn; and the Bronx is the new Queens."
Seth Scheisel's review of the Sony PS3 in the NY Times has a bunch of wince-inducing quotes.
Howard Stringer, you have a problem. Your company’s new video game system just isn’t that great.
...
Sony blithely insisted that the PS3 would leapfrog all competition to deliver an unsurpassed level of fun.Put bluntly, Sony has failed to deliver on that promise.
...
It falls far short, however, of providing the world’s most engaging overall entertainment experience. There is a big difference, and Sony seems to have confused one for the other.
...
the whole PlayStation 3 system is surprisingly clunky to use and simply does not provide many basic functions that users have come to expect, especially online.
A Weekend Full of Quality Time With PlayStation 3 - New York Times
Socialtext press conference in Warcraft FTW!
Ross Mayfield's Weblog: Press Conference in World of Warcraft
Kotaku has an incredible (in terms of the reportage and the video footage) post up about the launch of the Sony PS3 in Tokyo. One of the people in line, a foreigner in Japan, reported that the first 20 people in line were either Japanese homeless paid by the yakuza or Chinese nationals who were paid to stand in line as their PS3s were then taken away to be sold on the grey market overseas. The reporter, a Dirk Benedict, does not fault the people who received money to stand in line, he faults both the retailer, Bic Camera, for not properly preparing for the situation, and Sony for not producing enough units and thus creating this intense demand.
This is the true face of the PlayStation 3 debut in Japan. Hardcore gamers are not here waiting in line overnight, buying a first-run PS3, and running home to play some good old next-gen gaming. Rather, opportunistic Japanese businessmen have the largest presence, hiring poor Chinese men and women to wait in line for a PS3, one which will later be sold on web auctions to wealthy gamers around the world for exorbitant amounts of money.
While this kind of news may not make the mainstream media in Japan, it will get back to Sony as Sony executives certainly read Kotaku.
This is all a few months old but Marxy brings up a reported connection between the Japan Times and Soka Gakkai.
Adamu translates the Japanese blog that is bringing up these issues again.
Interesting...
YRLY!
awesomeness
Lazyweb request:
Hi everyone! I've got a business trip to San Francisco and will be taking my team from Japan with me into the City for Sunday afternoon.
I've never lived in SF, and whenever I go, it's either for business or for a personal quest (deep house records on Haight or motorcycle accessories elsewhere) so I have no idea what to do as a tourist or first-timer.
Union Square? Pier 39? Any thoughts would be appreciated.
I don't care for Samantha Thavasa as a brand, but they are laser-focused on their market. Who loses out to Samantha Thavasa? Coach. Gucci. LVMH. Other European luxury brands too, but I think Coach takes the biggest hit. Dunno which Japanese domestic brand lost out due to ST....
Ms. Mortimer, whose blond curls and patrician looks have made her a darling of designers and the fashion press, recently agreed to create a line of handbags for the Japanese accessories brand Samantha Thavasa. Like Ms. Burch, she created a logo out of her initials. The “Samantha Thavasa by Tinsley Mortimer” line will be introduced at a new boutique on Madison Avenue on Friday.Ms. Mortimer is well aware that her appearance — not just her beauty but her signature hairstyle and taste in clothes — is key to her appeal to society photographers, a kind of brand in itself. Invited to a dinner by Valentino not long ago, she awaited a house call from her hairstylist in her apartment. “About two years ago I started curling my hair and wearing it pinned to the side,” she said. “I became associated with that and with a certain kind of overly girly style: baby-doll dresses, pouf skirts and Mary Janes. Right now my hair is straight. I have to get it curled so I can leave the house.”
Good profile of Joi.
He's not a communist. :)
Master of multitasking revels in 'cyber-elite' life [japantimes.co.jp]
Adamu of mutantfrog has uncovered the 21% of Japanese politicians who have RSS feeds. Awesome work Adamu!
Mutantfrog Travelogue � Blog Archive � RSS Feeds of Diet Members’ web sites, aggregated
