Residents of Japan may be shocked to learn they aretechnically violating the country's Radio Law by connecting computers, smartphones and tablets that have been purchased outside of Japan to domestic WiFi sites. Although legislation says such violations are punishable by up to a year in prison or a fine of up to ¥1 million, the regulation has never been strictly enforced. But the law is quite cle

Point of concern: Some 40 million people are members of Culture Convenience Club Co.'s T Card program. |BLOOMBERG The battle for point card supremacy in loyalty programs is hotting up across the country, causing consumers to express concern overprivacy issues as a growing number of companies get in on the act. Franchises have been running loyalty programs for more than a decade now, with Culture


Curation isn'tjust for museums anymore. There has been a recent uptick in the popularity of smartphone apps that customize news for users in Japan, and this customization is called kyurēshon. The idea of getting news via your mobile phonegoes back toNTT Docomo's i-mode service, which was launched in 1999. However, when smartphones arrived from overseas, the controlJapanese carriers traditional

Who holds the deeds togossip bulletin board2channel? Matome sites show the online buzz on Jim Watkins, otherwise known as Jim-san. | SATOKO KAWASAKI Massiveanonymous bulletin board2channel has played an important role on theJapanese Web for 15 years (mostly on the dark side). Riddled withgossip and rumors, the site has always keptits ownership vague to avoid legal conflict, but recently a l

'Kantai Collection': Social game of warships sets course for big money Casual online games based on military themes and with a kawaii (cute) twist are currently a surprise hit in Japan. Is this related to the recent rightward tilt in national politics, orjust part of Japan'screative desire to "cutify" everything.It's no secret that Japan loves cartoon characters, attaching them to any and every

There was a time when the only socialnetwork that mattered in Japan was Mixi, but these days, after years of stagnation,it is hardly heard of in daily conversation — being replaced in popularity by rivals such asGree, Mobage,Twitter, Facebook and most recentlyLine. Now, however, Mixi is adding marriage/dating businesses toits basket. Is thissimply a desperate move to regain relevance or a f

Over the last decade, people's behavior during their daily train ride has completely changed. In the past,Japanese were known to be avid readers of paperbacks (bunko) andmanga magazines, and would do so even on Tokyo's notoriously crowded trains. Now, however,it is rare to spot someone on the train who is not staring into their cellphone. A large amount of them are playing social games. And com


Japan expressesits love forApple and Steve Jobs, inmanga Seeing double: 'Steves' by Ume, the first episode of which has been translated into English, tells the tale ofApple's cofounders, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. | UMEApple Inc. has been always loved by people in Japan. Even duringits toughest years, in the 1990s, after cofounder Steve Jobs had been expelled and the company was almost de


If you search for the acronymMMD on Niconico or YouTube — the two most popular video-sharing sites in Japan — the resulting list will have over 100,000 anime videos, most of which have 3-D anime-style girl characters singing and dancing to electronic J-popmusic. What's surprising is that these (usually short) videos are notcreated by professional anime studios; they are mostly made by amateurs.



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