The most gold-medal-expected Japanese Olympic athlete is by far the gymnast Kohei Uchimura.
Couple of days ago, one of the TV programme of NHK sciencifically analyzed the strength of Kohei Uchimura, and found that he can see the floor, or ceiling and get to know where his body is when he jumps and turns his body in a quite high speed, which barely can't be done by even the top gymnast.
His strength were forged when he was a little boy and played tranpolin.
He says he has no interest in winning the gold medal as individual. It's for granted.
He only has a strong desire to win gold medal as a team of Japan.
Way out of ordinal. It's very interesting to see how he plays at London Olympic.
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
iPhone's influence on Mobile Carriers in Japan
There are three mega mobile carriers in Japan, which are NTTDocomo, Softbank and KDDI known as brand name of Au.
Now, Docomo is the only mobile phone carrier which does not have a service line-up of iPhone.
Docomo was once used to be the most advanced mobile phone company, developing i-Mode, Wallet mobile etc.
But during this 6 months of 2012, as many as 580,000 users moved to other mobile carriers,
KDDI increased its subscriber by 348,000 and Softbank increased 240,000 subscribers.
Net new incremental subscribers of each operator during above period were;
Softbank: 1,886,000 subscribers.
KDDI : 1,370,000 subscribers
Docomo: 670,000 subscribers.
As these figures show, Docomo is struggling to increase subscribers.
At a shareholder meeting of Docomo held on last June, many severe questions were thrown to then CEO, Mr. Yamada , asking if there is any chance for Docomo to sell iPhone device?
Yamada answered clearly that at this moment, Docomo will not sell iPhone device because Apple force mobile carrier to make a commitment to sell half of new mobile device with iPhone, which is apparently difficult for Docomo to make such a commitment.
But if this requirement from APPLE inc was accepted by other two major mobile carriers, it means that iPhone will be sold quite a lot during coming years.
One of Docomo shareholders requested at the shareholder meeting that;
'Docomo's TV commercial is quite difficult to understand and it doesn't appeal to anybody. Please create more attractive TV commercials than the ones of Softbank,'.
Series of Softbank's TV commercials always rated high by many generations, casting a white dog as a head of Shirato family. Softbank successfully inserted their campaign message within the daily communications among Shirato family members.
Then-CEO, Yamada admitted that 'Oh, we can't beat a dog.'.
2008 ver for the first introduction of iPhone
Sunday, July 8, 2012
Tokyo Univ. invented a GOD's Hand
Tokyo univ. invented a God hand that never loose at rock-paper-scissor game.
This robot arm win with 100% accuracy.
As shown in the video clip, the robot hand just determine and show its rock, paper, scissor that should win 100% just right after human showed rock, paper scissor. During this entire process, it only takes 1 millisecond. So human's eye can barely recognize that the robot arm shows its hand just right after you show your hand.
Professor Ishikaw told;
'We wanted to share the technology behind this. To develop such a ultra-second video camera, it took 20 years, and for such a quick motion control of the robot hand, it took 10 years respectively.'
It really depends who thinks worth to develop with a decade, so I don't make my comment.
But this video clip gives us a good notion, that is;
A robot can beat human-beings in a way that may conceived as fair fight due to the lack of enough capability of human-beings' natural organs, but the truth is exactly just a phony fight where a robot wins 100%.
This robot arm win with 100% accuracy.
As shown in the video clip, the robot hand just determine and show its rock, paper, scissor that should win 100% just right after human showed rock, paper scissor. During this entire process, it only takes 1 millisecond. So human's eye can barely recognize that the robot arm shows its hand just right after you show your hand.
Professor Ishikaw told;
'We wanted to share the technology behind this. To develop such a ultra-second video camera, it took 20 years, and for such a quick motion control of the robot hand, it took 10 years respectively.'
It really depends who thinks worth to develop with a decade, so I don't make my comment.
But this video clip gives us a good notion, that is;
A robot can beat human-beings in a way that may conceived as fair fight due to the lack of enough capability of human-beings' natural organs, but the truth is exactly just a phony fight where a robot wins 100%.
Sweets at Covenient Store
There are three major convenience chain stores in Japan, which are Seven Eleven, Lawson and FamiliMart. Their competition is so severe that they always improve their product line up to attract more customers to come to their stores.
And Sweets (or desserts) is the one of the area that differentiates themselves from others.
Lawson went a head from others by introducing 'Premium Cake Roll' in its line-up. This Premium Roll Cake was sold more than 100 million during 18 months.
'Premium Roll Cake(Swiss Roll)''
JPY 150
*The quality of the cream gets its reputation
According to the net survey, 40.4% answered that the Seven Eleven is the most frequent convenience store the they use daily, followed by the 25% goes to Lawson and 20% to FamiliMart.
But when it comes to the sweets, 22% out of 40.4% Seven Eleven goers answered that Lawson is the best to buy sweets.
In order to change this situation, now Seven Eleven completely changed the quality of the sweets and conducting an intensive campaign since May 2012.
So, don't underestimate the sweets that you can buy at a convenience store.
I am sure that you will be able to find your favorite one.
And Sweets (or desserts) is the one of the area that differentiates themselves from others.
Lawson went a head from others by introducing 'Premium Cake Roll' in its line-up. This Premium Roll Cake was sold more than 100 million during 18 months.
JPY 150
*The quality of the cream gets its reputation
According to the net survey, 40.4% answered that the Seven Eleven is the most frequent convenience store the they use daily, followed by the 25% goes to Lawson and 20% to FamiliMart.
But when it comes to the sweets, 22% out of 40.4% Seven Eleven goers answered that Lawson is the best to buy sweets.
In order to change this situation, now Seven Eleven completely changed the quality of the sweets and conducting an intensive campaign since May 2012.
Thanks to such competition, the quality of the sweets that you can buy at a convenience store is significantly improved, and same as the one that you can buy at a famous confessionary chain store.
So, don't underestimate the sweets that you can buy at a convenience store.
I am sure that you will be able to find your favorite one.
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Smart Phone Appli 'Line' is ready to go into SNS market
'Line' is the smart phone application which has been downloaded by 20million users in Japan and 45 million worldwide so far since its launch on June 2011.
This application is developed by NHN Japan, which is originally a Korean company and built its subsidiary in Japan by acquiring many famous internet startup companies in Japan, called Livedoor etc.
Now, Line is designed, developed by a team member in Japan who used to work in an acquired company,
Like Skype, the software originally was developed to provide free phone call and chat functions among the users who installed the software.
So why could they succeed despite of the late entry to the market after the domination by Skype?
According to one of the core development member, Mr. Atsushi Masuda, Chief strategy and marketing officer, reminds one episode which happened right after they started developing the software.
'When we started to develop the software, one of the software developer came and told us that such software that NHN Japan were about to develop would have no market value, because so many software like Skpe, has been out there so many years.
Then I convinced that this is the absolute chance for us, because at a time when so many software companies release various smartphone applications at any time, the software that enables users to make a free phone call is not the focused area of many software companies. And they really did not look into the reasons why general users, such as elderly people or high school students who don't have much IT knowledge, won't use Skype.'
So at a design phase, they focused on how easily the software can be set up by the users who don't know the very basic IT term like IP address etc.
(their basic ID to identify the user is ordinal telephone number, that way everyone can understand its ID without any IT knowledge, while Skype requires some basic knowledge to be set up.)
It took just only one month for the development team from planning phase until they actually released the software. This speed is also unusual for many of the Japanese software companies. Now many articles were issued by various IT media publishers, to explain how the development team worked to make such short-term release possible.
Today, NHN Japan announced the functions that will be released very soon to make line more like a communication platform and that will enable Line to go to SNS market.
This application is developed by NHN Japan, which is originally a Korean company and built its subsidiary in Japan by acquiring many famous internet startup companies in Japan, called Livedoor etc.
Now, Line is designed, developed by a team member in Japan who used to work in an acquired company,
Like Skype, the software originally was developed to provide free phone call and chat functions among the users who installed the software.
So why could they succeed despite of the late entry to the market after the domination by Skype?
According to one of the core development member, Mr. Atsushi Masuda, Chief strategy and marketing officer, reminds one episode which happened right after they started developing the software.
'When we started to develop the software, one of the software developer came and told us that such software that NHN Japan were about to develop would have no market value, because so many software like Skpe, has been out there so many years.
Then I convinced that this is the absolute chance for us, because at a time when so many software companies release various smartphone applications at any time, the software that enables users to make a free phone call is not the focused area of many software companies. And they really did not look into the reasons why general users, such as elderly people or high school students who don't have much IT knowledge, won't use Skype.'
So at a design phase, they focused on how easily the software can be set up by the users who don't know the very basic IT term like IP address etc.
(their basic ID to identify the user is ordinal telephone number, that way everyone can understand its ID without any IT knowledge, while Skype requires some basic knowledge to be set up.)
It took just only one month for the development team from planning phase until they actually released the software. This speed is also unusual for many of the Japanese software companies. Now many articles were issued by various IT media publishers, to explain how the development team worked to make such short-term release possible.
Today, NHN Japan announced the functions that will be released very soon to make line more like a communication platform and that will enable Line to go to SNS market.
Now, not many smart phone applications developed in Japan could become a well-sold global product. So, the success of this software gets the attention as a flagship software which aims at a global market from its starters.
Sunday, July 1, 2012
Will the lawmaker Ozawa and his group member leave DPJ?
Given the title of this blog 'Japan Now', I have to describe recent politic scene in Japan.
As many who live in Japan, not only Japanese citizens but also foreigners or visitors in Japan now are aware of, the bills to increase comsumption tax ratio from current 5% to 8% in 2014 and by 10% in 2015, has passed the lower house.
The tricky part of the vote by lawmakers to pass this bill was, the legistration was passed by the alignment with current ruling party DPJ (Democratic Party of Japan) and former ruling party LDP (Liberty and Decomcatic Party), although there came 54 against-vote from current DPL.
This 54 lawmakers of the lower house was led by Mr. Ichiro Ozawa, who has been the most influential member for those years.
Ichiro Ozawa has fiercely confronted literally every aspects of political issues against former Prime Minister Naoto Kan and current Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda.
(So, many people wonder why there are in a same party.)
If all of those 54 members leave the DPJ, then DPJ will loose its ruling party position, and no party will be a ruling party without making coalition with othe parties.
Now, roughly 70% of Japanese people are against the tax-increase law, not many Japanese support the movement Ichiro Ozawa and his group member made for during couple of days.
Mr, Ichiro Ozawa is conceived as old-fashioned politicians, like money-oriented, the leadershio that requires his followers turn-right if your boss say to do so without any questions, and conceived that he acts too politically and has no consitency the way he say and behave.
So even though he and his followers voted against bills, they have not gotten enough support from Japanese constituents as they expected.
But since they voted against the bill, it is quite difficult to stay in the same party.
It is said that lawmaker Ichiro Ozawa will announce his decision on whether he will leave DPJ tomorrow or not, with his followers.
In any case, it is obvious that DPJ needs to allign with LDP more closely than ever, which loose the point why DPJ won the majority of the seat in the election of year 2009, beating LDP which were continuously ruling party of Japan for more than 50 years.
Now, there is no chance for Ichiro Ozawa to stay in the party, so how many lawmakers of DPJ will follow Ichiro Ozawa and leave DPJ is the point that gets attention now.
Ichiro Ozawa
Update : July 7th, 2012
Eventually, 50 lawmakers of the Lower House followed Mr. Ozawa and left DPJ.
They developed a new party and its name is the party of 'Your Life is Our Priority'.
This is the slogan being held when Ozawa lead the DPJ to win and get the majority seats of the lower house.
According to every surveys that are conducted recently show about 70% of the Japanese citizens are aginst the bill to increase the consumption ratio, 80% to 85% Japanese citizens are not supporting the movement of Ozawa group.
The political circumstances are very severe to Ozawa's new party at the moment. But he has a track record to overcome such severe situations by departing his party and creating a new party where Ozawa can take enough initiatives to his fellows.
It is conceived by many Japanese that Ozawa did the same old method that he repeatedly made to revive in the politic scene in Japan. That old method is one of the reasons that his new party is not getting supports from Japanese citizens.
As many who live in Japan, not only Japanese citizens but also foreigners or visitors in Japan now are aware of, the bills to increase comsumption tax ratio from current 5% to 8% in 2014 and by 10% in 2015, has passed the lower house.
The tricky part of the vote by lawmakers to pass this bill was, the legistration was passed by the alignment with current ruling party DPJ (Democratic Party of Japan) and former ruling party LDP (Liberty and Decomcatic Party), although there came 54 against-vote from current DPL.
This 54 lawmakers of the lower house was led by Mr. Ichiro Ozawa, who has been the most influential member for those years.
Ichiro Ozawa has fiercely confronted literally every aspects of political issues against former Prime Minister Naoto Kan and current Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda.
(So, many people wonder why there are in a same party.)
If all of those 54 members leave the DPJ, then DPJ will loose its ruling party position, and no party will be a ruling party without making coalition with othe parties.
Now, roughly 70% of Japanese people are against the tax-increase law, not many Japanese support the movement Ichiro Ozawa and his group member made for during couple of days.
Mr, Ichiro Ozawa is conceived as old-fashioned politicians, like money-oriented, the leadershio that requires his followers turn-right if your boss say to do so without any questions, and conceived that he acts too politically and has no consitency the way he say and behave.
So even though he and his followers voted against bills, they have not gotten enough support from Japanese constituents as they expected.
But since they voted against the bill, it is quite difficult to stay in the same party.
It is said that lawmaker Ichiro Ozawa will announce his decision on whether he will leave DPJ tomorrow or not, with his followers.
In any case, it is obvious that DPJ needs to allign with LDP more closely than ever, which loose the point why DPJ won the majority of the seat in the election of year 2009, beating LDP which were continuously ruling party of Japan for more than 50 years.
Now, there is no chance for Ichiro Ozawa to stay in the party, so how many lawmakers of DPJ will follow Ichiro Ozawa and leave DPJ is the point that gets attention now.
Ichiro Ozawa
Update : July 7th, 2012
Eventually, 50 lawmakers of the Lower House followed Mr. Ozawa and left DPJ.
They developed a new party and its name is the party of 'Your Life is Our Priority'.
This is the slogan being held when Ozawa lead the DPJ to win and get the majority seats of the lower house.
According to every surveys that are conducted recently show about 70% of the Japanese citizens are aginst the bill to increase the consumption ratio, 80% to 85% Japanese citizens are not supporting the movement of Ozawa group.
The political circumstances are very severe to Ozawa's new party at the moment. But he has a track record to overcome such severe situations by departing his party and creating a new party where Ozawa can take enough initiatives to his fellows.
It is conceived by many Japanese that Ozawa did the same old method that he repeatedly made to revive in the politic scene in Japan. That old method is one of the reasons that his new party is not getting supports from Japanese citizens.
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