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283 posts and columns on Japan
Co-Founder Yat Siu on Animoca’s Big Menu of “Fast Food” Mobile Games
With more than 350 games, Animoca is all about quantity, and its co-founder says being based away from Silicon Valley helps.Voices
Japan’s Electronics Under Siege
Hedge-fund billionaire Daniel Loeb’s campaign to pressure Sony Corp. into spinning off its entertainment arm is the latest tremor to ripple through Japan’s electronics industry, already reeling from unprecedented losses stemming from its lost standing in the technology world.Go Far West, Young Startup: SoftBank Capital and Yahoo Japan in $20M Fund to Bring U.S. Entrepreneurs There
Breaking into the Asian market is not easy.News Byte
Networking Startup Midokura Lands $17.3 Million Series A
Midokura, a startup focusing on software-defined networking, said today that it has landed a $17.3 million Series A round of funding led by the Innovation Network Corporation of Japan, a public-private partnership, with NTT Venture Fund, DoCoMo Innovations and NEC Group’s Innovative Ventures Fund participating. The company also named former CTO Dan Mihai Dumitriu as its CEO. Former CEO Tatsuya Kato was named chairman. Midokura is working on what it calls an “overlay-based” network-virtualization technology.Voices
The Battle for the Living Room Is Over — The War for the Consumer Is On
Companies that control the UI will dictate which software is accessed, and how.News Byte
Apple Adds Thousands of Japanese Titles to iBooks
Apple on Tuesday rolled out an incremental update to its iBooks application, one that transforms the Japanese version of the iBookstore into a true bookstore, not just a repository of public domain content. The new version, iBooks 3.1, includes hundreds of thousands of Japanese language titles, thanks to some new publishing-house distribution deals we reported on back in January.iMac Ship Times Improve — If You Live in the U.S.
One to three days in the States. Significantly more than that everywhere else.Voices
Sony Stakes Recovery on New Smartphone
TOKYO — When the head of NTT DoCoMo Inc., Japan’s biggest mobile carrier, took the stage in January to introduce its latest models, he declared Sony Corp.’s new Xperia Z smartphone his company’s top pick, the equivalent of a mother announcing her favorite child.News Byte
Samsung Loses Bid to Block iPad, iPhone in Japan
Samsung came up short in its bid to block sales of Apple’s iPads and iPhones in Japan. The Tokyo District Court ruled Thursday that Apple’s iOS devices do not infringe a Samsung patent on wireless transmission technology, and that the Korean company has no right to seek damages against Apple, let alone a sales ban. Samsung said it was “disappointed that our argument was not accepted by the court.”News Byte



