Tokyo game show turns to cell phones, has new star - USA Today

CHIBA, Japan – Social games played on smart phones are hogging the attention at this year's Tokyo video-game exhibition, boasting new ways of making money by selling "virtual" goodies, not the usual expensive machines and software packages.

YOSHIKAZU TSUNO, AFP/Getty Images

Models display Sony Ericsson's smartphone Xperia Play at the annual Tokyo Game Show in suburban Tokyo.

YOSHIKAZU TSUNO, AFP/Getty Images

Models display Sony Ericsson's smartphone Xperia Play at the annual Tokyo Game Show in suburban Tokyo.

Gree, a social networking service that began just seven years ago in the founder's living room, was the big star at the annual Tokyo Game Show, with its first booth ever. The show previewed to media Thursday ahead of its opening to the public later this week at Makurahi Messe hall in this Tokyo suburb.

Its stardom underlines the arrival of so-called "social games" aimed at casual users passing the time on smartphones and tablet devices rather than the sophisticated plots, imagery and controls found on gaming devices.

With Gree, mobile games are an additional feature to its social networking service, similar to those already common in the U.S. and other nations with Facebook and Twitter, although those don't focus as much on gaming.

Yoshikazu Tanaka, the 34-year-old founder and chief executive of Gree, said his business model of attracting massive users was similar to other sectors such as computers, fast-fashion and autos, in which prices were rapidly coming down despite high quality.

He said he was serious about expanding business overseas, targeting 1 billion users in the next several years. Gree already has drawn 140 million users worldwide, and has opened overseas offices, including San Francisco and London.

Serkan Toto, a mobile and game industry consultant, said the enormously successful Gree business model that has made Tanaka a billionaire is different from conventional game makers in that it gives away games for free, and it doesn't sell any expensive machines.

However, once users become fans of the games, some of them pay for special virtual "items," such as fancy clothes and cute pets, bringing in lucrative profits for Gree, thanks to sheer user scale.

Toto said Gree's show-stopping presence was telling, underlining its ambitions to grow globally.

"It was a demonstration of power: 'We are the future. We have the money'," he said, noting that Gree had reached an older crowd than the teenagers usually associated with games. "Social games are a way to reach new demographics."

Gree's booth was among the biggest at the Tokyo Game Show.

And it was drawing just as much of a crowd as Sony Corp., which exhibits every year, and was showing off its new portable machine, PlayStation Vita, set to go on sale Dec. 17 in Japan and early next year in the U.S. and Europe.

In Japan, PS Vita will face off this holiday season against 3DS, the portable from Nintendo Co., which features glasses-free 3-D imagery.

Both Nintendo and Sony executives, in presentations earlier this week, expressed worries about keeping growth going in the gaming business, perhaps because of competition from devices like smartphones, Gree's specialty.

The shift to smartphones was affecting game-software makers as well.

"The network itself is the new platform," said Yoichi Wada, head of Japanese game software maker Square Enix. "Game developers need to keep in mind that gaming is spreading to casual users, including newcomers."

But the advantage of offering gaming on cellphones is simple: Almost everyone in the industrialized world owns a cellphone, and as more nations join that fold, people in those nations are bound to buy cellphones, too.

Tanaka said the advent of social gaming had changed the industry because people were always connected to networks with smartphones and tablets like the iPad, and people aren't necessarily going to go out and invest hundreds of dollars in a special game machine.

Tanaka said he envisioned a time when cellphones would become plentiful in places like Africa and South America for low prices, and people, who would never dream of buying expensive game machines, would be accessing Gree services from cellphones as gaming newcomers.

"What is coming next is very important," he said as a keynote speaker, a good indicator of his spot in the limelight. "Gree is targeting all cellphone-users."

Takashi Sensui, general manager at Microsoft Japan Co., said Microsoft sees social gaming as an opportunity to grow, as it is strong in games for cellphones and computers, as well as with those for its Xbox 360 home console.

What computer device people may want to use merely depends on where they are, such as whether they are on the move or they are at home, he said.

"You can use Microsoft's platform anywhere, anytime and everywhere, on any type of device to enjoy entertainment," he said.

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Hawaiian to battle Delta on new Japan route - USA Today (blog)

Hawaiian Airlines plans to begin service to Fukuoka, Japan, on April 16, pending approval by Japanese regulators, The Associated Press reports. The city will be Hawaiian's third Japanese route -- all launched since November 2010 -- and fifth to Asia.

Plans for the Fukuoka service comes as Hawaiian's existing Japanese routes "are contributing to a higher-than-anticipated increase in revenue in the third quarter," according to Aviation Week.

"Demand for our services in Japan from Tokyo and Osaka has been extremely strong, and we are responding to similar demand for Hawaii from the travel community in Fukuoka," Hawaiian CEO Mark Dunkerley says in a press release. "Our new Fukuoka flights will expand Hawaiian's reach into an entirely new region of Japan … ."

ARCHIVES:  Hawaiian Airlines continues expansion into Asia
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Hawaiian's announcement comes less than two weeks after Delta announced its own plans for Honolulu-Fukuoka service.

Delta, which already flies to three destinations from Honolulu, will serve the Fukuoka route with 209-seat Boeing 767-300ER aircraft, with 35 seats in BusinessElite and 174 seats in coach.

Unlike Delta's service, however, Hawaiian's will be year-round.

Hawaiian says it initially will operate the Honolulu-Fukuoka route using Boeing 767-300ER jets before switching to larger Airbus A330-200 aircraft. Hawaiian's 767s seat up to 264 passengers while its A330s hold 294.

The shift to the A330s comes as Hawaiian is set to add the fifth A330 to its fleet in October. The airline plans to add four more next year.

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Hawaiian's other Asian destinations are Tokyo Haneda and Osaka. Hawaiian's other Asian routes are Seoul (begun in January 2011) and Manila in the Philippines (March 2008).

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Fujitsu's IS12T Windows Phone Mango Launched In Japan Today (Quick Hands-On) - TechCrunch

Dr. Serkan Toto currently works as the first and only Asia-based writer for the TechCrunch network, mainly covering Japan-related technology and web companies for TechCrunch, CrunchGear and MobileCrunch. Serkan also works full-time as an independent web and mobile industry consultant with a focus on the Japanese market. He is sept-lingual, holds an MBA and is a PhD in economics. Serkan... ? Learn More

Last month, Fujitsu in Japan unveiled the IS12T, announced as the world’s first cell phone running on Windows Phone 7.5 aka Mango. And the country’s second biggest mobile carrier (and exclusive provider of the handset) KDDI au, didn’t lose much time: the IS12T became available today over here (here‘s Fujitsu’s official press release in English from today).

As we reported previously, the Mango handset comes with a 3.7-inch LCD with 800×480 resolution, a 13.2MP CMOS camera, a water- and shock-proof body, 32GB internal memory, a microUSB port, IEEE 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi (no tethering), DLNA support, GSM/CDMA, etc.

There are nine languages for the UI, and the IS12T is available in three “neon” colors (citrus, black, magenta).

I went to the only cell phone store in my neighborhood to have a look at the handset today, but unfortunately, I got to take just a few pictures (see above) and play around with it for a few minutes before I had to leave (no pictures-no videos policy).

My initial impression was that the phone itself felt light and thin, but also extremely cheap and plasticky (I couldn’t give Xbox Live, the Internet Explorer and other apps a spin because Wi-Fi and 3G were turned off – in the few minutes I played with it, the UI felt great).

Price-wise, the IS12T is positioned on the higher end of the spectrum for phones in Japan: the store (and every other retailer, for that matter) sells the phone for up to $955 (but with drastic discounts under certain circumstances). So if Fujitsu really starts selling the handset outside Japan (they do have international plans), don’t expect this to be a budget model.

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Biden completes seven-day Asia trip - USA Today

Vice President Biden is Hawaii-bound after a seven-day adventure that took him to China, Mongolia and Japan.

Biden left Tokyo Wednesday after addressing U.S. troops who had played a major role in helping Japan recover from a devastating earthquake and tsunami in March. Biden shook hands and posed for pictures with the troops for about an hour.

It was an exhaustive, if not exhausting, bit of dipl0macy for the 67-year-old vice president, conducted mostly while his boss was chilling on Martha's Vineyard.

Some highlights from the trip:

In China, Biden visited he Sichuan Province city of Chengdu, and from there traveled to Dujiangyan, where he met with survivors of the 2008 earthquake.In Mongolia, he was treated to a vast cultural demonstration that included male wrestlers, a female contortionist and a gift of a horse, which he named Celtic.In Japan, the vice president traveled to Sendai and areas near there, meeting in several locations with survivors of the spring earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster.

As he left Sendai Tuesday, Biden offered two expressions from his mother: "God love you all," and "Joey, you're staying too long."

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Biden meets with Japanese tsunami survivors - USA Today

Vice President Biden spent Tuesday in Sendai, Japan, where he told survivors of the March earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster that Americans "admire their character" for having persevered against adversity.

Biden, on a nine-day Asia trip that has taken him to China and Mongolia, toured largely vacant areas where entire neighborhoods once stood and met with survivors living in temporary housing nearby.

The vice president talked about how much Americans admire the "stamina and resolve" of the survivors. "We're here as long as you need us to help you rebuild," he said, according to press pooler Michael Memoli of the Los Angeles Times. "The way you came together was the envy of the world."

Traveling from Tokyo, Biden delivered a speech in Sendai to an audience composed of U.S. and Japanese military, Japanese teachers and students, first responders and displaced families.

"I came to express not only my commitment to say we will do whatever we can to help, [but also] to tell you how much the president, how much I, how much the American people admire your character," he said.

Biden met in Tokyo with Prime Minister Naoto Kan, telling him that no one should bet against Japan's ability to recover from disaster or America's ability to recover from recession.

"There are voices in the world who are counting us out," he said. "They are making a very bad bet."

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The Song of Chu and Japanese politics today

"Song of Chu all around" (si-mian-Chu-ge) is an old Chinese saying that means "being besieged or deserted on all sides."

The story has it that the King of Chu holed up in a castle of Gaixai in the final round of the war with the Han. One night, in the midst of a difficult situation, he woke up and went to the window only to discover that all he was able to hear was a folk song of his country, Chu, which meant that all his countrymen outside the castle had joined the enemy camp.

The saying is used nowadays when a person has lost all his supporters and has been surrounded only by critics or enemies. It appears that the Japanese prime minister might have heard the "song of Chu all around." Many members of his party showed signs of revolt, while leaders of the business community, as well as the opposition parties, called for his resignation. Yet, Naoto Kan showed a remarkable resistance and stayed on as if he had not heard the song.

Foreign observers in particular wonder how he has remained in power as long as he has amid such criticism and the wave of calls for his resignation. Some may compare Japan with political scenes in other countries where the prime minister or president resists the political tide.

Comparisons of other leaders with Mr. Kan, in many cases, don't apply because their resignations were related to personal scandals involving moral decay or corruption. There have been no particularly explosive scandals involving Mr. Kan during his time as prime minister.

One might point out that Mr. Kan's receipt of political contributions from a "foreign" source should have become a source of controversy, but it blew over.

The absence of scandals in Mr. Kan's personal life made foreign observers wonder all the more why the prime minister became so unpopular.

That remains the basic question: Why has Mr. Kan been so unpopular?

The answer is that his popularity foundered among business leaders, politicians and bureaucrats — the "establishments."

He fought against Tokyo Electric Power Co., quarreling with the top echelons of the ministry that oversees nuclear energy policy and, in some cases, neglecting or opposing the opinions of the leaders of his own party. Mr. Kan was very astute in creating the image of a political leader who was fighting against political and economic "establishments." He was always on the side of "citizens."

Since the Koizumi period, the citizens of Japan have been building a social tide of mistrust against business, government and political parties, and it was this tide that overturned decades of rule by the conservative Liberal Democratic Party and realized the government of the Democratic Party of Japan. This tide persists in Japanese society. Perhaps the tide was reinforced because of the disaster at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant and the initial handling of the crisis by Tepco and the regulatory agencies.

A "tsunami" of mistrust has penetrated the center of the power structure in Japanese politics. Ironically, many politicians have tried to ride this wave to score popularity points.

By destroying the close links between politics and bureaucratic management, and between big business associations and the government, this process has increased the sense of detachment and mistrust among business leaders, bureaucrats and even some sensible politicians toward the very functioning of the political system and its leadership.

Paradoxically, however, such mistrust and grumbling by business leaders and government officials have increased the sense of mistrust toward them among ordinary people. This vicious circle has been cleverly used by some politicians for strengthening their political position of an anti-establishment stance.

The only possible way of ending this vicious circle of mistrust in Japanese society is a wave of criticism from abroad against Japanese management of international affairs. However, with the U.S. military base issue on Okinawa practically sealed for now and once strained Japan-China relations showing signs of calm stability, such an international wave of criticism is unlikely.

The worldwide applause for the courageous attitude of the victims of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, and even the victory of the Japanese women's soccer team, may have helped to mitigate, at least on the surface, actual or potential international disenchantment with Japan's political leadership.

In short, the attitude toward Mr. Kan was not a personal phenomenon but rather a socio-political symptom of contemporary Japanese society.

Kazuo Ogoura, a political science professor at Aoyama Gakuin University, is president of the Japan Foundation. He has served as Japanese ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to Vietnam (1994-95), South Korea (1997-99) and France (1999-2002).

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