William Auckerman

NEC Corp., in cooperation with two small Tokyo-based firms, will next week launch an Internet-based staffing and employment service. The new job mall, to be hosted on NEC’s Biglobe Internet portal site, will initially cover employment opportunities in the Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya areas. Partnering with NEC in the venture are Opinion, an employment-related publishing […]

Seeking to reinforce its image as a market innovator, Sony has become the first of Japan’s major electronics manufacturers to open a comprehensive online store for domestic consumers. The Sony Style e-commerce site opened for business on February 1, just five days after Sony Corp. and domestic sales affiliate Sony Marketing Inc. formally established Sony […]

The over-the-counter price for a single share of Yahoo Japan Corp. stock this week topped 100 million yen (US$94,780), making it the first ever to surpass that level in Japanese stock market history. Following six consecutive days of trading up to its 2 million yen (US$18,950) daily limit, Yahoo Japan’s share price reached a high […]

The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi (BTM) has announced that it will set up an online brokerage in partnership with TD Waterhouse Group (TDW). The joint venture, tentatively to be named BTM-TD Waterhouse Securities, will offer Japanese investors a range of financial services, including discount securities brokerage services, equity trading, and other financial products, via the Internet […]

NTT Communications Corp., IBM, and Tivoli Systems announced this week they plan to form a strategic alliance to promote NTT Com’s e-business outsourcing services. NTT Com’s planned services will include managed network and IT solution consulting, design, and implementation, as well as outsourcing for corporate intranet, extranet and Internet servers. NTT Com intends to begin […]

Just in time for the year-end shopping season, two Softbank-led joint ventures last week launched e-commerce sites to sell books and toys throughout Japan. Both e-Shopping! Toys and e-Shopping! Books opened for online business. e-Shopping! Toys Corp. was established on August 12 as a joint venture of Softbank (52.5 percent), Yahoo Japan (10 percent), and […]

In a move to accelerate its entry into the world’s second-largest economy and expand its international customer base, Exodus Communications has announced that it will acquire Tokyo-based ISP Global OnLine Japan. Exodus, a leading provider of enterprise Internet hosting and managed services in the US and Europe, said on Tuesday that it has entered into […]

Interactive market strategist Fact Communications and Internet technology and online community developer Vanten have announced formation of a new Internet marketing, technology, and solutions group and concomitant launch of an e-agency joint venture. The Tokyo-based FlyingColor Group becomes the first independent, specialist agency providing e-marketing and e-advertising services in Japan. “We’re on the edge of […]

Japanese computer giant NEC Corp. has announced that it will work with US-based Oracle Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co., as well as the two companies’ Japan subsidiaries, on development and sales of Internet business platforms. This strategic alliance, said NEC, will help the partners to develop better and quicker solutions for their clients’ Internet business problems, […]

Two free, advertising-based ISPs have begun signing up subscribers in Japan. Since October 29, livedoor has been taking applications for a free Internet access service that it will launch in Japan later this month. Instead of charging dial-up users for their online access, this wholly owned subsidiary of the US-based livedoor Group will generate revenues […]

On Monday, Nov. 1, Fujitsu formally merged its 650,000-member InfoWeb ISP with the 2.85-million-member Nifty-Serve online service operated by its wholly-owned Nifty Corp. subsidiary. With 3.5 million members, the newly created @nifty “megaprovider” ranks as Japan’s largest ISP, ahead of NEC’s Biglobe (2.7 million members). The @nifty service becomes the world’s second-largest ISP, slightly larger […]

The stringent financial performance requirements of Japan’s stock markets have made it nearly impossible for the nation’s growing number of Internet-related startups to qualify for market listing. That will change on Thursday, Nov. 11, when the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) formally launches a new market designed specifically for public trading of high-potential startups and “new […]