William Auckerman

For a few thousand lucky users living in the right areas of Tokyo and Osaka, flat-rate Internet connectivity will soon be a reality. Nippon Telegraph and Telephone’s two local loop regional carriers, NTT East and NTT West, this week jointly announced that they will start trial operation of a flat-rate Internet access service on November […]

Japan’s NTT DoCoMo has announced that next year it will introduce a music distribution service over its PHS (personal handyphone system) mobile phone network. The planned multi-channel MMD (Mobile Media Distribution) Service will enable PHS users to download music at 64K bps for playback on compatible personal audio players, such as Sony’s new Memory Stick […]

HMV Japan, an affiliate of the UK-based HMV Media Group, has launched what it calls “The Biggest Music Store on the Web.” The “renewed” HMV Japan Web site, which went online September 30, features a searchable database of more than 670,000 domestic and foreign music CDs and DVDs. The company plans to add approximately 5,000 […]

Internet brokerage firm Japan Online Securities, which late last week received official approval to operate as a securities dealer, has announced its commission structure and initial service offerings. The Itochu-led firm said it will accept online account requests from October 1, the day that Japanese brokerage commissions are to be fully deregulated, and launch 24-hour […]

In a move aimed at boosting its 4 percent Japan PC market share and strengthening its online marketing presence, Compaq Computer KK is bringing its traditional indirect sales channel model to the Internet. In cooperation with Santec Corp., a leading PC wholesaler and e-commerce technology provider, Compaq Japan has launched an initiative called e-Kiosk for […]

Though fierce rivals in the word processing and office suite software markets, Justsystem, Japan’s leading domestic PC software developer, and Microsoft have agreed to cooperate on the development and marketing of an enterprise-strength search engine/knowledge management tool. The two companies will work together to develop a version of ConceptBase, Justsystem’s natural-language document retrieval system, that […]

Japan’s leading business association, Keidanren, has proposed that the nation implement a 5.45 trillion yen (US$49 billion) package of Internet-related economic stimulus measures. The five-year plan, which Keidanren (the Japan Federation of Economic Organizations) terms “a national strategy for realizing the often-discussed advanced information society,” was submitted by the organization in response to a June […]

This has been a busy week for cross-border Internet-related distribution agreements, with four US developers announcing deals with five major Japanese firms. Washington-based WatchGuard Technologies, a leading provider of Internet security solutions, has signed distribution agreements with both Fuji Xerox and Hitachi. On August 13, WatchGuard announced that its WatchGuard LiveSecurity System, which enables companies […]

With yet another agile competitor giving challenge to lumbering NTT, it seems that low-cost, flat-rate home Internet connectivity is finally an idea whose time has come. Softbank Corp., Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), and Microsoft Corp. have announced formation of a joint venture (JV) company to provide Japanese Internet users with low-cost, high-speed wireless Net […]

It has been said that in a gold rush, fortunes are made not by the miners, but by those who sell them tools and supplies. With this in mind, firms who anticipate that the combination of the Internet and discounted fees will create an online trading gold rush among Japanese investors are themselves rushing to […]

With an eye to securing a firm foothold in Japan’s burgeoning Internet market, US-based Net Perceptions Inc. signed an agreement with three leading Japanese information technology firms to launch an enterprise e-commerce joint venture. Joining in the formation of Net Perceptions Japan are Trans Cosmos, a comprehensive information services company; NTT Software, an NTT group […]

Japanese Internet services provider Global OnLine Japan (GOL) announced last week that it has secured a “substantial” infusion of private equity capital from international investment group J.H. Whitney & Co. The agreement makes Whitney, a leading US-based development capital provider with a portfolio of some 60 investments, including 8 Internet-related companies, a “significant shareholder” in […]