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Life, as said in the previous post, is back to normal in Tokyo. Yet, I find it difficult to avoid reading stories related to the earthquake. I would like to share a few articles I found engaging & encouraging in this post.

1. What a British Native Reporter Saw After the Earthquake.
(I unsuccessfully tried finding an English version of this article.)
In this article, A Tokyo resident British reporter, Martyn Williams talks about the differences in the earthquake coverages between the Japan resident foreign reporters and the foreign reporters flown in to Japan for the earthquake coverage. The latter tried finding ways to make their stories sound more eccentric. Ordinary traffic jams and crowds in the busy parts of Tokyo were tied to the aftershock of the earthquake. One thing I found intriguing in this article was that the reason why some foreign companies evacuated their employees was not because they cared about their employees, but because they feared the lawsuits if anything did happen.

2. How a Sendai Based IT Company Dealt with the Disaster
Cyber Solutions Inc. is based in one of the heavily afflicted city, Sendai. This story tells the recovery of one company told in the chronological order. The company lost power supply, dealt with the continuous aftershocks, and they still made all the deadlines. The Indian president of this company kept his motivated and he plans to stay in the area.

It has been more than 2 weeks since the devastating earthquake hit the northeastern part of Japan and giant tsunami swallowed the coastal towns in the northeast. Tokyo didn't suffer much damage except for the occasional controlled blackouts and reduced train services. There is less food on the shelves at grocery stores and convenience stores, but it is mostly due to fear of food shortage.

We were all safe at our office in Tokyo. As with the rest of the country, we are praying for the early recovery of the heavily damaged part of Japan and the safety of the evacuated people.

If you are in Japan or has a friend or family member who are in Japan and want to find information, 'Google Crisis Response' might be a good place to start.

There are news, alerts, person finder, transit information, links for donations and so on. If you are looking for current information in English, it is a good place to start.

A Japanese SNS site mixi has released a new application for smart phones called 'Social Phone'.

Similar to other SNS mobile applications, you can edit your status, upload pictures, write diaries, review the status of your friends, and so on. It's a great update from its predecessor with simple functions to view updates and write diaries on its platform.

In the near future, mixi is planning to add functions for users to view their friends on the map, and using the felica supported phones, users will be able to make mixi friends on the spot by bumping their phones.

Added features will help users connect in the real world as well as in the digital universe, but would you want your online friends to know where you are?

On February 28th, a major Japanese Advertisement Agency, Dentsu has announced that the agreement was made between Dentsu and Facebook for Dentsu to become the official ad sales representative of the Facebook advertisement in Japan.

With this agreement, Denstu will have the exclusive rights to sell the Facebook Premium Advertisement, located on the right side of the page, and will have priority access to Facebook's latest technology and news.

Already famous Japanese clothing company, Uniqlo, is amongst the companies which already utilizes Facebook for its promotions. Will this agreement help other Japanese companies to promote their presence in the international market?

Read a summary of the press release.

Q1 Which areas of the service are covered?
Search engine and PPC platform technologies for the following 4 areas: web, image, video, and mobile.

Q2 How will this partnership affect the competition between Yahoo! Japan and Google?

Google technology will be on the backend, so users will not notice the difference on the search results page.　　
(Please refer to the search results page images below. Note that only organic results (blue) and PPC ads (red) will be replaced by those using Google technology.)

Q3. How long is the contract for? Is it renewable?
The contract is for 2 years, renewable every 2 years thereafter based upon mutual consent. This applies to both search engine/PPC and data provision contracts.

Q4. What difference will it make when Yahoo! Japan provides content data to Google?
Google currently collects data only from crawlers. However, if Yahoo! Japan directly provides their data to Google, updated pages will be reflected in the search results more quickly, improving the freshness and increase the relevancy of the search results and enhancing the search experience for the user.

Q5. Will the agreement change Yahoo! Japan's relationship with Yahoo! Inc. (U.S.A.)?
This change is limited to the provision of search engine and PPC data. Yahoo! Inc. will remain Yahoo! Japan's strategic partner for search and other services. There will be no change in the capital structure or relationship.

Q6. Are there any implications for Yahoo's business in the future?
Not in the short-term. In the mid to long term, this is expected to Improve Yahoo! Japan's search and PPC services and maximize advertising revenue.

Q7. When will the transfer take place?
As soon as possible.

Q8. Once Yahoo! Inc. (U.S.A.) completes the switch for YST and YSM, will they discontinue support for Yahoo! Japan immediately?
No. The development and support for YST and YSM will be continued until Yahoo! Japan completes the transition of search engine and PPC platform to those of Google.

Q9. Will there be changes to the usability of the search services?
The current interface will be maintained, so there will be no changes to the usability for users.

Q10. Have you consulted with Japan Fair Trade Commission on this partnership?
Yes. We have confirmed with them that this partnership does not pose any legal issues.

Q11. How will this partnership effect the competition among search services in Japan?
Even when Yahoo! Japan and Google use the same technology to provide search results, Yahoo! Japan will be customize the technology to their services. Similarly, the user interface of Yahoo! Japan will remain unchanged. Therefore no changes in the competitive landscape are forseen, including the status of competition with Google (Japan).

Q12. Has Yahoo! Japan used other search engine technology before apart from that of Yahoo! Inc.?
Yes. From May 1998 to March 2001 the technology was provided by Goo, and between April 2001 and May 2004 it was provided by Google.

Q13. Yahoo! Japan currently provides Softbank Mobile (SBM) with their mobile search technology. Will this be affected?
No. Yahoo! Japan will continue to provide SBM with mobile search technology and the mobile ad platform.

Q14 Are there any financial implications?
There will be no major impact or changes to the profit structure.

Q15. Will there be any effect on ad sales?
During previous ad platform transitions the effect was small.

What does this refer to?
1. Yahoo! Japan will switch their search engine and PPC ad platform technologies from their own Yahoo Search Technology to that of Google.
2. Yahoo! Japan will begin to supply search content data (auction, shopping, chiebukuro (Yahoo! Answers) to Google's index on a daily basis.

What influence will Yahoo's decision have on the Japanese search market?
Google's technology will be serving over 96% of the search queries in Japan. The market is currently led by Yahoo! Japan with 58%, followed by Google Japan with 38%. Google will also become the top PPC ad serving technology provider.

When will it happen?
"The search engine technology switch is expected to take place by the end of this year 2010. It is expected to take longer for the PPC platform technology switch because of existing sales arrangements with ad agencies." (Masahiro Inoue, CEO, Yahoo! Japan. Translation.)
*Note: The official press release from Yahoo! Japan says the switch will take place "as soon as possible"

Why Google, not Microsoft(Bing/MSN)?
"Because many of the services that Microsoft claims to provide in Japanese are still in their development stage." (Inoue, Yahoo!Japan.Translation.)

Read the detailed Q&A

Use of the internet has been forbidden for candidates running for offices in Japan.  This is mainly due to the law erected in 1950 which governs the minute details of advertisements  including posters and fliers for campaigns.  This law was supposed to bring equalities to the candidates, rich and poor.

Today, with the advancement of the internet technology, it is much easier to reach out to broader audience with little to no money.

Today, young politicians are working to change the law.  The supporters of the use of the internet  will submit the bill to change the law on the upcoming ordinary parliamentary session on January 18th.  If all goes well, the candidates will be able to use the internet for the House of Councilors election this July.

Written from the article about the pros and cons of the use of internet for election on cnet Japan.

Hi Everyone!

Today wasabi proudly unveils its new website! After some time with our signature wasabi-green site, we have launched a clean new site with up-to-date information on our services, clients and team members. Check out our blog for new insights on what's going on in the world of Japanese Search Marketing, and look out for our case studies section which will be added to the English site soon.

Stay connected!
Koichiro

Koichiro Fukasawa
CEO, wasabi communications
Japanese SEM Company
'Supporting clients in Search from around the world since 2002'

On April 13th, Mosokanri-Iinkai (delusion management committee) has released a SNS service called Self SNS for individuals who aren't looking to network with people online. 

This service, which seems to defeat the definition of SNS (Social Networking Service), offers individuals with delusions to have their personal spaces online.

On the sign up page, you can choose your fantasy roles from the list including, "almighty god," "a girlfriend/boyfriend of a star", and "nnnnnot a virgin." 

There is also a pull down menu which asks you whether or not you'd want to meet other delusional people with similar interests.  It seems that Self SNS is not completely about isolation.

Viewing a member's page, you can see that it is not so different from other SNS services.

Bottom left is your delusional friends' list.
The big list on the right is your profile. 
Top left box with the picture is your picture.

[Thoughts]
So, what really are differences between Self SNS and the other SNS services?  I am still trying to find out.  Perhaps it is the open invitation to be who you want to be online?

Most emails I get from people back home in the U.K. contain references to the 'credit crunch' and many conference calls with U.S.-based clients and partners also touch on the financial crisis. Budgets are being cut, jobs are being lost and everyone seems to be in some way personally affected.

We're often asked how it's affecting business and Search in Japan. Although there is talk of the international crisis in the Japanese news and you do see the same "50% off" sales here and there on the streets of Tokyo and online, the ROI we're seeing from Japanese PPC campaigns is showing no sign of slow down. I'm also frequently told that it is the Japanese part of global accounts that currently stands out in terms of performance against other geos.

I wanted to confirm that I wasn't alone in my opinion, and found this New York Times article "In Japan, Financial Crisis Is Just a Ripple."

All of this got me to thinking that if you are seeing ROI trending down for your domestic campaigns, now might be a very good time to invest more intensively instead in your Japanese Search efforts. Especially with SEM being such a measurable, and controllable investment, it might be the least risky path to take whilst trying to sustain online profitability in uncertain times.

(Posted by Stacey Ward)