Worth-Technology Co. inaugurated the community site, "L's Salon," for cosplayers on June 23, 2009. Cosplay enthusiasts can freely upload and share their photos to the site. They can also exchange their messages and diaries, and they may also form "circles" among the like-minded" as they do on the SNS mixi community.

   The site was worked out at the suggestion of a staff of the company, who is a cosplayer, according to the person in charge of public relations at the company. In opening the site, it was found out that cosplay-related evens are taking place on weekends at various places in the country. This encouraged the company to provide the site for the cosplay enthusiasts, he said.

   The "Cure" operated by Livedoor is also a community site designed for cosplayers. This site was opened in 2001, and it is now actively used by 64,682 people. The ratio of the male users to female users is 2 to 8, the women far over-numbering the men. According to the editorial department of the company, the cosplay became widely known when the drama "Densha Otoko (electric train man)" was widely talked about around 2005. The drama sparked the "Akiba" culture, and many people came to know a bout the cosplay. It is said that there are about 100,000 cosplayers.

   "Cosplay dresses were mostly hand-made 10 years ago. But an increasing amount of ready-made dresses are sold lately, and the prices for wigs, color contact lenses and others items are getting cheaper lately. It's easier now to dress up as the characters. 'Keion' and 'Ryomiya Haruhi' are pouplular recently. These characters can be imitated easily only by putting on school uniforms, and this seems to be the reason for them to be popular," he said.

   The cosplay-related events are being held on every weekend mainly in the three major city areas in the country. They are mostly attended by 500 to 1,000 people. Some of them attract 5,000 to 10,000 attendants. The attendants show the cosplaying they are proud of and take photos. And then they upload and share the photos on the site. This is the basic way of enjoying the events. For this reason, uploads on the site are more frequent on Mondays and Tuesday than on Saturdays and Sundays, according to the editorial department.

World cosplay event attended by 15 countries

   As a worldwide cosplay event, there is the "World Cosplay Summit." It has been conducted annually in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, since 2003. As of 2009, 15 different countries of the world are participating in this event. This has expanded to such a big event that preliminaries have to be conducted to select the delegates of each of the countries to take part. An official of Aichi Television, the host of the event, said:

"The event is intended to introduce the Japanese culture through manga and anime. It began, of course, because we knew cosplay events are actively conducted throughout the world. We worked out the event because we thought it would be interesting to see cosplayers gathering together in one place. We had about 3,000 spectators at first, but now the number has risen to about 12,000. We can feel the people who are interested are increasing. We began with three countries participating, and now the number of the participating countries has expanded to 15 countries."

   In the event, the competition is conducted among pairs dressed like characters of Japanese anime. Each pair is allotted a time period of maximum three minutes, during which the pair would show its act. The 2008 champion was the pair from Brazil, who dressed as the characters from the anime "Bakuretsu Tenshi." The pair played out the woman gunslinger "Jo" and the fighter Saibot "Jango."

"The foreign participants act very well. They are so pleased to show their acts in Japan, the country where manga and anime originated, they act with full spirit. In fact, I understand that in Brazil only one pair out of about 1,000 pairs can win the preliminaries."

   On the other hand, only about 20 Japanese pairs are participating. There are so many in Japan who are enjoying the cosplay individually, but the "culture of performance" does not seem to have yet penetrated in the public. At the event, the judges totally evaluate the attraction of the performance and the arrangement of the act, as well as the perfection of the costumes. The 2009 world event will be held on Aug. 1 and 2.

   Exemode, Inc. succeeded in conducting a "cost performance" of cutting the price of a digital video camera to less than 8,000 yen. Such video camera, "EXEMODE DV520," was introduced on June 26, 2009.

   They come in silver or black color.

   They are priced at about 7,980 yen each.

   The Twitter service was started in the United States in July 2006. The service in the Japanese language began in April 2008. According to NetRatings, the numbers of the Twitter users had numbered 17.08 million in the U.S. and 2.52 million in the U.K. as of the end of April 2009. In Japan, the number went up from 0.2 million in January 2009 to 0.52 million in April. The main reasons for the increase in Japan are that Twitter became known to more people and it became possible to use on cell phones.

   In the United States, it is well known that President Obama and other celebrities are using it. In Japan Horiemon has been using it since June 5, 2009. He first posted, "I started Twitter. What shall I have for lunch," then it gained more than 5,000 followers in one day. He seems to be spending considerable amount of time in Twittering, and, according to the IT journalist Toshiyuki Inoue, he said:

"Just a phrase which I don't think interesting might interest other people. It gives rise to a party spirit."

   Among the media companies, the Asahi Shimbun has started to post information by the account name of "asahi." It "broadcast" the World Cup preliminary match of "Japan vs Qatar" on June 10, 2009. The Asahi Shimbun reporter named "Makki" posted reports, such as "10 minutes to go. Go, ganbare" and "Honda replaced Nakamura. Please decide it." Asahi is expected to link it to the internet site "asahi.com" to post quick news items in the future.

Should be localized to suit the Japanese people

   It still remains to be seen if Twitter will continue to expand in Japan to follow the bulletin board "2channel" or the SNS "mixi." According to Inoue, Twitter gained the popularity in the United States because the Americans had not had before a site where they could conduct discussions by posting short messages or "broadcast" while watching TV. Twitter was something new to them, he said. The reality is that in Japan there already exist many services like Twitter. Some of the examples are the short mail and the live thread of "2channel." For cell phones, there are the "purofu," "mobage town" and "minna no news nikki."

   "There are so many that it's difficult which to choose," he said.

   The users of Twitter will continue to increase in Japan. But to maintain the popularity, it needs to increase the number of celebrity users and to localize the service to suit the Japanese people. It is necessary also to add more enjoyable aspects to it to match the "2channel" or "mobage," Inoue analyzed.

Canned Bread sent to Sumatra, Leyte and other disaster-hit areas overseas

Canned Bread made specially to mark the use by the Space Shuttle

   The secret of the popularity of the bread is that it gives the "soft and moist" taste as if it has just come out of the oven though the bread is made for preservation good for three years. Baked by the company's own unique method, the bread has the textures and taste that can be compared to that of fresh ordinary bread. It may also be the factor for the popularity that the canned bread comes in a line of 14 different varieties of tastes and textures, including a milk-cream taste and grainy texture.

   The company started to develop such canned bread in answer to the desire expressed by the victims of the Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake. The staff of the company who brought 2,000 loaves of bread to the disaster-hit area in Kobe faced the unexpected problem.

   "We went through many troubles to bring the bread, but most of it was rotten before eaten. It took too much time to bring it through to the area. Besides that, the disaster-hit places were in such a turmoil that it was impossible to distribute the bread," said Nobuhiko Akimoto, the head of the management planning room of the company.

   The company at first conducted a research about the preservability in response to the desire of the disaster victims who said they wanted bread like the dried biscuit that could be kept without changing the taste. One year later, in 1996, the company succeeded through many trials in the unprecedented method of canning the bread as it was. It is the company's own technology to put the dough in a can to bake and keep it germ- and oxygen-free. The technology has already been patented in Japan and the United States.

   The canned bread was conveniently used as part of the food and other relief supplies at the time of the Chuetsu earthquake in Niigata Prefecture in 2004. Recently, it gained popularity also as a gift.

   "In the future, we will maintain close contacts with municipal governments, and, at the same time, efforts will be made to expand the sale in Taiwan, the United States and other overseas areas," Akimoto said.

   The canned bread is available at supermarkets and other retail shops across Japan. It can also be purchased through shopping website. The retail price is around 400 yen for a 100-gram can.

   The Nikkei stock price average on the Tokyo Stock Exchange ended at 10,135.82 yen on June 12, 2009, up 154.49 yen over the previous day. The Nikkei average hit the 10,000 yen level at one time on the previous day for the first time in eight months since October 2008, and it was quickly renewed. It reached the new high since the turn of the year of 10,170.82 yen at one time.

   The sense of "hitting the bottom" about the economy spread as bright signs are seen in the U.S. economy following the measures taken for the bankruptcy of General Motors and the speedy repayments by financial institutions of the public funds which had been injected into them.

   In Japan, views are widely spread that the measures taken for the eco-tax cut for Toyota, Honda, Nissan and other automakers and the eco-point scheme for appliance makers are now showing effect. This gave the impression that the export industries are now "bottoming out" as a whole.

   Natural resources stocks were rallied following increases in the crude oil futures on June 11. Buying was pushed up by the announcement by the Cabinet Office of the upward revision of the gross domestic production (GDP) net indicator and the turn to down trend of the exchange value of the yen.

   Financial stocks and retail stocks were bought on the following day.

Uncertain factors in Europe. May be triggered by "Mideast shock"

   The economists who say, "The economic downtrend bottomed out," are not few. But it is still not certain that the economy will keep going up from now on. In fact, various economic indicators, including those announced by the Cabinet Office, are "multi-colored." The business firms price index announced by the Bank of Japan for May represented a decrease of 0.4% from the previous month marking decreases for nine months in a row. This causes a concern about deflation.

   According to the machinery orders statistics for April announced by the Cabinet Office (seasonally adjusted), orders for electric machinery and cars went up. But the plant and equipment investment declined 5.4% from the previous month. The industrialists do not seem to be in the mood yet for pushing up the manufacturing of goods.

   An economist said the current investment movements show that the "funds are moving from the right (bonds) to the left (stocks)." He said it would take some more time before the stock market becomes really active.

   Another worrisome factor is the movements in Europe. Iinternational financial analyst Jiro Edagawa said that the hope for economic recovery is heightening in the United States because of the feeling of the economy hitting the bottom and the popularity of Obama. This shows the close-up picture of the seriousness of economic decline in Europe, he said. He pointed out that there is the possibility in the future of the European situation triggering a stock market decline in Japan.

   He further said that the countries, such as Spain, Iceland and Hungary in Europe that were hard hit by the burst of the economic bubble are now keeping quiet. For example, he said, the German economy has been supported by earnings in Eastern Europe for the past several years. In this sense, he continued, Western and Eastern Europe are united. But, under the present condition, Western Europe cannot assist Eastern Europe. Germany and France are facing their own problems and it would be difficult… Europe appears to be united, but in reality it is not so, he added.

   The European economic downtrend may blow damage to the Japanese export industry resulting in decreases in stock prices. This could constitute the "second bottom" for the economic decline.

Electric cars for easy charging. How well do they sell? Plug-in Stella (top) and i-MiEVs (below)

   The car announced by Fuji Heavy Industries is the Subaru Plug-in Stella. Based on the light passenger car Stella, it is fitted with the high-performance lithium ion battery combined with a motor that yields the maximum power of 47kw. It can cover as much as 90km at the maximum speed of 100km/h with the 10-15 mode. The battery of the car can be charged by plug-in from the 100v alternate current of ordinary homes. The time required to fully charge the battery from completely "out of juice" is eight hours. The time is shortened to three hours by charging from 200v current, or it can be charged to 80% full in 15 minutes by using a specially designed fast-charging device.

   The deliveries of the cars are now scheduled for late July at the price of 4,725,000 yen.

Mitsubishi's car can cover 160km, takes 14 hours for charging

   The car introduced by Mitsubishi Motors is the i-MiEV produced on the basis of the i model. It carries its lithium ion battery under the floor. A motor with the maximum power of 47kW and other power units are arranged under the luggage room.

   It can run the distance of 160km with the 10-15 mode at one charging. The battery can be charged in seven hours from the 100v power source, 14 hours from 100v current or 30 minutes to 80% full by using the special fast-charging device.

   The car will be available for sale in late July 2009 to corporations and municipal government organizations during this year. Orders will be accepted from individuals in late July 2009 for full scale sales expected to start in April 2010. The price is 4,599,000 yen.

   Sony Corp. will introduce on June 13, 2009 a light-weight music player of 30 grams, NWD-W202, in the "Walkman W series."

   The new product has a inbuilt 2GB memory system capable of storing about 480 pieces of standard (128kbps) quality music. It is designed for use in running and other exercises. The products come in four different colors of black, white, pink and lime green.

   It also comes with a stand for PC connection. The price is expected to be around 10,000 yen.

   About 78,000 items of office supplies, furniture for office and illuminators are handled initially at the "Stationery and Office Supplies Store," which was opened on May 27, 2009. The company also opened the "Jewelry Store" on April 2, 2009, to sell about 30,000 different items. On the same date, it opened the "Astronomy Store," offering about 15,000 items of astronomical telescopes, eclipse glass and other products related to the astrology. The Astronomy Store conducted a special event in connection with the total solar eclipse that will be observed in some areas in Japan on July 22, 2009, showing the company's stance to responding to current occurrences.

   The person in charge of public affairs at Amazon, Japan, which operates the Amazon retailing site, said that any kind of products will be made available in the future as long as there are needs for them on the "global vision" of the Amazon group: "We offer the widest variety of selections on the globe."

   "We will continue to increase the categories without stopping in the present condition. About books, appliances, toys and other categories we already have available, we will also expand the variety of the products," he also said.

   The number of items of the products Amazon is currently handling has already exceeded 10 million.

   However, there are products that are handled by the parent company Amazon.Co of America but not offered by Amazon of Japan. Amazon.com, for example, has the "digital download" category in which digital contents, such as "video on demand" and "MP3 download," are sold. Amazon of Japan does not yet offer such service. The person in charge at the Japanese company stressed his company's way of management by saying:

"We don't increase our categories by following what is going on in America. In Japan, there is the Japanese market, we will expand the selection of items to meet the needs of the users in Japan."

Profitability far better than other retailers

   Efforts are also being made to shorten the period of time required for deliveries for better distribution of goods. The company that handles the distribution for Amazon, Amazon Japan Logistics, plans to launch a new distribution base tentatively named "Amazon Sakai FC" in August 2009. The FC stands for "fulfillment center" and will be used like a warehouse of Amazon. All items retailed by Amazon will be stored in and distributed from the FC. The Amazon Sakai FC will cover a total area of 67,923 square meters, larger than the areas covered by similar facilities already in operation of 62,300 square meters of Amazon Ichikawa FC and 34,145 square meters of Amazon Yachiyo FC. The projected FC will be a huge distribution center to be established for the first time in western Japan.

   The new FC will make it possible to deliver goods ordered by the customers in the Kansai and other areas in western Japan within the same day of ordering in some cases, while the deliveries are currently made on the following day at earliest. The person in charge of public relations said:

"Keeping the efficiency on mind, we will maintain the quality of the products, and utmost efforts will be made at the same time to assure the customers of deliveries on time."

   According to the company conducting researches on the internet retailing and other distribution activities, Hitsuki Research & Consulting Co., Amazon maintained the two-digit on-year increase rates in its estimated sales of 45.5% to 160 billion yen in fiscal 2006, 37.5% to 220 billion yen in fiscal 207 and 18.2% to 260 billion yen in fiscal 2008. These are stunning figures amid the decreases suffered by most of super markets and department stores in their sales in the face of the economic downturn. About the undisclosed profitability of Amazon, the person in charge at the research company said, "The figure is thought to be far beyond those of other retail companies."

   "Its own high-level distribution operation is the reason behind the maintaining of the high profitability. Jewelry and astronomy goods that are newly put on sale are certain to be more expensive than books per item. If a system can be established to keep down the delivery cost of the new items to about the same level as that for books, it would be possible to heighten the profitability even higher," he said.

   Diatec Corporation introduced the wireless mouse "BT★AirMouse!" in late May. It is compatible with the Bluetooth ver2.1. Fitted with a "gyrosensor," it can be operated midair. It can be used as an ordinary laser mouse on the desk.

Tsukiji fish market, popular among foreign visitors

   The Japanese unit based in Tokyo's Minato Ward of the word-of-mouth site for tourists TripAdvisor issued a report on "sightseeing spots in Japan most interested by foreigners in 2008." It was compiled on the basis of the frequencies of the accesses to the site by non-Japanese users (Americans, Europeans and Indians) and word-of-mouth contributions.

   According to the report, ranked first as the most popular sightseeing place to visit is the Tsukiji fish market in Chuo Ward. It garnered points, or double those for the spot ranked second.

   "The Tsukiji fish market was ranked top for the second consecutive year since 2007. The market is popular among non-tourists also. Officials of foreign-invested companies are invited to visit there for entertainment. A person I know told me that he took executives of some company there to see the auctioning early in the morning," said a person in charge of public relations at TripAdvisor.

   The word-of-mouth contributions to the site show that the popular sightseeing course is "going to see the auctioning of tuna fish by getting up early in the morning and then eat sushi."

   Following the Tsukiji fish market in order in the popularity ranking were: Tokyo Disneyland in Urayasu in Chiba Prefecture, Pokemon Center Tokyo in Minato Ward, Roppongi Hills in Minato Ward, Tokyo DisneySea

   In Urayasu in Chiba Prefecture, Asakusa Dera Asakusa Kannon Do in Taito Ward, Kinkakuji in Kyoto, Fushimi Inari Taisha in Kyoto, Spa World in Osaka and Universal Studios Japan in Osaka.

"I just like this place. I visited there three times while I was in Tokyo."
"Things we can't buy in Australia are sold there."

   These are some of the comments posted in the site about Pokemonn Center Tokyo, which was ranked third.

   There are six shops specialized in selling the anime "Pokemon Center" goods in Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Fukuoka, Yokohama and Sapporo. Some 1.3 million people visit the shop in Tokyo annually, a bout 10% of them being foreign tourists.

   "The number of the visitors from foreign countries seems to increase each year. As there are no shops abroad that display such a large variety of the Pokemon goods as the one here, children, as well as adults, appear to be enjoying the visit," the person in charge of public relations said.

"Where can I buy an animation cel.?"

   Nearly 100 foreign tourists visit the Tourist Information Center in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo, daily.

   Asked about which sightseeing spots are popular, the person in charge of receiving the visitors at the center said:

"Many foreigners want to visit the Tsukiji fish market as the place is introduced as a main spot of interest in most of tourist guide books. The market is a regular spot for visit in sightseeing in Tokyo. Lately, however, visitors who want to go to anime-related places, such as the Ghibli Museum and the Pokemon Center are increasing. I had a guest from Australia today, who wanted to know where he could buy an animation cel."

   The traditionally popular place among foreign visitors is Kyoto. There are many spots of interest to visit there, including Kiyomizu Dera, Kinkaku Ji, Sanzenin and Gion.

   But in the popularity ranking of the sightseeing spots, Kinkakuji in Kyoto City only won the seventh place, Fushimi Inari Taisha in Kyoto City the eighth. Kiyomizu Dera was placed as low as 12th.

   About this result, a person in charge of tourist affairs of Kyoto said:

"Tourists from abroad who stayed in Kyoto in 2008 numbered 5.21 million, representing an increase of 1.5% over the previous year. The number renewed the record for the eighth consecutive year. It is hard to believe (the ranking)."

   He added, however:

"Children and young people may be more interested in Tokyo, which provides stimulating things. I believe people will understand the attractiveness of Kyoto when they get old."

   Kyoto is making an increasing effort in disseminating information about the city by setting up its outposts in six countries over the world.

   Toyota Motor Corp. started selling on May 18, 2009 a new version of Prius after conducting a full model change on the car.

   The size of the body is 4,460 millimeter long, 1,745 millimeter wide and 1,490 millimeter long. By the redesigning of parts, such as a lengthening of the spoiler forward and backward and changing of the shape of the wheels, efforts were made to achieve improved aerodynamic capability.

   It carries a solar panel on the roof to power the "solar ventilation system" for the room. It also has the "remote air conditioning system" to operate the air conditioner from outside for comfort. To widen the space for the riders, both front and rear seats were redesigned. The luggage room capacity was also made bigger by about 30 liters for more convenience.

   The prices range from 2.05 million yen to 3.27 million yen. As for the second-generation Prius, sales will be continued only for the new grade of EX targeted at commercial use. This car will be sold starting on June 8, 2009, at 1.89 million yen.

OZZIO TR Series of PC Depot, said to be selling well

   The netbooks were increasingly drawing public attention in the past year. According to a report announced by the U.S. research company DisplayResearch, based in Texas, on May 13, the sales of low-priced PCs went up 5.5 times to about 5.9 million units in the January-March quarter of 2009 over a year ago, while the sales of PCs as a whole dropped 19.2% to 24.4 million units. The market share of the low-priced PCs jumped from 2.9% to 19.5%.

   Leading players on the market are Taiwanese companies, such as Acer and Asus. Toshiba, Fujitsu and other Japanese companies are also joining in to add fuel to the competition on the market.

   Besides the nettop laptops, various models of "low-priced versions" of desktop PCs are being introduced currently in succession to the Japanese market.

   Among such low-priced desktop PCs is the "Eee Top" introduced by Asus on April 4, 2009. This PC has a touch screen by which the users can operate it by touching the display panel with their fingers. The screen is a 15.6-inch type, or about 1.5 times the size of the screen of a netbook. It comes with a wireless keyboard and its price is suggested at 64,800 yen.

   PCDEPOT Corporation, of Yokohama, the shop specializing in PCs known for the panel sign of "PC DEPOT," also introduced the "OZZIO TR Series" of PCs. The cheapest model in the series is priced at 44,900 yen and it has a 15-6-type LCD monitor and a DVD driver. DVD drivers for netbooks are usually optional and sold separately.

   A person in charge of marketing at the company appeared to be enjoying a success with the new sale when he said:

"They are selling as we had expected and I think we can say it's a success. We could answer to the wish of our customers who want big display panels but they don't want to spend much money for them, and I think this is a main factor for the success."

Many want high specifications for use at home

   Domestic research companies, however, are giving cold look at the cheap-priced PCs. According to a report announced by MM Research Institute, based in Tokyo's Minato City, on May 13, 2009, the shipments of PCs for individual use in fiscal 2008 went up by 15.6% during the first half over a year earlier and by 11.2% during the second half. The shipments showed a steady rise in contrast to those for use by business firms which had been hard hit by economic downturn. The research company, however, predict that the shipments to individuals will level off in fiscal 2009 with an increase rate of zero. It expects that demand will go down because of the sluggish economic condition but the netbooks and other lower priced PCs will push up the demand to register "zero increase or decrease" as a whole.

   While the research company predicts leveling off or a marginal increase in the sales of netbooks in fiscal 2009, it also said the netbooks are not strongly competitive. It explained:

"Netbooks don't have so much impact. The netbooks were answer to the needs of the users who wanted portable computers which were cheaper and smaller even at the sacrifice of some functions. The desktops were cheaper compared to laptops to begin with. They are for use at home. I'd say there are more users who want high specifications for use at home."

   Samsung will sell two models of digital photo frames starting successively in the middle of May. They can be used by connecting to a personal computer by a USB cable, making an AC adapter unnecessary.

   With an inbuilt 1GB memory system, they are capable of storing about 3,000 photos (at about 300KB per a photo).

   They are priced at 15,800 yen for the one with 8-inch-wide display panel and 24,800 yen for the one with 10-inch-wide one (expected to be marketed in the middle of June).

WSJ website for Asia that started in February

   There must be many people who wonder why such a well-established economic newspaper as the WSJ has taken a decision to open a website in Japanese.

   The Wall Street Journal, published by the major U.S. media company Dow Jones & Co., was America's representative quality newspaper that was inaugurated in 1889. The newspaper announced on May 7, 2009 that it would start a website version in the Japanese language within this year by establishing a joint company with the leading Japanese internet financing company SBI Holdings, Inc. by the end of May. SBI used to be part of the SoftBank group, and it came to known to the public when its CEO, Yoshitaka Kitao, acted as a white knight in a move to buy Fuji Television.

   To be offered on the new website will be Japanese translations of news reports, including those carried by the Barron's magazine, the information periodical of the newspaper and Dow Jones, and financial information to be provided by SBI Securities. Distribution on the site of video pictures provided by Fox Television, which is part of the parent company of Dow Jones, News Corp., is also being considered. The news reports are basically for paid distribution, but some part are said to be obtainable for free.

   As a reason for starting the Japanese-language website, SBI Holdings said the purpose is to "attract readers in Japan, which has a big market in Asia."

   In Asia, the Chinese-language site was inaugurated in 2002 in China, where the number of subscriptions has reached 500,000. The Japanese-language site will be the second site to be inaugurated in Asia in the local language. In English, the sites of the Asian and Indian versions were opened in February 2009.

   Dow Jones is believed to be expanding the business in Asia because of the big market potentiality in Asia. In the United States, even major newspaper companies are facing management difficulty because of declining revenues from advertising. The WSJ is not exception to this situation. It is trying to increase revenues from distribution of news reports on the internet by charging a price to meet the difficulty. But the earning is limited from such distribution in one country. This seems to be the reason why the company is expanding the business in various countries of the world in their local languages.

   SBI Holdings, the tie-up partner in the business in Japan, said it is aimed at luring its own new clients by offering the Japanese translation of the WSJ news items to securities companies and other clients.

Doubtful if there are enough readers of commentaries, features

   The U.S. Bloomberg is said to be monopolizing the financial news distribution, and it is also distributing Japanese language news reports in Japan. Again this backdrop, there is no guarantee that the WSJ can win the competition, although it is known as a quality paper.

   SBI Holdings says: Efforts will be made to distribute fast reports, but editorials will be the main items. They will be in-depth reports about the global economy. These items are regarded as influential watchers in the United States. It is possible to adjust them to meet the Japanese needs.

   The critic who is an expert on the relations between the internet and media, Akihiro Utada, expressed a doubtful view about the possibility of the WSJ winning the competition:

"There is a limited number of readers of The Wall Street Journal in Japan. The newspaper is less known in Japan than in America. So the key for a success will be how low the cost can be pushed down. There would be a limit to setting fees for offering only in-depth reports. It would also be a matter for study how to collect accesses."

   Mass media was under such a spotlight at one time that livedoor and other IT firms moved to buy television stations. While media companies are now facing management difficulty, however, Utada noted that it is now impossible to find buyers for newspaper companies even in the United States. Newspaper companies might become luggage for firms now, he added. About SBI's decision to become the tie-up partner, Utada said the company may be aiming at a secondary development, such as making use of value added service of the membership service of the company's group. This could be the possibility the company is looking at, he said.

   About the impact on the Japanese media of the advance into Japan of the WSJ, he said The Wall Street Journal's advance into Japan has a major psychological impact. But, initially, there should be only a limited threat in reality, he said. He further said it could be a potential threat on such companies as Nikkei and that it would be advisable to take a wait-and-see stance for the time being.

   A Lexus-brand car of Toyota Motor Corp. will take part in the 37th Nurburgring 24-hour endurance race to be held in Germany on May 21-24, the company has announced.