11 Venture Capitalists+me in the Japanese woods

OK, not of all these people were VCs. Some of them are also presidents of web companies. And we were not really in the woods but in the amazingly beautiful Fukui prefecture, hometown of Taisuke Fukuno. All this under the umbrella of Venture Beat, to my knowledge the most influential network in Japan's web industry.

Taisuke is CEO and CTO of mobile browser company jig.jp (my earlier report) and organized the whole trip (which was invitation-based). Hisashi "Sam" Katsuya, the leading figure of the Japanese VC scene and mover and shaker in Japan's web industry (employed by IBM Japan), co-organized the event.



We traveled to Echizen, a town 530km west of Tokyo. And what can I say, the trip (last Friday to Saturday) was totally awesome!

Friday:
- Radio interview in Japanese with Tannan FM Radio, a radio station based in Echizen
- Drinking ;) plus dinner

Saturday:
- Sightseeing at Eiheji Zen Temple, one of the biggest and oldest in Japan (founded in 1244!)
(the coolest temple I have ever seen)
- Tour of the Fukui Spectacle Museum
- Tour of the jig.jp R&D offices (very American-style)
- Tasting of "Born" sake and tour of the sake "factory", personally lead by the charismatic CEO Mr. Kato who actually delivered a one-man show
(Born from Fukui is widely regarded as Japan's best sake and also served in Japan's equivalent of Air Force One)
- Tour of Shimizu, a spectacle manufacturing company
- Spectacle shopping at Tanaka Gannkyou
- Tasty and BIG tonkatsu for dinner

In case you might wonder: Fukui is known in Japan for its glasses.

I can totally recommend Fukui to tourists who want to see a piece of the "real" Japan, outside the big cities. Food, people, pace of life: Everything there seemed different to me.

Again, the trip was really great and I want to go there for a second time in winter.

Katsuya-san blogged the trip - in Japanese, but his pictures and descriptions are WAY better than mine ;). The reports and photos on the Venture View blog: 1,2,3,4 and 5.

Some of my pictures:

I took part in the Mobile Monday Tokyo event (July 2008)

After not being able to attend last month, I went to the Mobile Monday Tokyo event last...Monday. This time the event took place in a lounge-like club space in Akasaka.

Unfortunately, I was too late for Sadayuki Matsumoto's presentation on trunc, a personalized homepage service focused on Japanese web applications. Matsumoto-san is Director of Operations and Chief of Web Operations at web and mobile solutions provider Xtone.

However, I was in time for Tomohito Kinose's introduction to Nico Nico Douga and its mobile version. I have featured Japan's answer to Youtube many times here and on Asiajin.

After Kinose-san's presentation, I took the chance to tell him the I am the guy exposing his service to the Non-Japanese world through my Techcrunch article on Nico Nico (Japanese version) - and he was shocked to see me in person ;). Kinose-san told me he is Director both at Niwango (the company running Nico Nico) and Xtone.

I think the Mobile Monday events are always very, very valuable networking-wise and will attend the next one on August 25th as well. A friend of mine will hold a presentation next time. I don't know if I can tell the topic here and now and therefore prefer to keep it secret.

Please keep in mind the event requires registration and that the organizers are selecting attendees individually!

Here are some pictures:

Venture Beat Networking Party June 2008 in Tokyo

On Wednesday, I took part in the Venture Beat Networking Party again. Japan's Mixi in human form, Hisashi "Sam" Katsuya from IBM Japan, was kind enough to invite me (and believe me, this man knows EVERYONE in the Japanese IT world).



The "closed" event (invitation only) is backed by CNET Japan and was completely star-studded, as always.

It was great fun, and famous designer Naoki Sakai held a unique and very cool presentation on product design. Check out Sakai-san's personal web site in English here.

Unfortunately, I forgot my camera but I will do that better next time for sure! Katsuya-san's blog posting includes some great pictures though.

Here is my posting on the March event.

Some pictures from the Ultrasupertube Youtube event in Tokyo last week

The 4th Ultrasupertube event, organized by Tokyo-based creative agency, UltraSuperNew, took place last Wednesday in Azabu, Tokyo.



The event's concept:
Submit a couple of cool videos you would like to see projected on the big screen during the event at the venue (a place called SuperDeluxe). And it will happen!

I went there late (around 11 pm or so) and may have missed a lot of the action, but it was still fun.

Find some photos of the event below.
Credit for all pictures in this posting goes to Michael Sheetal, UltraSuperNew Inc.!

Useful online calendar(s) for Tech events in Tokyo

Here are a couple of VERY useful calendars for Tech and web freaks who want to plan ahead for industry events of all kinds:

IT events in Japan (Japanese, recommended)

ZD NET's calendar (Japanese )

General business events (English, but not focused on IT-provided by Andrew Shuttleworth)

CNET's IT industry events calendar (Japanese )

@IT's calendar (Japanese)

If you know more, please share in the comments!

The Virtual/World/Business Blog/SNS Expo in Tokyo this week

I attended a huge IT industry event in Tokyo this week, which actually included three "mini expos" in one:
- Business Blog & SNS World 08
- Virtual World Conference & Expo 2008
- Linux World Expo / Tokyo 2008.

The event took place at Tokyo Big Sight, a huge exhibition center on Tokyo's strangely futuristic island Odaiba.

The "Virtual World" event was strong on the conference part but "Asia's biggest expo on virtual worlds" was actually very, very small in my view. There were just a few booths, mostly offering Second Life-related stuff. I personally think this will change after/if the concept reaches the mainstream.

Philip Rosedale, CEO and founder of Linden Lab (Second Life) was there (his first time in Japan) and we had a nice chat - cool guy.

Below are some pictures I took during the event. Also make sure to read Robert Cawte's article (his company, Tokyo-based web start-up esynapse, co-sponsored the whole expo).

RECRUIT-sponsored Javascript User Interface conference in Tokyo

The YAPC Asia in Tokyo ended yesterday. Unfortunately, I couldn't attend (and try to understand as a Non-Techie) all presentations: I was simply too busy.
Next year, I will be there again (here is my former post on the event).

On Monday, I will be attending the JUI 2008 conference in Tokyo (Javascript User Interface). My friend Yusuke Kawasaki and his employer, Japanese powerhouse RECRUIT, are the main drivers. behind the event.

Yusuke told me the number of registrants already exceeded the 100 mark even though the JUI 2008 was brought to life in a hurry and is the first conference of its kind. It will take place in the RECRUIT office building in Ginza.

These are the main speakers. Some high-profile engineers will be there:

- Paul Bakaus - http://ui.jquery.com/
- "amachang" - http://d.hatena.ne.jp/amachang/
- "inucara" - http://inucara.net/
- "iandeth" - http://iandeth.dyndns.org/mt/ian/

For registration and more info, please visit Yusuke's blog (in English). The JUI 2008 Facebook group is here.

My report on the event can be found on Asiajin.

YAPC Tokyo 2008: A great event

Following the tokyo2point0 event the day before yesterday, I took part in the Yet another Perl conference (aka YAPC Asia) in Tokyo today. The event which will go on for one more day is taking place on the Tokyo Institute of Technology campus in Ookayama.

The YAPC Asia is a HUGE conference: A gathering of 500 Perl enthusiasts (and people like myself), with dozens of presentations and various side events.

Just have a look at this picture I took to get an impression of the size of the YAPC. This is one of several halls on the campus the organizers secured for holding the presentations.


By the way: Today at the conference dinner, Akky Akimoto introduced me to his buddy Dan Kogai, a Japanese uber-geek considered to be this country's god of programming. That was really cool!

For more information on the event, please read the article my friend Shunichi Arai (another famous engineer) wrote for Asiajin. Shunichi-san promised to follow-up with pictures tomorrow (my pathetic photograph above doesn't do the event justice).

What I particularly liked about the event is its VERY high level of internationalization. A large portion of the presentations were held in English, there is an official blog in English and at least all essential info material is also not Japanese only. This is a very unusual and commendable decision.

The high number of gaijin taking part in the conference was really striking. In my view, Japan needs even more high-profile events like this to get itself on the map of global IT!

I will also attend the second day of the conference tomorrow. Let's have a chat if you see/recognize me.

Report: 300 blogger conference in Akihabara/Tokyo

300 people attended what is sure to be one of the biggest get-togethers of bloggers in Akihabara, Tokyo's (no: the world's) geek paradise, yesterday. I took part as the only gaijin in the room ;).

The 3-hour conference which is named "スタート×キッカケ×ブログ" ("start x chance x blog") was perfectly organized by Japanese staffing and recruitment company Pasona Tech.

The presentations and panel discussions were held completely in Japanese by a total of 9 high-profile bloggers, two of which I know personally. Topic-wise, the event was centered on different aspects of writing popular blogs: reasons, motivation, hints, problems, how is blogging connected with the speakers' jobs etc.

The conference was divided into three sections (please note that all following links are in Japanese):

Session 1:
Presentation by Chika Watanabe (blog)

Session 2:
Panel discussion led by Motohiko Tokuriki (blog)
Panelist: Hiroumi Mitani (blog)
Panelist: Jin Uehara (blog)
Panelist: Waren Oshou (blog)

Session 3:
Panel discussion led by Takamichi Horikawa (blog)
Panelist: Etsuo Ohashi (blog)
Panelist: Masatake E. Hori (blog)
Panelist: Mitsutoshi Masuda (blog)

Pictures: Blogger event in Akihabara, April 19th, 2008 (click to enlarge)

Report: Gaijin-lead Web 2.0 service iknow! event in Tokyo

Last Wednesday, I attended an event at the Tokyo 21 c Business Club in Marunouchi focusing on the relatively fresh Japanese web service iknow! (link leads to an English page).

iknow! is marketed as a social learning web service for Japanese users interested in studying English. On the site, teachers can connect to students and students can interact with each other to improve their English skills. However, that's not all.

In fact, iknow! is a full-fledged web site featuring TONS of functions which are useful also for completely individual training: dictations, vocabulary tests, quizzes, brain stimulation games etc. When the service launched in October last year, I was actually VERY impressed with its high quality and the team is working on improving and expanding iknow!.

Cerego, the US-based company running the service uses, chose "learning technologies" as its slogan. In fact, Cerego's CEO Eric Young told me several scientists were hired to make sure iknow! is being developed in Japan based on the most current methodologies of learning and teaching languages.

The event itself centered on the main functions iknow! offers to users and a Q&A which followed after the presentation. Eric and Andrew Smith Lewis (CEO of Cerego Japan) answered several questions from the audience which included iknow! users who were not from the web industry or press. I found that very cool!

The language education industry in Japan is a multi-billion dollar business. I am eager to see how iknow! will try to monetize its service in the future. Although Cerego employs a huge team, iknow! is completely free at the moment! The CEOs said the main focus at the moment is to attract as many users as possible.

And the initial numbers are more than impressive: According to information given during the presentation, 100.000 users are currently registered. This service is going to be a huge success, I am sure!

Pictures: iknow! event at Tokyo 21c Business Club (click to enlarge)

Report: Tokyo Venture Beat Networking Event

I was invited to take part in the so-called "Venture Beat Monthly Networking" party in Harajuku/Tokyo on this past Wednesday. The event is organized by a couple of influential IT organizations such as CNET Japan or IBM Japan. Hisashi "Sam" Katsuya from the latter company hosted the event. By the way, IBM employs over 25,000 people in Japan!

Although the entrance fee was a whopping 6,000 Yen, I was positively surprised by the high "quality" of the party. So this was my first but certainly not last time attending it.

I found the following points very interesting:
- the venue was filled with "high-profile" people such as CEOs, presidents
- as expected, I haven't met any people with "just" a technical background (some of the company big men were engineers though)
- the atmosphere was very relaxed, casual and inviting
- Japanese entrepreneurship in the IT sector is very much alive
- it was very easy to network so the party does deserve its name

From a foreigner's perpective, I found it remarkable that I was joined only by two more of my kind during the event.

Below you can find some pictures I made during the party. You can find the "official" blog article on the report written in Japanese here (and I am mentioned in it ;)).

Pictures: Venture Beat Networking Event March 2008

10 winners of CNET Japan's Tech Venture contest

Last week, CNET Japan held a Tech venture contest and a total of 10 companies were awarded with prices. The event drew a lot of attention in the Japanese web and IT world.

Companies awarded which have an English website (unfortunately only three do):

- Community Engine
(development of network middleware and applications among other things)

- Utagoe
(broadcasting service)

- Enigmo
(online video commercials through collaboration with consumers, their Rollmio service is available in English)


Companies which offer information in Japanese only:

- Niwango
(operation of i.e. Nico Nico Douga online video platform (my review))

- PTP
(digital TV recording service)

- i-Broadcast
(mobile platform for videos and photos)

- Entermotion
(mobile marketing)

- aucfan.com
(online auction services)

- J-Magic
(face recognition for mobile devices)

- Cirius
(mobile ads)

More information on the winners is available on Akihito Fujii's blog. Akihito-san is working for Sun Microsystems Japan and thankfully provides a detailed write-up about Tech venture 2008 in English (part 1, part 2).

He also acted as a judge for the contest.

Asiajin Meeting #1 with Web entrepreneurs and developers in Tokyo

Asiajin, the other IT and Web blog I am writing for, is organizing an event for the first time for everyone interested in the Japanese Internet world.

The Asiajin meeting #1 will take place in Tokyo/Akasaka on February 26th (Tuesday), beginning at 19.00. Entrance is free courtesy of Cybozu Labs.

We are expecting 5-6 presentations. The principal language will be English. Japanese participants are encouraged to come to improve their language and presentaion skills in English. Gaijin (like me) are very welcome as well of course.

Please look for details and RSVP here.

IT/Web events in Tokyo: ICA Japan New Year Party & UltraSuperTube v2

I had the pleasure of attending two IT/Web industry-related events in Tokyo on Wednesday.

1) UltraSuperTube Vol. 2
The UltraSuperTube Vol. 2 party was well attended. It was organized by Tokyo-based interactive agency UltraSuperNew.

The company also celebrated its first anniversay (Congratulations, Mike!) on this occasion. I went to the venue (SuperDeluxe in Azabu) at about 11 pm and saw/listened to Vanilla Ice's infamous "Ice Ice Baby" video (amongst others) which was streamed on multiple big screens from Youtube.

The whole event basically centered on the idea of throwing a party for people from the IT, art and media world in Tokyo using Internet videos as a background. The audience was well mixed (gaijin and Japanese).

I thought it was cool but had to leave pretty early. Attendance was free.

2) ICA Japan New Year's Party
The ICA Japan (International Computer Association) party was REALLY packed. The ICA Japan is considered to be one of the most important technology and business-related organizations in Japan.

I can confirm this, judging from the many people I had the pleasure of speaking with. The overwhelming majority of attendees had a business background: IT company owners, Marketing managers, Business development managers, consultants, sales people etc. etc. So the party was particularly interesting for me.

Unfortunately, Japanese people were a little underrepresented in my opinion. It is beyond my understanding why a Japanese IT/Web company would not send someone to attend a party of that scope and importance. The party was an excellent platform to expand a company's network, get new ideas and speak with competitors and potential clients. The same goes for any gaijin-run company from the technology sector.

At the very least, you get to converse with high-profile people, enjoy good food and a bit of entertainment. Many gaijin spoke Japanese very well so that the language barrier shouldn't be considered a problem.

Attendance cost 6,500 Yen. I really liked the venue (Club 57 in Roppongi).

Web event in Tokyo: Report on Asiajin

I know quite a bunch of people are expecting to see a report on Tuesday's tokyo2point0 event here in Tokyo on my blog.

This time (and maybe in the future as well) I am writing on Asiajin about it. As previously announced, I became editor there.

So please check out my report on Asiajin and sorry for the inconvenience.

Contents:
- ONGMAP (award-winning bilinual Google maps mash-up)
- HTML 5
- Web Trendmap by Information Architects (version 3)

Tomorrow, I will write something about two other events I attended in the last days (in this blog).

Japaaan: New SNS to uncover Japan's hidden must-go spots

As many people know, it is true that Japan is a big and beautiful country with a rich cultural heritage. Even a metropolis Tokyo has its nice places. I am kind of affiliated with the German embassy here in Tokyo and from what I hear Japan doesn't do a really good of promoting the country in Europe. Well, I can't say from here.

Now, a new social network called "Japaaan" was just recently established to do something very interesting: Unearthing Japan's nicest places which are yet unknown particularly to foreign visitors! So if you are an individualistic traveler who is interested in seeing Japan's hidden touristic treasures you should join the network. Families are welcome as well.

Signing up is free and done in 30 seconds. I am a member already ;).

Picture: New SNS "Japaaan"


My friend Yuki Naotori (CEO of web startup 7ns) created "Japaaan" in liaison with www.japan-hopper.com.

In detail, the network is a platform for people who are interested in travel destinations which are not accounted for in printed guides like "Lonely Planet" or on the usual travel web sites. This can include i.e. "hidden" onsen (Japanese hot springs), ryokans (Japanese inns), temples, remote villages, unknown sightseeing spots etc.

Gaijin and Japanese people are equally welcome to share their insider tips online.

Online AND offline plans
The activity is not only reduced to online discussions though. It is planned to actually travel to certain places together and document the experience. Later videos, pictures etc. of the trips would be posted on the web site.

I think this non-profit project is a cool idea. If you are interested, please join "Japaaan" here or through www.japaan.org.

There will be a first offline kickstart-meeting in a restaurant in Tokyo on January 9th. Everyone interested is cordially invited. Please visit the web site for details and make sure to let the webmaster know of you attendance as fast as possible so seats can be reserved.

Event report: Firefox Video Awards in Tokyo

Yesterday I attended the Get Firefox Video Award Show (Japanese only) in Azabu, Tokyo. The aim of the event was to promote Firefox in Japan. So far, my favorite browser conquered a 16% share of the market in this country.



(all pictures in this posting courtesy of my friend Thor Asmund)

Mozilla received over 100 video clips from artists from all over Japan. I am not an artist but I would say the overall quality was very good!

This video called "The Night" (done by an artists group called Pantograph from Kanagawa Prefecture) won the Grand Prix (direct link):


The 3 gentlemen on the right are the proud winners:



The videos which won in other categories (like CG/Anime) can be viewed here.

Very artsy atmosphere
The event itself and the venue (Club SuperDeluxe) were really cool but unfortunately, not too many people from the IT industry were there. As expected, Joi Ito was absent. I would have liked to talk to him.

Gen Kanai who is Director of Marketing at Mozilla Japan was the MC and did a great job:



By the way, Gen mentioned that Mozilla organized a similar event last year in the USA. Although entries were accepted from all over the world not one single video reached American shores from Japan or Asia! After seeing the quality of the works yesterday I can say this is a real shame.

PS
Thor uploaded some more photos of the award show here.

Web 2.0 event in Tokyo: Learn about Zooomr, Artistsweb and FF3

Yesterday I attended a Tokyo2point0 event in Omotesandou/Tokyo for the first time. Tokyo2point0 is a social network set up by Tokyo-based Englishman and IT fanatic Andrew Shuttleworth. However, members of this community also meet in real life on a regular basis.

You can sign up directly on the site itself, go to Tokyo2point0's Facebook group or get some information on Mixi.

The event yesterday focused on networking and three presentations two of which were hold mainly in English. I really hope all Japanese people in the room understood everything (I couldn't talk to all of them to "check" their language skills).

1) Zooomr.com
Zooomr.com is the name of a rather famous web service which is regularly featured on sites like Techcrunch or Mashable. In its simplest form, Zooomr is a photosharing site. After the event,I talked with Kristopher (the founder and CTO) on Skype and he told me they are not competing with companies like Flickr.

Why? Zooomr in my opinion heavily focuses on social network aspects. Moreover, the site seems to offer more functions than Flickr or other similar products (i.e. Zipline which is kind of an Instant Messenger!), is translated into 16 languages and designed very mobile Internet-friendly (VERY important in Japan).

Also, Zooomr is essentially a JAPANESE web service. The HQ is located in Shibuya, Tokyo and all key people (including Kristopher himself) are based in Japan!

Kristopher also talked about "OpenTransit" which is essentially an open source routing navigation engine for Web Developers. Very cool idea. I hope we can see some great products coming out of that!

Here is the video of Kristopher's presentation (direct link):


2) TheArtistsWeb
Chris Kirkland gave an interesting presentation about his e-commerce platform "The Artists Web". On the site artists from all backgrounds can sign up for a certain yearly fee, set up their own web site (gallery) and then are able to sell their works online to buyers from all over the world. What is sold is not a tangible product but electronic files that can be printed out later.

Chris told me prints are selling particularly well. There are over 27,000 works of art online at the moment!

The company is run from England and Japan with Chris being the owner and based here in Japan.

He also shared his experiences with Facebook and the way they handle developers of FB applications. Bittersweet stories;). Chris is a pretty busy guy: He also runs a gaming network called "The Sentence Game" which almost 30,000 users subscribed to. Wow!

For more information, check out his video (direct link):


3) Firefox 3
The launch of Firefox 3 is not exactly Web 2.0-related but Gen Kanai's presentation and demo was very interesting nonetheless.

Gen is director of Marketing at Mozilla Japan and passionate about pushing Firefox in the Japanese market. Actually he also was responsible for setting up the new Mozilla China (Chinese only) office in Beijing (more on that here).

You can see his cool presentation here (direct link):


Also, please check out Gen's personal site. His blog (written in English) is excellent!

Get the LebWeb3 admission code I won at Blognation Japan's Web 2.0 party

Just yesterday I blogged about Blognation Japan's launch party to be held in Tokyo after the Web 2.0 Expo's 2nd and final day.

And I won the big prize: An admission code for Europe's biggest Web exhibition, the LeWeb3 which takes place in Paris, France on December 11 and 12, 2007! Value: 1,000 USD! That's quite cool, isn't it?

Here is your chance: I cannot make it to Paris although I would really, really like to. So grab the code for a mere 500 USD. Just write me an email: serkantoto (at) gmail com.

The party itself was great fun. I got to know lots of interesting people, for example Naotori-san who is CEO of brandnew Japanese web start-up 7ns.

Naotori-san won the Mash-Up award from Sun Microsystems Japan (both links are Japanese only) a couple of weeks ago. Check out his cool and useful application here. The service (designed and programmed by him alone!) is also available in English!

The party lasted 4 hours (although only 2 hours were planned) and Robert did a great job hosting it although he had to entertain approximately 25 people ;).

Web 2.0 Expo in Tokyo: My opinion

Today, I took part in the Web 2.0 Expo in Shibuya, Tokyo (other locations include San Francisco and Berlin).

Well, what can I say. It was full but not awfully good.

Pros:
- the event is well organized
- the food is good ;)
- the people attending the Expo were really nice

Cons:
- not enough exhibitors
- no spectacular news (maybe that would be asking too much)
- VERY low level of internationalization

Especially the last point made me a little angry. I can read Japanese so it is not really my problem. But I think it is just disrespectful not to give any kind of information in English to visitors. No English guide books, no English texts on the booth displays, almost no staff capable of giving information to foreigners.

That means people coming from Europe and the US go to Tokyo and the exhibition part of the Expo is totally useless for them. The conferences/speeches etc. were translated of course.

Another thing:
Some of the presentations - especially from companies from abroad - were serious catastrophies. It is not my intention to nag here but I was really puzzled how companies can throw out money out of the window like that. People were standing at the podium and speaking English with heavy accents about products nobody understood due to poor presentation skills.

That was a shame, really, because some of the products who were marketed that way are really good.

Also, tomorrow I will attend the official Launch Party of Blognation Japan. I will report if I won a prize tomorrow ;).