Search - mobile

 
 
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Dec 1, 2002

Tapping into the future of wireless communication

In late 2001, domestic heavyweight NTT DoCoMo, flying high on the popularity of its i-mode mobile Web service, launched the world's first ultrahigh-speed, "third-generation" wireless network.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Sep 27, 2019

How a sanctions-busting smartphone business thrives in North Korea

North Korea is evading U.N. sanctions by profiting on the soaring domestic demand for smartphones, according to defectors, experts and an analysis of North Korean-made phones.
EDITORIALS
Nov 8, 2018

Make real cuts to cellphone charges

The carriers need to continue their efforts to improve their services while reducing the charges for consumers through more efficient operation and use of their resources.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 6, 2008

Warm reception may not await iPhone in Japan

Unlike much of the rest of the world, Japan is unlikely to embrace the iPhone, Apple Inc.'s Internet-enabled multimedia mobile phone, said Nahoko Mitsuyama, a telecom analyst at Gartner Japan who attended the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, in February.
BUSINESS
Aug 31, 2000

Tsutaya eyes ads on cellphone Web sites

A graphic small enough to be hidden under your thumb is expected to bring in millions of yen in revenues for Japan's biggest rental video chain, Tsutaya.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Oct 26, 2022

Smartphone storage space is the new turf war for game-makers

Japanese games publisher Gree expects a reckoning over escalating costs and ballooning file sizes as developers pack their games with increasingly intricate graphics and storylines.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Feb 5, 2008

WiMAX set to alter wireless landscape

Now that the government has licensed use of the 2.5-gigahertz bandwidth, Japan will soon be joining South Korea, Taiwan and others in offering next-generation wireless services for users of mobile phones and computers.
BUSINESS
Jul 14, 2006

Firms to get help in wireless market

The Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry plans to draw up a new set of rules this fall to allow companies that do not own their own wireless infrastructure to more easily enter the mobile communications business, ministry officials said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Jan 27, 2003

C&W IDC exec hands on challenge of making telecom regulations fairer

Changes in Japan's telecommunications industry over the past two years have been far-reaching and important, but much remains to be done to achieve a truly free and transparent market, according to Lisa Suits, outgoing vice president of the public policy division of Cable & Wireless IDC Inc.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 3, 2002

Japan makes a profitable connection

THE MOBILE INTERNET: How Japan Dialed Up and the West Disconnected, by Jeffrey Lee Funk. ISI Publications, 2001, 200 pp. $32 (cloth) In the 1970s and '80s, Japanese carmakers flooded world markets with products fresh from factories where workers wore uniforms, sorted parts into brightly colored bins,...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 26, 2013

Young Gree chief loses $2.6 billion to smartphone boom

In five years, Yoshikazu Tanaka became Japan's youngest billionaire as investors piled into Gree Inc., valuing his controlling stake in the early maker of phone-based games at $4 billion. Just 18 months later, that has shriveled to about $1.4 billion.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Jun 24, 2009

Mixi faces challenges as competition grows

Early last month, Mixi CEO Kenji Kasahara came under intense pressure. That was on the day that his company, Japan's biggest social-networking operator, announced its financial results and forecast for the year: Its profit would fall by 15 percent from the previous year, the first such decline in growth...
BUSINESS
May 15, 2008

Internet businesses try luck in overseas markets

While Japanese products from cars to TVs are known throughout the world, the country's Internet services have so far been conspicuously absent abroad.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Nov 5, 2003

Weathernews finds silver lining in abnormal global patterns

Many countries witnessed abnormal weather this past summer, from devastating heat waves in Europe to economy-chilling cold weather in Japan.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 22, 2015

Internet banking slow to take root in nation where branches offer friendly face time

For bank analyst Mac Salman, the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi flagship branch in Tokyo is so majestic that he brings friends and family there when they visit Japan.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy / YEN FOR LIVING
May 23, 2015

Phone users in Japan still paying for plenty of stuff they don't need

Despite efforts to shake up competition in the cellphone market, consumers are paying more than ever for mobile services.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / TECH_JAPAN
Dec 26, 2012

2012 in tech — and what it means for the year ahead

In the world of technology, the past year has seen a changing of the guard in almost every sector. Personal computers, mobile devices, gaming and Internet services have all seen incredible developments, with new challengers taking the place of old incumbents. As we move into the new year, we'll meet...
JAPAN
Jun 29, 2012

Fewer users inclined to recycle cellphones

For the first time in three years, the number of mobile phones recycled in Japan was down in fiscal 2011, a reflection of the tendency of people to hang on to their handsets even after canceling their contracts, according to the Telecommunications Carriers Association.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language
Sep 23, 2007

Cellphone bards hit bestseller lists

Like many other young Japanese, Rin, 21, punches her mobile phone keys very quickly. Holding her phone with two hands, and moving her thumbs deftly and smoothly, she quickly generates sentences on the small screen.
BUSINESS
Feb 6, 2003

Matsushita missed boat on camera phones: exec

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. missed its goal of capturing 25 percent of Japan's cellular phone market because of its late introduction of camera phones, the head of the company's mobile communications unit said. Panasonic brand cell phones finished 2002 with less than 20 percent of the domestic...
JAPAN
Feb 8, 2002

Are cell phones becoming too disruptive?

Masahito Tagami spent some 900,000 yen on a relay antenna system when he opened an "izakaya" restaurant in the basement of a building in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo, last April, so that customers could use their mobile phones.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 6, 2021

Singapore ready to cash in on Southeast Asia's esports boom

The tiny city-state is emerging as a force in hosting events related to mobile and video games, and is cultivating itself as a hub for the industry.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 23, 2019

China holds the key to 5G technology's growth

To build the 5G network infrastructure in the U.S. smoothly and at a low cost, the U.S. and China should discuss their high-tech frictions and explore a solution.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Aug 5, 2015

Japanese smartphone carriers offer mixed responses to Android flaw

A recently discovered security flaw affecting some 95 percent of Android mobile devices means users are at risk of being hacked just by receiving a short message with malicious intent.
North Korea's claimed successful separation and guidance control test of individual mobile warheads is seen in this image released Thursday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jun 27, 2024

In a first, North Korea claims successful multiple-warhead missile test

Such a capability would potentially allow Pyongyang to use a single missile to drop nuclear warheads on a broad swath of targets.
An attendee wears an Apple Vision Pro while holding the Apple iPhone 16 Pro during an event at Apple Park campus in Cupertino, California, on Monday. Apple introduced the latest version of its flagship device, the iPhone 16.
EDITORIALS
Sep 13, 2024

The genie is out of the bottle and headed for your phone

The touchscreen smartphone is now humankind's ubiquitous companion, and with each new product release, phone makers unveil new innovations.
Silver Rathalos was among several monsters in the Monster Hunter universe that debuted at an in-person Monster Hunter Now event in Shibuya hosted by developer Niantic on the weekend of Oct. 13.
BUSINESS / Tech
Oct 16, 2024

Gamers hunt for monsters in Tokyo as Niantic searches for a hit

In Monster Hunter Now, the San Francisco-based company behind Pokemon Go is looking to emulate the success of the immensely popular 2016 game.
Rakuten's sale of 15% stake in its credit card arm to Mizuho Financial Group would give the e-commerce pioneer a one-time gain of ¥159.4 billion in the current quarter.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 14, 2024

Rakuten sells Mizuho 15% of credit card arm for ¥165 billion

The sale would give the e-commerce pioneer a one-time gain of ¥159.4 billion in the current quarter, Rakuten said in a statement Wednesday.

Longform

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat