Japan

Sony PSP outsells Nintendo DS in Japan

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According to the sales analysis of Enterbrain the Sony PSP outsold the Nintendo DS last month.

Sony sold 256,765 PSP consoles and Nintendo sold 217,639 units.
This is not the first time the PSP has outsold the Nintendo DS. Sony said in July that they already sold 10 million PSP consoles in Japan alone. Read more

Posted on Fri, 1 Aug 2008 05:00:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Nintendo Wii outsells PS3 3-to-1 in Japan in July

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TOKYO (Reuters) - Nintendo Co Ltd's Wii video game console outsold Sony Corp's PlayStation 3 by more than 3-to-1 in Japan in July, a game magazine publisher said.
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Posted on Fri, 1 Aug 2008 02:55:29 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Nintendo sues 5 Japan Firms over Game Equipment

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Japan's Nintendo Co Ltd said on Tuesday it had filed a lawsuit against five Japanese firms for importing and selling equipment that enables illegal game programs to be played on Nintendo's popular DS portable video game player.
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Posted on Tue, 29 Jul 2008 03:36:25 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Japan Firms to work out next-gen car Battery Norms

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TOKYO (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp , Nissan Motor Co , Matsushita Electric Industrial Co and other Japanese companies will work together to set up common standards for lithium-ion batteries being developed to power next-generation cars, the Nikkei business daily said on Saturday.
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Posted on Sat, 19 Jul 2008 01:32:43 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Sony sold 10 million Sony PSP Consoles in Japan

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Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) today announced that the cumulative sell-in units of PSP handheld entertainment system (PSP-1000 and 2000 series) reached a total of 10 million units in Japan as of July 15, 2008.

The Sony PSP was launched in Japan on December 12th 2004 in Japan. The slim and light PSP (PSP-2000) made its debut on September 20th 2007 and in the first half of 2008(according to Enterbrain), it has become the best selling system in the game console market in Japan. Read more

Posted on Tue, 15 Jul 2008 11:25:46 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Sony Playstation Home Site available in Japan

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The last thing we reported about the Sony Playstation Home 3D world was that the open beta for Playstation Home is to start this fall.

I just stumbled over a website Sony has setup for Playstation Home in Japan. I am not sure how long the site has been online, but it has lots of screenshots and explains on a high level Playstation Home and its main components. Read more

Posted on Mon, 7 Jul 2008 04:43:28 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

PSP hotter than Wii in Japan

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According to the latest sales numbers of video game consoles in Japan the Sony PSP outsells the Nintendo Wii. Of course it is not a fair comparison as the PSP is a portable console and the Wii is a home console, but the Wii outsells the PSP in the U.S. by a huge margin.

According to the Enterbrain sales data the PSP sold 274,131 units in June and the Wii sold 235,990 units. The PSP also outsold the Nintendo DS. Read more

Posted on Fri, 4 Jul 2008 12:47:16 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Sony PS3 gains on Nintendo Wii Sales in Japan

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The Sony PS3 console sales are getting closer to the still leading Wii console according to June sales numbers in Japan

Enterbrain reports that Nintendo sold 235,990 Wii consoles in the five weeks ended June 29th, while sales of the Sony PS3 reached 139,494 units.

The Xbox 360 does not count in the Japanese console race in Japan with only 10,964 consoles. Read more

Posted on Thu, 3 Jul 2008 06:46:53 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Japanese Students schooled with Nintendo

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By Dan Sloan

TOKYO (Reuters) - Nintendo is banned everywhere but the classroom at Tokyo Joshi Gakuen school in Japan as the ubiquitous DS consoles become the latest tool in English instruction.
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Posted on Fri, 27 Jun 2008 13:34:32 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Nokia plays catch up in Japan

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TOKYO (Reuters) - Nokia Corp will add public wireless LAN access to its handsets in Japan in a bid to keep pace with smaller Japanese rivals that already provide such network connections.
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Posted on Wed, 25 Jun 2008 14:00:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

iPhone 3G priced by Softbank in Japan

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In early June Softbank announced that they will be bringing the iPhone 3G to Japan. Today the Japanese carrier revealed the pricing for the iPhone 3G.

The 8GB iPhone 3G sells for about 23,000 yen (~$213). Customers can also pay that price in 24 monthly installments. Read more

Posted on Mon, 23 Jun 2008 13:31:43 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Sony PS3 leads weekly Console Sales Chart in Japan

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Metal Gear Solid 4 apparently has a big impact on Sony PS3 console sales in Japan.

For the first time this year the Sony PS3 is leading the weekly video game console sales charts in Japan.
Sony sold 75,311 PS3 consoles in Japan last week. Read more

Posted on Sat, 21 Jun 2008 11:00:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Japanese Piggy Bank helps Savers enjoy Romance

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TOKYO (Reuters) - You can't buy love, but with a Japanese piggy bank that combines thrift with virtual romance, you can at least save up for it.
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Posted on Thu, 19 Jun 2008 08:08:23 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

IBM links with Japan's TOK to develop Solar Technology

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By Matt Daily

NEW YORK (Reuters) - IBM has joined forces with semiconductor process company Tokyo Ohka Kogyo (TOK) to develop more efficient solar power technologies to cut the cost of the clean energy source, the companies said on Monday.
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Posted on Mon, 16 Jun 2008 00:17:45 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Softbank brings 3G iPhone to Japan

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Softbank Mobile Corp. announced today in a very brief statement that the company has signed an agreement with Apple to bring the iPhone to Japan later this year.

Softbank has bought Vodafone's Japan unit in 2006 and has been tackling NTT DoCoMo and KDDI with aggressive marketing and low-price plans. The iPhone will sure help Softbank to increase their market share in Japan. Read more

Posted on Wed, 4 Jun 2008 05:00:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Softbank says to sell Apple's iPhone in Japan

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TOKYO (Reuters) - Softbank Corp , Japan's third-biggest mobile phone operator, has agreed with Apple Inc to sell iPhones in Japan by the end of this year, Softbank said in a statement on Wednesday.
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Posted on Wed, 4 Jun 2008 04:12:54 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Blu-ray DVD Recorder Sales rising fast in Japan

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TOKYO (Reuters) - Sales of high definition Blu-ray DVD recorders are zooming up in Japan as consumers take to the new generation of home movie entertainment after the end of a bitter format war.
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Posted on Wed, 28 May 2008 00:47:10 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Sony Playstation Network reaches 1 million Accounts in Japan

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Sony announces that the Playstation Network has reached 1 million users in Japan alone.

The Sony Playstation Store has 400,000 unique Playstation Network users per month. Since the launch at the end of 2006, 17 million content items have been downloaded. Read more

Posted on Tue, 27 May 2008 00:54:25 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Japan's Arcade Industry slumps as Wii takes off

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By Edwina Gibbs

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese superhero Ultraman vanquishes an evil enemy during a live performance at a Tokyo games arcade. But Ultraman's real battle is proving much harder -- enticing customers back to the nation's arcades.
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Posted on Sun, 18 May 2008 10:57:56 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Wrinkles could be key to buying Cigarettes in Japan

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TOKYO (Reuters) - Cigarette vending machines in Japan may soon start counting wrinkles, crow's feet and skin sags to see if the customer is old enough to smoke.
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Posted on Mon, 12 May 2008 07:00:55 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Takara Tomy Air Guitar Pro from Japan

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Takara Tomy introduced the fun Air Guitar Pro in Japan last year. In the wake of Guitar Hero: On Tour I stumbled over them again and also found a must see Japanese video review of these Air Guitar gadgets.

This toy consists of the upper neck of a guitar featuring an infrared sensor that senses your air guitar moves. The guitar had has seven buttons on the front to press to hold down chords and also buttons on the side to identify the chords as major, minor, augmented, or diminished. Read more