10.29.03
New Cell Phone Boasts Built-in Digital Television and Video Recorder

Sanyo will soon release a cell phone with a video recorder and television built in, reports Australia's Gizmo magazine. The phone was displayed recently at a Tokyo technology show. Other companies like NEC and Samsung have similar models, and the new phones are expected to be released in the coming year. The phone uses a normal terrestrial TV receiver, as opposed to streaming video, plus multiple antennas for stable digital TV reception. It also can record and play back up to 30 minutes of programming. Users of this new phone in Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya will benefit first, as those major cities will receive terrestrial digital TV broadcasts beginning in December.
 -- By Japan Media Review Associate Editor Shellie Branco
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10.28.03
Voice Recognition Software to Enable Keyword Searches of Online Audio and Video

In a few years, searching online audio and video will be as easy and quick as searching text, reports the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Technology Review. Japanese researchers from the University of Tsukuba, the Japan Science and Technology Corporation (CREST) and the Japanese National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology have found a simple way to retrieve stored audio and video information online using speech recognition software and character recognition scanning. The search technology generates text from audio tracks using speech recognition software and optical character recognition scans of related text. Users can broaden their search to include other materials such as lectures and newspaper articles. The researchers estimate the system will be ready in three to six years.
 -- By Japan Media Review Associate Editor Keiko Mori
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10.28.03
NTT DoCoMo and Sony Develop E-Wallet for Cell Phones

Never mind pulling out cash at the store -- Japanese cell phone users will soon be able to buy groceries, concert tickets and train passes through their handsets. Sony Corp. and NTT DoCoMo Inc., the largest cell phone operator in Japan, will develop "e-wallet" technology based on Sony's FeliCa smart card, reports The Japan Times. NTT DoCoMo said it hopes to launch a test service for cell phones equipped with the technology in December and the "smart wallet" features will be available by mid-2004. Keiji Tachikawa, chief executive of NTT DoCoMo, believes the chip has many potential uses and could even contain passport data in the future.
 -- By Japan Media Review Associate Editor Shellie Branco
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10.27.03
Global French TV Station to Broadcast Satellite Programs in Japan

French broadcasting superpower TV5 Monde will target French and English speakers in Japan by launching French-language public satellite broadcasts on Nov. 1. An estimated 15,000 French people live in Japan, where French is the most studied language after English. The station is partnering with Japan's Nippon BS Broadcasting Corp., reports Japan Today. TV5 Monde, the world's second most popular station after MTV, broadcasts in other Asian nations. But Japan is one of the last nations in Asia to partner with the station because Japanese satellites "can barely receive foreign transmissions," said TV5 Monde president Serge Adda. The station will target students of the language and provide movies, news, dramas and culture programs with English subtitles.
 -- By Japan Media Review Associate Editor Shellie Branco
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10.25.03
Veteran Nippon TV Producer Caught in Viewer Ratings Bribery Scandal

A producer at Nippon Television Network Corp, one of the five major stations in Japan, allegedly bribed TV viewer rating monitors to manipulate the ratings of his variety show, reports The Japan Times. The manipulation of viewer ratings is unheard of in Japan, according to the report. The producer, who has been in charge of variety shows since 1991, is said to have hired a credit research agent in Saitama to identify a dozen households selected as TV viewer ratings monitors by the only TV ratings survey company in Japan, Video Research Ltd. The ratings company keeps the identities of the households strictly confidential. On four occasions between July 2002 and last month, the producer reportedly asked an acquaintance to request the household viewers to watch at least six shows he produced. In return, he allegedly mailed rewards of between 5,000 yen (about $45) and 10,000 yen (about $90) to the households and paid the credit research agent 100,000 yen (about $920) as a reward. Toshio Hagiwara, president of Nippon Television, apologized over the scandal in a news conference held at the company's headquarters in Tokyo.
 -- By Japan Media Review Associate Editor Keiko Mori
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10.16.03
Record TV Shows at Home, Watch Them on a Cell Phone Later

Cell phone users can now record analog terrestrial TV programming with a new application from Memory Stick, a manufacturer of portable memory cards. According to Japan Corporate News Network, the "Mobile Movie" application allows users to play back recorded video on an array of mobile Memory Stick-compatible devices, including a mobile phone from KDDI Corp. and Okinawa Cellular Telephone Co. unveiled recently at an annual Tokyo electronics show. Other Memory Stick applications include still images and music recording and playback. Memory Stick plans to expand to a greater range of in-car devices and other mobile products in Japan and overseas.
 -- By Japan Media Review Associate Editor Shellie Branco
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10.16.03
Japanese Advertisers Spending More on TV, Less on Newspapers and Online

Online advertising spending in Japan declined 15 percent in 2002, according to the Dentsu Advertising Agency's annual survey. As the United Kingdom's Daily Research News Online reports, Dentsu also reported that advertising spending in newspapers decreased by 11 percent and TV by about 6 percent. Overall, ad spending in Japan decreased by 5.9 percent, despite a temporary boost from the Winter Olympics and the World Cup. And ads for electronics increased, while ads for information and communication decreased by around 19 percent.
 -- By Japan Media Review Associate Editor Shellie Branco
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10.10.03
Commentary: Web-based Campaigns for Japan?

While the Public Offices Election Law will be amended to allow Japanese political parties to distribute campaign material in brochure form, the more urgent reform in campaign rules is to permit use of the Internet, The Asahi Shimbun reports. In the United States and South Korea, the Internet has proven to be a powerful medium to gain support for presidential and congressional campaigns.

Web-based campaigning is illegal in Japan, where more than 50 million people use the Internet. All major political parties have their own Web sites to report their political activity and Diet deliberations are frequently presented on live Webcasts in Japan. Two years ago the Democratic Party of Japan suggested that the ban on Internet campaigning should be ended. Opponents within the Liberal Democratic Party say that use of the Internet could encourage slander. Last year, the Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications reported that the Web would serve as a good communication tool for candidates to describe their political positions in more detail. The study also suggested that a Web-based campaign would be more cost-effective than traditional telephone campaigns.
 -- By Japan Media Review Associate Editors Keiko Mori and Zhen Wang
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10.07.03
Student-Run Internet Station Plans Awards Ceremony

From Daily Yomiuri: The Internet television channel, Medista, at the Institute of Media and Communications Research, Keio University, is planning an "Internet Content Festa" at the University's annual festival. The aim of this event is to collect programs made by students from all over Japan and air the awards function live online. The station started broadcasting in April 2002, with the mission to "report on the here and now from a student perspective." It airs around 60 programs and undertakes a major broadcast, such as a report from abroad, once a month. Students are responsible for the entire operation from planning to production and delivery.
 -- By Japan Media Review Associate Editor Keiko Mori
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