The Internet in Japan

if you’re coming to japan for a couple of weeks or months and want to use your phone, but don’t want to hire one or pay outrageous roaming fees for data then bmobile is for you.

bmobile offer sim cards that connect to the ntt docomo network and give unlimited data connection, albeit at slightly slower data transfer rates than is possible with the big players.

however, the cost is amazing: unlimited data packets in three plans: 1 month (about Y3500), 6 months (Y30000) or 1 year (Y60000).

They also have sims for iphones allowing you to use an import phone without using softbank (who are shit).

bmobile have also launched a talking sim plan which offers voice, the ability to transfer your japanese phone number to them and unlimited data for a flat fee of about Y3500 a month (including 25 minutes of voice).

The data only sims are available in many major electrical retailers for over the counter (6 or 12 months only) but you can get the 1 month direct from their website (unfortunately delivery only to japan).

so if you’re coming over to do study, travel for a bit or whatever and want to bring your phone and do mostly data then i can highly recommend bmobile.

english site

list of all bmobile stuff on amazon.co.jp

bmobile online shop (direct order including 1 month data only sim available only from them online – check the boxes at the bottom and click on the left for credit card payments. use google translate if you get stuck!)

have fun.

Although Japan is home to massive amounts of hitec computers, cell phones, laptops, PDAs, etc if you’re living here and don’t read or write Japanese then access to this technology can be limited! Of course you can just buy a PC and hope for the best, but many shops do offer alternatives, and there are also slowly emerging niche companies offering PC support in English. PCTokyo has a full online shop and range of computers and laptops sll in English. Ooh Japan also has a good range of PCs but offers a services where they buy for you from the manufacturer rather than build themselves, so the OS may not be available in English. GDEX dosen’t really have many PCs but has a range of video games (in Japanese). If you’re into shopping around then of course you can feast your eyes at the big stores like Yodabashi Camera, Bic Camera, and Softmap gigastore. While the default install operating systems for these is Japanese you can ask them to put an English OS on, but you’ll get charged an extra fee. Here are a couple more stores with English speaking service. http://www.primepc.jp/goods_pc/goods_pc.php http://www.laox.co.jp/store/df/index.html Softmap Gigastore has a lot of second hand stuff, especially laptops, and although the prices aren’t so discounted, they do usually only stock quality goods mostly from corporate clearances or unsold end of line. Sometimes you’ll find a PC or laptop there without any OS which makes it cheaper but also gives the the chance to install your own version which you can pick up on Ebay and get shipped over. Yahoo auctions are also a good place to find PCs and stuff, but again the OS will usually be in Japanese. Also, yahoo auction is a bit of a problem as you have to pay a monthly charge!!!! (grrrr). Alternatively you can just check out the local trash pile on trash day – a friend once picked up a fully working PC complete with operating system and programs just by asking a neighbor if it was trash, and it’s often possible to see lots of equipment left out for the gomi especially in downtown business areas. To get picked up the trash needs a pick up code attached to it, so if you spy something on the street with a bit of paper with numbers etc on it then there’s a good chance it being dumped. If you have the balls, just ask a local if it’s trash and if they say yes, you just yourself a new PC.

First it was link exchanges boxes , then link buying, then republished article writing and now the latest big thing in internet marketing is getting mentioned in blogs to increase your incoming links. Some things happen naturally, people see your site and you get linked or digged and traffic gets insane. However, a sensible marketing strategy should be focused on creating your own luck and this is where sponsored reviews or blog posts come in. A couple of sites are now offering the chance to connect marketers with bloggers in return for a financial nod, and the trend is set to boom. Getting a blog review done has positive benefits for your marketing. Firstly each review or article will be unique as it’s written by someone with their own style and opinions. This overcomes the dreaded duplicate content filter. Second, people read and click on stuff written by an author they return to time and again, much in the same way you have your favorite paper and tend to be more open to suggestion when you’re already half way sold – and by this I mean that you have already made a subconscious identification with the paper and its values so you are probably more inclined to align with its views and editorials. Thirdly, it’s cheap! Permenant one way links embedded in content is exactly what search engines are looking for and give weight to. No monthly fees, probably a small charge ranging from $5-50. Relative to a single mail shot or ad in a regular newspaper you’re getting golddust for a fraction of its real value!

Pay per click is an advertising system used by search engines where you bid on a keyword term and you ad gets displayed on the search engine or affiliate websites and whenever someone clicks on the ad you have to pay for it. The amount depends on other bidders and the popularity of the ad, among other things. Here is a full in depth guide to pay per click management which shows how you can increase your revenues through more efficiently and effectively managing your campaigns. If you’re after another way to advertise to the Japanese market apart from the infamous Google adwords program, and the massively popular Yahoo system there here are a list of potential advertising systems which work in a similar way. You can sign up both as an advertiser and as a publisher for these websites (all Japanese). First up is Adconmatch which offers a variety of different models including banner and text link contextual adverts for your site. For publishers and advertisers the site is very simple to use and you can be up and running very quickly (publishers, the activation is instant!) and prices start from 10 yen a click. Next you can try Joyful click (I love the way Asians use Joyful and happy in business names! A building located near me translates to the Big Happy Building Anyways, this one is also focused on banner and text link advertising although I’m not sure how good their contextual placement is it seems to be a bit more of a key word matching rather than an algorithmically led system. I couldn’t find an obvious way to sign up as a publisher here, but I’m sure there is one. Matchsmart is the technology behind Yahoo in Japan and it’s fairly straightfoward to sign up with them as an advertiser or a publisher. Just follow the links from the bottom of the home page.

Baidu, the Chinese search engine giant will soon be entering the Japanese search market. Although the dominant search engine in Japan is Yahoo, which also controls a large ISP service, Google is trying to gain leverage and this ambition from China will see an interesting struggle for second place in 2007. The Chinese president of Biadu, Robin Li, said: “Baidu eyes the Japanese market as its ‘ideal next step.’ ~ [based on] six months of extensive research into the development of Japanese language search technology.” The reasons are obvious – Japan is the second largest economy and Baidu wants to grab a slice. With internet penetration reaching into the 80s in Japan, and with high speed ADSL and fiber the standard way of connecting Japan is a juicy fruit for web 2.0 technologies. We’ll have to wait and see if this attempt to enter Japan, where consumer loyalty is famous, can do anything to dent Yahoo’s power.