GOVERNMENT & POLICY

Patent Office opens E-Library
Japan's Patent Office plans to make available approximately 40 million patent-related documents, including utility model and trademark information, available free of charge over the Internet. The new "Electronic Patent Library," which the office claims will be the world's largest patent- related database, will become searchable starting in March 1999. Venture firms, universities and researchers will be able to easily search for patent related to their work, greatly improving the efficiency of R&D efforts, according to the Patent Office.

Government launches Y2K measures
The Japanese government, in an effort to make the private sector come to grips with the looming Y2K problem, will launch a number of initiatives that include requiring listed corporations to disclose in their annual reports the status of their Y2K efforts and expenses involved. The government is also launching risk management teams that will work closely with "infrastructure" sectors such as electric power, finance and communications to draft standard Y2K strategy manuals and recommend precautionary measures. Japan's bureaucrats recognize the potential millennium bug has to cause widespread disruption of business and commerce, and want to implement practical measures ahead of the other advanced nations, according to a spokesman.

BUSINESS BRIEFS

Recruit gives leased line business to NTT
RECRUIT will withdraw from the leased line resale business in June and transfer its accounts to NTT DATA. RECRUIT had leased lines from NTT and resold capacity at a discount to corporate customers, but decided that it would be impossible to grow the reseller business on a standalone basis. NTT DATA plans to start offering information development and other new services to RECRUIT's former leased line customers.

Compaq and SAP to offer ERP to small companies
COMPAQ (JAPAN) is moving into the enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions business under a partnership with SAP, the world's largest ERP software maker. COMPAQ released R/3PAQ-RRR, a server bundled with Windows NT and SAP's flagship R/3 product. Together COMPAQ and SAP will deliver and develop ERP solutions to small and midsized companies. Prices start at \9.8 million ($73,134). By offering an easy-to-install bundled solution, the partners hope to gain ground on NEC, which enjoys the number one server sales position in Japan.

Fujitsu to sell secure software
FUJITSU has unveiled SecureVision, a line of more than 30 software products and seven services designed to provide secure network computing environments on behalf of corporate customers. The company hopes to win a 30% share of the emerging market for network computing solutions, and foresees sales of \100 billion ($746.3 mil) from the new line over the next three years, including sales of \60 billion ($447.8 mil) in 2000. It hopes to have 50 engineers devoted to the new business by March 1999, and 300 on staff by 2000.

Computer repairs in 24 hours
IBM JAPAN and YAMATO TRANSPORT have teamed up to start offering this month a new service whereby salespeople can have their notebook PCs or PDAs picked up and repaired within 24 hours, and enjoy use of loaner equipment in the interim. Subscribers will call an IBM JAPAN help desk, after which a YAMATO TRANSPORT driver will pick up the item to be repaired and provide identical loaner equipment. IBM JAPAN has also struck a similar deal with KINKO'S JAPAN, and is reportedly considering similar tie-ups with convenience stores and other unconventional outlets.

IBM provides in-house setup
IBM JAPAN plans from August 10 to start offering as part of its eBusiness service menu IBM Internet/Intranet All-in-One, a service whereby customers can set up on IBM premises equipment that allows them to connect their in-house systems to the Internet. IBM JAPAN will handle development, management and maintenance of the equipment on an outsourcing basis, all at lower cost compared to customers handling the systems themselves, according to the company. The new service will require an initial setup fee of \3.5 million($26,119), and monthly fees starting at \330,000($2,463).

Sony gives birth to Deepspace
SONY COMPUTER ENTERTAINMENT (SCE) will on May 15 establish in cooperation with Osaka-based UPICAMP a new game software production firm to be called DEEPSPACE. It will be the fourth company that SCE has spun off to give more independence to in-house creative staff. The new firm, which will be capitalized at 10 million yen ($74,627) and start operations with a staff of 20, will focus on development of adventure games to be sold by SCE. SCE will hold a 50.5% share in the new company.

Japanese UnixWare7
NIHON SCO will on May 25 release a Japanese version of UnixWare7. The UNIX operating system integrates UnixWare2.1 and OpenServer. Designed for UNIX running on PC servers based on INTEL microprocessors, the 64bit OS will support the Merced, a 64bit server MPU INTEL is developing. An enterprise version is priced at \750,000($5,597). The company plans to ship 30,000 copies the first year.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

HP exports encryption tech to Japan
HEWLETT-PACKARD has won approval from the US government to export to Japan VerSecure, its latest encryption service technology. VerSecure enables high-speed encryption using 128bit keys, enabling secure business-to-business information interchange and secure online transactions, according to HP. In February the company won approval to export the technology to five countries including the UK and Germany: Japan will become its sixth export market. Domestic sales will be handled by HP JAPAN.

Japanese/Chinese ODB on sale
FUJITSU and COMPUTER ASSOCIATES (CA) of the US have jointly developed Jasmine 1.2, a polyglot version of object- oriented database (ODB) software which supports Japanese and Chinese. Capable of handling multimedia data, the software helps users design online catalogs, employee training software and presentation materials which feature voice narrations, video pictures as well as text. The Windows NT workgroup and enterprise versions are priced from \400,000 ($3,008) and \1,500,000 ($11,278), respectively, and the Solaris version lists from \3,370,000($25,338). FUJITSU is aiming to ship 30,000 packages in Japan over three years. The partners plan eventually to support as many as 10 languages.

New alliances in open systems
HEWLETT-PACKARD JAPAN and ORACLE JAPAN will strengthen their relationship in the open system business. The partners in cooperation with NEC, HITACHI, OKI ELECTRIC, and MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC will launch the High Performance System Alliance (HPSA) Center which will provide information on and promote sales of mission critical systems based on HP-UX, HP's UNIX operating system, and Oracle 8 Enterprise Edition, ORACLE's database.

INTERNET/EC

DDI and commercial TV on Net
DDI will start experimenting with new content on its CyberStation datacasting service. Three times per day the company will transmit via TBS and FUJI TELEVISION news and game-related content, further details for which can be found separately on the Internet. The company plans to start incorporating shopping-related information into the datacasts in July. Getting serious about its cyber business, DDI hopes that providing enhanced content will drive subscriptions to its Internet connectivity service.

Net usage fees time-shifted
Network services firm NTTPC COMMUNICATIONS will start offering a new type of discounted Internet connectivity service to corporate clients. Most corporate customers use the Internet almost exclusively during the day, but very little at night. NTTPC will therefore subtract from subscribers' basic monthly charges the cost of half nighttime capacity, resulting in significant discounts. Details have yet to be worked out, but NTTPC also plans to offer a service based on "packet shaping technology" that enables users to change the capacity of network connections to their Web servers based on time of day and other factors.

HP makes Personal E-Money Device
HEWLETT-PACKARD subsidiary VERIFONE has developed P-ATM, a personal-use electronic money ATM device designed for the Japan market. The new product will be released in October for use in an electronic money experiment planned by VISA INTERNATIONAL for implementation in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward. The device enables the user to "replenish" electronic money cards, or even transfer balances on a card back into a bank account, according to VERIFONE. P-ATM will be sold in Japan through VERIFONE subsidiary VERITECH for around \10,000($75), but will be furnished free of charge to experiment participants who are using DC CARD credit cards.

Sony remakes music site
SONY MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT (SME) has renovated its Web site. Offered under Sony Music Online Japan (SMOJ), the site, which averages 3 million hits weekly, provides various music- related information and live-broadcast concerts. Plans call for starting a free membership system, CUBE, to conduct e-mail-based user surveys and provide SMOJ information by e-mail every week.

New names in document storage
RICOH will start an Internet-based document storage service within the year. The company foresees growing interest in document storage operations as the result of a January revision of litigation-related law that increases the burden on corporations to submit documentation to courts. FUJI-XEROX, too, sees an emerging opportunity and is setting up a new organization dedicated to developing and managing document databases and storage systems on an outsourcing basis. Industry watchers say the document management business is poised for rapid growth amid growing needs to save space and reduce storage costs.

DENSO improves smartcards
DENSO will expand noncontact smartcard output capacity. The company, which manufactures 20,000 units per month at its headquarters plant in Kariya, Aichi Prefecture, plans to begin production at 2 million units monthly at its Zenmei plant in January 1999 and boost monthly output to 5 million units by 2000. The moves are in response to orders for noncontact smartcards from NTT. Plans call for investing 3.5 billion yen ($25.9 mil) in the smartcard business between fiscal 1998 and 2000.

Japan's first EC service
Kawasaki-based VERISIGN JAPAN will provide its OnSite electronic verification solution to SUMITOMO BANK. SUMITOMO will start WEB Direct, a new version of its Internet banking service, and will use OnSite as the mechanism for issuing electronic signatures. WEB Direct will be the first commercial service in Japan to make the use of 128bit SSL encryption, according to SUMITOMO. The bank started using VERISIGN's services when it launched the first version of its Internet banking service in January 1997.

Fuji launches all-purpose e-cash card
FUJI BANK says that this fall it will become the world's first bank to offer Internet banking services whereby a cash card can be used on the Internet to shop, deposit or transfer funds into or between accounts, and conduct other business. Users will go to FUJI BANK's Web site and enter ID numbers and passwords to use their accounts. The company has been experimenting with the system since March 1997, and hopes to conduct final field trials with 10,000 volunteers starting in June. A FUJI spokesman said that MASTERCARD INTERNATIONAL has already indicated that it plans to adopt FUJI's "debit settlement system" as standard technology, raising the possibility that a Japanese bank may provide a world-leading standard technology.

MARKET NEWS

Shipments of domestic PCs down
Domestic PC shipments declined 5% year-on-year to 6,851,000 units in fiscal 1997,according to the Japan Electronics Industry Development Association (JEIDA). Desktop PC shipments dropped 13% to 3,834,000 units, while notebook PC shipments reached 3,010,000 units, up 18%. Production including exports slipped 6% to 8,170,000 units. In value terms, domestic PC shipments were down 6% to \1,7 billion ($12.35 bil). Including exports, PC and allied product shipments reached \2,7 trillion ($20.43 bil), down 3%. The JEIDA predicts that domestic PC shipments will climb 5% in volume to 7,200,000 units in fiscal 1998, about the same level of fiscal 1996, and 2% in value to \2,100 billion($15.67 bil).

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