July 2001 Issue

On the cover: This man's got an issue (in more than one sense).
Photograph by Norio Matsunuma

July 2001
No. 21

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July 2001 Issue

In Touch
	From the Editor

Features
	Blue About Japan Shuji Nakamura invented the blue laser. That was big. If you've got a DVD player, thank this guy. But Nakamura, profoundly disillusioned by his treatment from corporate Japan, saw the light and fled to California.

	Hard Cell Japan's cellphone giants are about to conquer the planet, right? Wrong. We're not talkin' boomboxes and Walkmans here -- software integration and internationalization are serious barriers.

	Creativity in the Wilderness The Inter-Cross Creative Center is in Sapporo -- in the middle of nowhere, some Tokyo-ites would say. For the free-spirited inhabitants of ICC, that's the best place to be.

Filter
	Drowning in Support? A "business innovation center" in Osaka stands somewhere between entrepreneurial incubator and pork-barrel spending.

	Maligned Myline A new service lets Japan's long-gouged phone users more easily pick and choose carriers, but NTT isn't too worried.

	Keyword Culture A look at the top search terms on the sites of some popular Japanese tech magazines reveals some interesting trends.

	A Weather-Affected, Massively Multiplayer, Java-Based i-Mode Game An innovative Java handset game shows the growing sophistication of the wireless content business.

People
	Norio Yanagihara A professor of international business strategy, he's fostering -- and giving grades to -- tech ventures in Kyoto.

	Shigeru Nomura This editor in chief is heading up a how-to magazine for Japan's ever increasing number of entrepreneurs.

Research
	Statistics (PDF-formatted file, Acrobat 4.0 or later required) The rising number of Net users, where people surf, MP3 behavior, and the BS element to interactive TV.

	Japan Studies How romantic are the Japanese?

Investor
	From Game Consoles to Game Phones With the game console market maturing and its revenues slowing, Hokkaido-based developer Hudson Soft turns to the wireless Web.

	US Telematics Player Braves Japan Cellport Systems hopes Japan's drivers will adapt its "server and cellphone-docking station" set-up.

	On Our Radar Screen This month: Venture Republic, CA Mobile, APAS, Net Seeds.

In Parting
	Art Department Kenji Yanobe's works suggest the digital, but they're handmade and analog.

	Blowfish Hand drills, cotton work gloves, serving trays, playing cards, furoshiki, and uchiwa -- some stuff never gets old.