Here’s an incredible Japanese baby talking sales on the phone.

Social Venture Partners Tokyo is organizing a network meeting on 23rd in Tachikawa, a city next to my home town in Tokyo.

If you are in Tokyo, wishing to participate, follow the link below.
http://www.sv-tokyo.org/080823nwm.html

I’m trying to participate this network event and gather Japan’s movement on social entrepreneurship.

However, my concern is about my panic disorder, which might make it difficult on the day.

If I’m allowed to take pictures, I’ll and post it here.

Google Map just started Street View service on Google Maps in Japan. I’d say nearly 80% of Tokyo is covered, and some other places of Japan are available too.

As always, there’re some inappropriate pictures taken accidentaly (couples getting into Japanese love hotels, teenage couples kissing on street, etc…), and some of them are said to be reported to Google to delete them.

This is Kuntachi, my home town.

大きな地図で見る

Some of Japanese animations, such as REIDEEN and AIR have used some locations in Kunitachi within their stories. You may find the exact location if you come visit this town.

This should be an interesting event, and will probably be a historical event to change Japan’s view on Social Entrepreneurship. Please social bookmark this site and forward to your friends.

Social Entrepreneurship Support Summit 2008 - collaboration with social entrepreneurs & students x citizens x mass media to awake everyone to social entrepreneurship.

Social Entrepreneurship Support Sumit 2008 (1st)

“84% of Japanese do not know social entrepreneurship.” This is the report by Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industory in spring 2008.

To know the shocking fact, teenagers have started to organize this event to rise citizens’ recognition, with listening to social entrepreneurs’ voice.

10 young social entrepreneurs from all over Japan show up at one time. In addtion, 300 citizens join in the event.

7/30(Wed) Open:13:30 start:14:00
Location:Okuma small Hole(underground) at Waseda University
map: http://www.waseda.jp/jp/campus/waseda_up.html
Official website (CCC:Change maker Cooperation Committee)

Beforehand, we’re going to have a press conference:

7/17(Thur)15:00-17:00
26th BLDG 302 classroom at Waseda University
map: http://www.waseda.jp/jp/campus/waseda_up.html
speakers:Saki Zama(CCC leader 18 years old),Shunichi Gogami(CCC presenter 19 years old),Hiroyuki Tsuruta(CCC IT producer 17 years old),Isshow Con(CCC organizer),etc.
E-mail:info [at] cccjp.org　(staff:Saki Zama)

Our missions are;

1. Have a free lecture of public relations for social entrepreneurs.
2. Deliver date of supportive 300 citizens to social entrepreneurs to satisfy human resource needs.
3. Make a great opportunity for journalists to lean Japanese social entrepreneurship and join them to social entrepreneurs.

News Value for media；

1. This is the first large supportive Event by citizens for social entrepreneurship in Japan.
2. Teenagers organize this Event with involving adults.
3. 10 young social entrepreneurs from all over Japan show up at one time.

Please ask any questions.
We are willing to accept interview that day or in advance.

Project Leader Saki Zama
E-mail:info [at] cccjp.org
(Please include your phone number)

I’ve just created my mobile blog on MoFuse.

MoFuse lets you create your mobile blog for WAP browsers and iPhone for free. It also has revenue sharing program, which you can use your Adsense mobile 50/50 with MoFuse.

The mobile address is:
http://socialpreneur.mofuse.mobi/

Future visiters from mobiles and iPhone to this blog should be redirected to the above address.

For LinkedIn users and MyLinkedinPowerForum users, Vincent announced the name change of our group MyLinkedinPowerForum to MyVirtualPowerForum. Be sure to change your bookmark.

The group is not only for LinkedIn centric discussions, but you can also post and discuss about other business networking services.

There’s also another discussion group on Ning, My Linking Power Forum.

Ecademy is down AGAIN! They really need to replace the servers!!

Unable to connect to Database Server

Will they pay (PowerNetworks and other subscribers) us back for the periods servers were down?

What is wrong with Internet in UK? Why are they so weak?

Getting credit cards in Japan for non-Japanese might be a hard task, even if you have enough earnings and your bank account(s). I’m not exactly sure why it’s even hard for those who’s got MONEY and STATUS…

Alternatives? Pre-paid credit cards are not available in Japan (yet or will never be…). Even it’s hard for you to get credit cards, you can set up bank accounts easily compared to getting credit cards.

Most Japanese bank cards come with debit cards, so you can use your bank card to purchase and/or pay if the shop accepts debit cards.

VISA Japan offers debit cards, too and you can get it from Suruga Bank. VISA debit cards can widely be used among VISA partner shops.

Weblog Tools Collection recently posted:

According to Damien, there are a few people who are charging anywhere from €550 to €1500 (Euros). This equates to $857.00 to $2,338.33. I can’t imagine anyone in their right mind who would pay that amount to have WordPress installed for them.

I’ve posted about this on my blog and another site (FPN) popular to Internet users in Japan. Japanese don’t really leave comments on blog itself, but they comment within their favorite social bookmarks.

So according to comments left on Hatena bookmark, so far at this point I’m writing this, most people find $857.00 (or somewhere around $500) as reasonable price for installation of WordPress.

I’m not exactly sure how many of them are on customer side, how many are on provider side. But this is very interesting by comparing comments left on Weblog Tools Collection.

MapFan has lately released beta version of English map of Japan for free.

http://www.mapfan.com/en/en_m.cgi

Quite often I face server down when using Ecademy in the nights.

And this is happening again to me, in the middle of sending messages to other members. I might have to rewrite all the messages during this period. This really sucks…

Why is UK servers are so weak? Ecademy server often only accepts access within UK or nearest countries, but members from other countries are getting tired with this problem.

GIVE ME BACK MY TIME!

Unlike mixi, Gree has APIs available.

http://labs.gree.jp/Top/API.html

But only one function available.

http://labs.gree.jp/Top/API/Keyword.html

As mixi follows OpenSocial, they plan to release some of APIs to developers.

Currently their APIs are only available to some of advertisers on mixi.

Here’re some of known APIs and methods to retrieve data from mixi. And please note I never am a programmer, so I can’t answer any technical questions.

Getting Ashiato, list of users viewed your profile

You can see who viewed your profile by visiting:
http://mixi.jp/atom/tracks/r=2/member_id=myMixiID

after logging in. You’ll be able to view a list of visiters of your profile in ATOM. I just tried this now, and it worked. Please visit this Japanese blog for more information.

PHP sample available here.

mixi station API

Unofficial explanation on available APIs in Japanese.
http://teahut.sakura.ne.jp/b/2007-07-01-1.html

mixi station is an official desktop widget to show updates. Downloads only available to mixi.

Wow! There’s document in English!

I’m writing this as I search, so this things happens a lot…

Here’s the link to document site. It’s NOT official.
http://www.doyouphp.jp/pear/Services_MixiAPI

Here’s another PHP sample written by the same person.

Is mixi still the largest community in Japan?

Answer is yes. mixi, most popular Japanese casual social networking service still ranks No.1 among other social networking services in Japan.

However, Gree, the second largest SNS in Japan has been increasing user numbers with their improved mobile site. Mostly the users are female age between 20 to 30.

(Below 18 can’t use social networking services, although there are plenty of them just like MySpace, Facebook, etc.)

openPNE, most popular open source SNS software

Aside from these major services, Japanese web venture Tejimaya provides a mixi like open source SNS software called, openPNE. This program is used widely from corporations to groups, or personnels wishing to keep their self brand SNS.

Is there any LinkedIn in Japan?

Well, LinkedIn announced that they start service in Japan early this year, however it hasn’t been started yet just like my friend at XING told me before. Entrepreneurs and business owners still use mixi/gree as ways to expand their business connections.

But of course some users aren’t satisfied with the features, as they are never designed to meet business needs.

Wizli, a openPNE based business networking service is probably being used widely among Japanese professionals. This site is just like mixi turned into business networking site.

CareerConnection, another business SNS (probably written from scratch) is another popular service. Its design is somewhat similar to LinkedIn, and they’ve got a company reviewing function by members. This is what makes it unique from others.

Nifty, one of Japanese ISPs has Nifty Business Space, business SNS for Nifty users. They lately partnered with a non profit to encourage political and social discussions within their site. (Have they learned from Barak Obama on LinkedIn?)

Recruit, is closing its business SNS (jinmyaku bank) next month. It didn’t even last a year.

NICe, is a new business SNS aims to link entrepreneurs and entrepreneur supporters (such as lawyers, accountants, venture capitalists, etc). It’s operated by Venture Enterprise Center, which also operates Dream Gate, a government initiative to increase entrepreneurs.

UPDATE 2008-06-21

PowerLink, is another business SNS similar, or aiming to be a LinkedIn clone. But this requires you to be a paid member to even access the site.

JobberBase, open source job board site is down.

Community page is down and blog, too.

Anybody know what’s happening in Romania?

I’ve been using this software lately, and needed some feedback from the community. It’s pitty, but I hope the site goes back online.