November 2008 Archives

Here is another data. Sales of digital music in Japan for year 2007 is 75,487 million yen (632 million Euros). It increased by 40% in comparison to the previous year. And of course, most of its sales (90%) come from mobile phone services.

Figures are impressive, but frankly, it seems like neighboring South Korea has progressed much more, and I haven't paid much attention so far. What's more, I have never thought about what effect that could have to the music itself.

According to a 30-minute-TV program called Closeup Gendai (meaning "Closeup Now" in Japanese), this very trend of downloading music on mobile phones is the reason why music has now a very short life expectancy. They compared how it was 20 years ago, when hit songs can stay in the chart for months; in contrast, in 2007 there were only two songs which remained in the top position for two consecutive months. So it's becoming more and more difficult to have a great song that would be listened for a long period of time than before.

The program then described of how people, in particular, teenagers select music to download. Girls on TV demonstrated by browsing tracks from their mobile phones and listened to 30-seconds free downloads prior to the final purchase. This 30 seconds, according to the program, is the cause of short-living music; most hit makers are aware of the free downloads and creates melody lines memorable and catchy within this time slot. By the time people purchase the full track, they have already consumed the best bit.

The TV program then changed the topic and discussed how Enka, Japanese folk songs, are regaining sales and appealing older generation. They say the artists are singing clearly with good lyrics that appeal to a wider audience. And as a proof, while Enka only had 4% of the entire sales eight years ago, now it occupies 10%.

Although that is an interesting trend, I believe typical Enka lyrics which talk about "broken marriage", "forbidden love", "alcohol, men, women, one night stand","women waiting for the fishermen to be back to the harbor" may sound too old for the younger generation. How to create a great hit that lasts and appealing for the keitai generation is yet to be found.

Closeup Gendai, in Japanese: http://www.nhk.or.jp/gendai/

When I came back after living in Finland and China for 9 years altogether, I found crowded public space - which is pretty much everywhere in central Tokyo - quite painful. There was no way I can filter the conversation any more, and regardless of the topic, I was forced to listen. But eventually, I realized that was not the only thing I need filtering. In crowded morning trains, I was also looking at other people's privacy over their shoulders, unless I make an effort by closing my eyes or looking elsewhere, I often come across with other people's text messages and browsed websites.

Ten years ago, when there were still people without mobile phones, we still saw quite many people reading newspapers on trains and metros. Typically they were men reading supootsu-shinbun (sport newspapers) which are basically tabloids. Although the cover page was about sports, a significant proportion of the paper was more like playboy magazine, full of naked women. And how do I know that while I have never bought those papers? That is because I could see them as I shared the same cargo with their readers.

Now the media might have changed and although the device maybe small, it seems like I can even see better than papers, with the display so brightly lit.

In order to protect the privacy when you are so close with strangers, here in Japan, you can you can now buy 'privacy filter', which comes in so many different shapes and sizes. The filter serves as a protective filter, too, but the primary functionality is to shut the view when seen from a certain angle. And now, many mobiles come with this feature automatically. From View Blind by Panasonic, Privacy Angle by NEC, to Veil View by Sharp, displays become foggy with a long press of a button. Once the filter goes active, it will look like as if you went into a steam bath without taking your glasses off.

Pity, all the Japanese phones nowadays come with displays that are 3 inches or bigger. It is so clear and pixels are so dense, that you can even read A4 PDF files quite well. But obviously, here people to demand the display to be not TOO clear.

 

Furikome Sagi is a term used to describe a fraud using phone calls. Swindlers, they call victims to "trick them into believing invented stories and paying money into a certain bank account" (translation based on daily yomiuri).

Swindlers, they target people over 60s; they call you up in early day time so that banks are open and you are less likely to reach your family members at work. They typically call that it is police who's calling, and will tell you your son or daughter is in trouble. Whether it is a car accident or a sexual harassment on train, they convince that money can settle the matter between the other end who is 'seriously hurt'.

It's funny to think that people can be easily tricked with these stories, but people do have panic attacks when it comes to emergencies involving your family. Older generation might not have skills to operate ATMs to transfer money, so these swindlers, they KINDLY give instructions over the mobile phone how you could do it realtime. In a way, I am impressed of their skills to make people use a device for the first time!

If you are interested in how severe the incidents are, you should simply see the amount that has been reported to be transferred. In 2007 these swindlers earned 25,142,421,788 JPY - that's about 200 million Euros.

Because of the sheer scale of these crimes, banks started to act. Chiba Bank has now decided to stall a mobile jamming device in their banks. Together with a company who has developed the device for hospitals and concert halls, the bank has developed an equipment which the interfering signal can be adjusted to work within a very small (1 to 2 meters) range that could only affect the ATM area.

Although the idea of stalling a phone jamming equipments has been considered and reported for months now, it will only be in November that ATM will be in action. The biggest reason was because of Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, which controls the Radio Law in Japan, has expressed reluctance to the idea. The ministry says that the license can only be issued to institutions where, one, there is a substantial space so it will not jam the mobile phones used nearby, and two, there is a clear evidence that incoming notifications of mobile phones can be hinder its business. It is mandatory to fulfill these two conditions, and the ministry has given permissions only to concert halls; other public venues, like museums and libraries, though their nature is public, were considered not to qualify for the second condition, and have not been permitted.

It is funny that these solutions are often led by industry, not by government. We shall see if other brave banks are to follow the brave Chiba Bank.

And speaking of the radio law, the approach seems to differ a lot by country; For instance, France has had a law to allow phone jamming in public venues since 2002, but US and Canada seems to be reluctant of the idea.

In English:
Chiba Bank - http://ir.chibabank.co.jp/english/
Japanese Radio law - http://www.soumu.go.jp/joho_tsusin/eng/Resources/laws/2003RL.pdf
French Cinemas act to jam mobiles: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3735936.stm

In Japanese:
Chiba nippo news: http://www.chibanippo.co.jp/news/chiba/society_kiji.php?i=nesp1223950299

It happens quite often that Japanese companies forbid people to use their mobile phones while at work. While smokers have smoking areas indoor or outdoor to be out of office to have one's own time, rest of the non-smokers seem to struggle to have that private space.

Nikkei TRENDYnet, one of the established blogs on trends and technology industries, introduced one survey by describing it as "an answer to my recent wonder why private compartments in mens' room seems rather overcrowded."

The article refers to the survey done by iShare in late May 2008. They found out that nearly half of the respondents have used mobile phones inside the toilet, primarily for emails (87.4%), reading news (25.2%), and for phone calls (21.4%). Why phone calls you might wonder; but that shows how restricted you are in Japanese offices. In a confined space where there is no partitions in between, toilet seems like the final frontier left for some privacy.

Other interesting figures are:
- "Have you ever been to the toilet for the sake of using your mobile?" - 30.7%
- "Have you ever dropped your mobile phone in the toilet?" - 16.1%

Japanese toilets, they often come with culture-specific features like Sound Princess (a fake toilet flushing sound to cover whatever noise your 'output' would make; it was developed because women tend to waste papers and water to cover the sound) and auto-flush which you could avoid using your hands to flush the toilet as you lift your butt. With clicking sound that could echo in a toilet and your hand occupied with a precious mobile, perhaps these features have regained their demands nowadays.

Valid respondents: 743
Survey period: 2008/5/30 - 2008/6/2
Male - Female: 56.1% - 43.9%
Age group: 20s: 25.8%; 30s: 35%; 40s: 39.2%

Source (in Japanese): iShare Inc.
http://blog.ishare1.com/press/archives/2008/06/131353.html