The folks over on RocketNews24 point out that Google Japan has an online initiative set up to help connect politicians and the public using Google+. The company will feature major party representatives in an online Q&A with selected Google Plussers [1] on December 14, from 10am to 5pm. Japan’s general elections are set to take place on December 16th.

In order to participate, users were asked send a message along with the hashtag #政治家と話そう along with their question by December 2nd (if you didn’t do so already, you’re too late!). It looks like a fun way to reach younger voters, although I’m not sure how much traction Google+ has in the country just yet. You can check out a a short promo video for the session below, although it’s in Japanese.

The subsequent Q&A will be streamed on Google Japan’s YouTube channel, so anyone can tune in to hear the discussion. Voter turnout in Japan is not outstanding as you can see in the chart above, so any kind of attempt to engage the public like this is a good thing.

Meanwhile, opposition leader and former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has leveraged that other social network, accumulating more than 119,000 fans over on his Facebook page.

There’s word from Google Japan today that its Youtube Original Channels initiative has finally hit Japan. In total, there are 13 prominent Japanese content companies on board, producing 17 channels for YouTube.

It’s great to see big name partners come aboard, including media giants Fuji TV, TBS, and TV Asahi. Crypton Future Media is also on board; readers may recall that these are the folks behind the famous virtual idol Hatsune Miku. There’s also a channel from entertainer/model Kyary Pamyu Pamyu called Harajuku Kawaii TV (check the video below) which Japanophile fashionistas the world over can enjoy.

We’re told that for these Original Channels, YouTube provides an advance on advertising revenues in order to help facilitate the creation of these channels, and improve the offerings in Japan’s online video space.

The YouTube Original Channels initiative was first launched in the US just over a year ago, and then in Europe this year. This announcement today should pave the way for more online streaming content in Japan, and indeed around the rest of Asia as well, particularly Korea.

Thanks to @feitclub on Twitter for pointing out this fun new TV commercial from Google Japan, which celebrates everyone’s favorite manga robot cat, Doraemon, on his 100-year ‘reverse’ birthday (he was actually born in the future, on September 3, 2112). It has been in pretty heavy rotation on television all morning here in Japan.

The commercial shows some of the famous tools which Doraemon has made famous over the years, including his ‘Anywhere door ’ or his ‘Bamboo-copter.’

Google Japan has set up MiraiSearch.jp, which encourages smartphone users to download its search app (Android, iOS) and summon Doraemon with a yell via the voice search function. So in effect, you’re calling for Doraemon’s help much like his friend Nobita does in the story.

After that, you can click on the MiraiSearch.jp (sponsored result) and collect a number of fun futuristic tools to put in your own pocket, which is available in the Google Translate app. It’s a really fun way to promote Google’s smartphone voice search, and no doubt there are more than a few people yelling ‘Doraemon’ into their phones this morning. I suspect my neighbors are already very confused…

Check out Google Japan’s new Doraemon commercial below.

Complementing the Gmail tap morse code prank, the folks at Google Japan created a video showing a morse code version of the Japanese IME. The idea is that it lets you input Japanese characters using a corresponding sequence of dots and dashes. You can check out the video below for more info on how it works. Or rather, how it would work if it were real. It’s in Japanese, but it has English captions:

As for Google China (yes, they’re still there), they created a very unusual underwater image search page which is pretty amusing. Upon visiting their shuixia page (google.cn/landing/shuixia/), you get a warning that the following page is just an April Fool’s joke, and to click through if you’d like to continue. The Google search bar then falls into the water to swim with the fishes [3]. And even though the tide sweeps the search bar away, you can still search for images on there.

I Googled ‘life preserver’ which prompted some images to drop from the sky, but regrettably they sank to the bottom.

Google looks to be staying afloat though. But I could have sworn I saw a Baidu logo on one of those sharks…

There are reports this morning that the Tokyo District Court “has approved a petition” by a Japanese man that Google (NASQAQ:GOOG) suspend* its autocomplete function on the grounds that it violates his privacy. The issue was brought before the court last October, as the man found that searches for his name were producing unusual results:

The man found out that when a user types in the man’s name on Google’s search engine, words suggesting criminal acts, which he is unfamiliar with, appear. And when the user goes on to select the suggested words, over 10,000 items defaming or disparaging him show up in a list, according to [his lawyer, Hiroyuki] Tomita.

According to the report, Google is refusing to suspend its autocomplete function, but the man intends to take legal action further if it continues to refuse. I’ve reached out to Google for more information on this, so I’ll try to update if more information becomes available.

But it should be noted that this is not the first time that Google’s autocomplete has brought the company legal troubles. Search Engine Land points out that the company lost a case in Italy in 2011 when a man complained that searches for his name resulted in suggestions for the words “con-man” and “fraud.” Similarly in France the year before, another man won a case related to the words “rapist” and “satanist” being suggested with his name.

Google’s own explanation of its autocomplete function includes the following:

As you type, Google’s algorithm predicts and displays search queries based on other users’ search activities. If you’re signed in to your Google Account and have Web History enabled, you might also see search queries from relevant searches that you’ve done in the past. In addition, Google+ profiles can sometimes appear in autocomplete when you search for a person’s name.

Predicted queries are algorithmically determined based on a number of purely algorithmic factors (including popularity of search terms) without human intervention. The autocomplete data is updated frequently to offer fresh and rising search queries.

[Via Mainichi Shimbun]

On Tuesday we told you about Baidu Japan’s pickup of Simeji, a Japanese input method editor (IME) for Android. Well, it seems Android users now have another Japanese IME option available as the big G just rolled out its own.

While I can’t pretend to be an experienced user of Japanese mobile IME’s, many of the features that Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) has included make a lot of sense. Among those convenient features, here are a few that stand out:

• Type “きょう” (today) to get today’s date, or “いま” (now) to get the current time
• Date and time suggestions when you type numbers like 1203 (2月3日 or 12:03)
• Rich vocabulary for common places/locations
• The ability to type foreign words using Japanese
• Lots of fun emoji

The new IME is still in beta, and Google will continue to make improvements moving forward. It’s available in the Android market for versions 2.1 or higher, but unfortunately, tablets and physical keypads are not supported. Check out the screenshots below, as well as Google Japan’s promo video at the bottom.

There are so many group buying sites in China that consumers, if they want to find great bargains, might very well end up hopping from site to site comparing who has best deals among thousands of offerings.

To solve the problem, Google has just launched Shihui, a group deal aggregator in China, to put everything onto a single site for easy research and shopping. On Google Shihui, featured group-buying sites include Lashou, Meituan, Gaopeng (aka Groupon China), Groupon.cn (aka the clone), and Nuomi. Almost all the giants are on board. The site allows users to search for deals via category, location, price, group buy brands, and the size of the discount, in the top menu bar.

Shihui comes a month after Google announced the acquisition of The Dealmap, a group deal aggregator company based in San Francisco. Although there isn’t any similarity in terms of web layout, I initially thought that the crawling and indexing of group deals are based on The Dealmap’s API. But a Google representative told us over the phone that Google Shihui is built entirely in China and has nothing to do with The Dealmap, for now. Acknowledging that China’s group buying space is pretty crazy right now with over 5000 sites across the country, he explained that aggregators have become a part of the landscape as a consequence. And Shihui is Google’s experimental effort to help consumers sort through what’s out there.

Google has more than its share of troubles in China after losing the search battle to Baidu. But the launch of Shihui somehow tells us that Google China is still trying to stay relevant to Chinese consumers. It’s an uphill battle, in my view though.

Of course, Google isn’t very well-liked by the the notorious Great Firewall of China — with Google+ being its most recent product blocked in the country. It’s unlikely that Google Shihui will get blocked though, since it doesn’t function like a social network that might cause any potential unrest in China.

Google Shihui looks neat but it isn’t without competition. There are several group deal aggregators in China that are already in action, including Rakuten China (a partnership between Baidu and Rakuten), Shanda’s Tuanyouhui, and DaTaoTuan who also loves to produce useful group-buy industry reports in China.

Meanwhile in Japan

Google was busy in neighboring Japan today as well, launching a service that will enable small businesses to develop a presence online. Minna no Business Online (accessible at minbiz.jp) is a very user-friendly service that lets users set up a website very quickly, choosing their domain name and industry-specific design templates. You can read more details about it at the Google Japan blog, and a great summary can be found over on Asiajin.com. Google Japan’s YouTube channel has a very well-produced promo video featuring the service too.

Co-written with Steven Millward and Rick Martin

We missed this when it initially dropped back in August, but after playing around with it a little bit this morning, I thought we’d tell you about it. In cooperation with SCRAP, Google Japan has developed a very unusual browser-based puzzle game called — wait for it — The Google Puzzle.

It poses a number of challenges revolving around Google’s many services. The end goal is to save the ‘O’ which has mysteriously been trapped in a browser pop-up.

Caution, there be spoilers up ahead!

The first puzzle I was given involved the use of Google Maps, with six maps presented in six tiny pop-up windows. Switching each map to satellite mode revealed a letter, and when combined they give you the answer to the first puzzle.

Google Map Puzzle

Google Translate puzzle

The second puzzle involves Google Translate. This one tripped me up a little, but thankfully there is a ‘hint’ button which told me to use the ‘detect language’ feature. That did the trick. Just as in the previous puzzle, there is an educational element at play here, in that Google is teaching you about how to use its services.

The next puzzle brings YouTube into the game, with letters hidden in a video that spell out a key word. Again, I needed a hint here (perhaps not enough coffee this morning), but after completing I happened to accidentally click on the background browser window. This caused all my Google puzzle pop-ups to fall to the back where I couldn’t see them. Herein lies the danger of building a puzzle out of pop-up windows… But all the same, it’s still a lot of fun.

Of course, you may notice some similarities here with the recent OK Go music video that was created with Google Japan. Like the Google Puzzle, it’s a Chrome experiment, but should work in most modern browsers. A representative with Google Japan tells Penn Olson:

As with the “All Is Not Lost” Chrome Experiment we did with OK Go, we wanted to show the outer limits of what’s possible with HTML5 for creative minds like OK Go or SCRAP. We’re always looking for ways to push the boundaries of the web when you approach it as a platform.

Overall it’s a pretty cool project. And maybe it’s best if I let you go ahead and play through to the end on your own. You can do so in either English or Japanese. If you’re the type who likes to watch (wait, what?), there’s a video walk-through of the entire puzzle below courtesy of user JAtakumi.

Baidu Japan actually opened in 2007, but required a relaunch in ’08 after a shaky start. Those accumulated losses seem to have been sunk into general running and admin costs.

The Japanese search engine market is dominated by Yahoo, although Yahoo search is now powered by Google in Japan. This graphic, from SearchEngineWatch.com, reveals that Yahoo Japan holds 56.2% of the marketshare in the country, with Google.co.jp on second with 31.3%. Baidu Japan squeezes into the small purple slice that’s badged ‘others’:

Image source: SearchEngineWatch.com - Showing search engine market share in Japan in mid-2010

Baidu’s filings, made at the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), reveal that Baidu is only generating profit in its homeland. That’s in contrast to Google, which makes almost half of its profits – across search, advertising, and numerous other products – overseas.

Japan is the world’s third-biggest search market, behind the US and China. When Baidu.jp opened up in 2007, Baidu’s CEO Robin Li remarked:

We believe that with our proven strength in Chinese language search and our focus on delivering the best user experience, we will be able to provide Japanese users with a quality alternative to existing search engines.

But it has proved tougher than expected. Baidu Japan’s losses aren’t narrowing, and in fact have slowly inflated over the last three years, to 2010′s annual losses of RMB 260 million.

[Source of stats: Sina Tech news - article in Chinese]