Japan Digest – 23 Jul

Here you can find interesting startup news from Japan, not only from its capital, Tokyo, but also other startup hubs like Fukuoka, Kyoto, Osaka, and many more.

(1) Several sources have reported that the folks at telecomms company KDDI will debut a Win7 handset in August running on the next-gen. Mango platform.

(2) Mobile Healthcare Inc (“MHC”), a pioneering mobile health company and home to the global award winning lifewatcher cell phone and cloud-based health management platform, announced that it has initiated collaboration with Jean-Michel Halfon to contribute to the expansion of the company as an advisor and investor.

(3) Colopl, a mobile phone and GPS-based game, officially announced that a total of 2 million users in Japan are playing Colopl (needless to say, it’s the country’s most successful service of its kind). What’s interesting is that the game needed close to 5 years to hit 1 million users in April last year and just 15 months to add a second million.

(4) Takako Kansai (@kansai_takako), a full-time engineer at Tokyo’s web service start-up and also the best known tech geek girl in the country, just released her first iPhone app called Zaim, the socialized cashbook app, on Tuesday.

(5) Following the introduction of cloud girl Claudia, Microsoft Japan will continue their attempt to appeal to the Japanese by using a new anime character.

We thank nordicfactory for the flag image.