Japanese Deji-Kame (digital camera) market reached saturation level quite a few years ago. Actually, hyper-saturation level. Every family member has a couple (or more) of functioning Deji-Kames, scattered somewhere all over the room. If somebody bought another newest flashiest camera and took it to home by stealth, the rest of family would frown as though he'd brought a litter of mangy mongrel puppies full of flea colony.

Presently, only one-lens reflex models with hefty size/weight somehow sell in this tough market. These expensive (more than US$1,000!) and black Deji-Kames are kind of being tolerated because it reminds us of the days when silver-halide camera maniacs were regarded as decent guys with a decent hobby.

Sony's 12.1 million-pixel Cyber-shot W200. A good companion of bigger one-lens reflex Deji-Kames, so Sony hopes.

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Manga in Japan is a really serious business. Serious money, too.

There are a few Manga weekly magazines for boys (but actually, viewed by wider range of population than the original target group) that sell more than a million copies each. Also, magazines for young adults, salarymen, and young ladies. As a matter of fact, every Japanese demographic group is being entertained by specific Manga magazines except... well, senior people. I haven't seen any Mangazines for senior citizens yet. So far.

"Shonen-Jump", the Japanese obsession. This thick Manga-zine floods Japan every week.

Some of the Manga business tactics are rather straightforward. Look at the largest chunk of this domain, boys' Manga. There are three dominant magazines cutthroating each other in this field, all of them start with Shonen ("boys"). "-Jump", "-Sunday", and "-Magazine".

Editors of these Shonen-zines stretch their antenna and dig up unpolished stones from the vast sea of talented Japanese creators, young and inexperienced though they may be. They give a once-in-lifetime chance to these ambitious creators. To draw a weekly piece for Shonen-zines, say, for a couple of weeks.
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The Japanese consumer computer market has been known to have one very kinky aspect. Existence of ultra-smalls. Sub-notebooks, palmtops, and PDA-sized computers.

A sizeable numbers of computer freaks are eagerly waiting in the crouching position, all ready to snatch up whenever a small-size computer comes to Akihabara. These crazy customers, usually, don't care what kind of price tag is attached to the new small product. Simply, they have an irrepressible urge to possess the smallest ever gear in town. Don't try to find any piece of rationality in them.

This wicked mentality, undoubtedly, is an extension of Japanese otaku subcultures. Luckily, this subdivision does not travel very well, so far. People outside of Japan have no imminent danger to get this pathological abnormality.

Fujitsu's FMV-U8240. Left is a Fujitsu K-tai terminal for size comparison.

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The ka-nabi (car navigation) system in Japan has grown, literally, into an extremely heavy-duty gear. The only visible part (for its driver, and for the thieves, too) is a LCD screen on the dashboard, but behind this face, there are quite a few hefty and voluminous gears are hidden somewhere in the car boot.

Pioneer's Carozzeria Cyber-Navi Series. An impressive pile of hardware. Right: Stay-in-your-home fix station to transfer/receive data from the Smart Loop server. Everything else goes into your vehicle, a heavy burden!

More and more ka-nabis are being incorporated as a "genuine manufacturer option" to hike up the price tag of a vehicle greatly. The "big three", Toyota, Nissan and Honda, maintain their own ka-nabis infrastructures to provide real time information on crazy traffic conditions, road surface condition, road work in progress, and above all, traffic jam dead spots and alternate routes.
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It's a glorified lie detector.

Sensibility Technology (ST) is not a form of black magic, nor is it rocket science. Co-developed by both SGI Japan and AGI, ST is based on a prediction premise--by quantifying one's vocal data into groups of numbers and analyzing them to define emotional fields. It is a reasonable approach to delimit and redefine the nebulous concept of "human emotion".

SEGA's Kokoro scan menu panel. The three choices are: Kokoro scan. Your Kokoro's health check. Stretch exercise for your Kokoro.

ST demonstrates a potential become a useful interface between a human being and his machine. Imagine a smooth conversation between man and machine via this infantile technology. It's a totally different ballgame from existing voice recognition technologies.Read more »

 

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