Tag: Japan

Singapore – Cartoonito, the preschool brand of Cartoon Network, has been launched across Southeast Asia, as well as in Japan and Korea. The Japan launch of the brand was made on 1 March, while the Korean and SEA launch was made on 28 March. ‘Cartoonito’ offers a modern approach to preschool programming, built to support each child’s unique potential with its educational framework called ‘Humancentric Learning’.

Tentpole shows in Southeast Asia and Korea include Lucas the Spider, Dino Ranch, Monchhichi and Esme & Roy. These sit alongside a growing slate of new and library series in a line-up that celebrates individuality and originality, while championing creativity, compassion and inclusion. These shows will also sit in a dedicated Cartoonito programming rail on the regional streaming service HBO GO in Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and Taiwan. A launch event is scheduled in Singapore in April.

Meanwhile in Japan, the line-up includes Thomas and Friends, Pingu, and Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz. Celebrity singer Kaela Kimura sings the theme song during the daily block. Cartoonito will launch in Australia and New Zealand in early July, and in South Asia later in the year.

All ‘Cartoonito’ shows follow a curriculum designed by early childhood education expert Dr. Laura Brown to support the four pillars of ‘Humancentric Learning’: creativity, caring, curiosity and courage. The brand aims to inspire kids to use their imagination, to learn from their mistakes and to treat others with empathy and respect.

Leslie Lee, head of kids for WarnerMedia in Asia Pacific, said, “When we introduced Cartoon Network’s new brand promise ‘Redraw Your World’ earlier this year, the channel shifted to become more inclusive to boys and girls. Now with Cartoonito, our demos are even wider – creating a safe environment for even younger children to enjoy every morning with their parents and caregivers. While the content and on-air packaging are extremely appealing to youngsters, it is how the block is carefully curated and programmed which makes it stand out.”

Japan — Online food ordering company Uber Eats has announced its newest campaign entitled ‘QR PJs’ to drive awareness that it offers the widest late-night delivery coverage in Japan. To drive awareness of this unique service and boost the brand’s popularity, they’ve partnered with creative agency Special.

The promotion, which features QR codes shaped in pyjamas, turns the classic nightwear into the easiest way to order food late at night, making the process so simple, consumers can do it in their sleep. The scannable pyjama print offers QR codes that link straight to all of Japan’s favourite cuisines on the Uber Eats app.

Ai Suzuki, senior brand manager of Uber Eats Japan, said, “For the people of Japan, our late-night offering is a huge advantage we have in the market. However, it’s always been a difficult differentiator to talk about. So we’ve been working on innovations in this space that are as unique as the product, to let people know that we are here well into the night, even after midnight.”

Meanwhile, Laurent Marcus, head of technology at Special, added that bridging the physical and the digital is a fun place to play for brands.

“Experimenting where these worlds collide to create a utility for your customers – and delivering a brand message at the same time – is really unconventional, but proving rewarding for Uber Eats. Plus, I love anything that brings a late-night miso snack closer,” Marcus said.

The promotion QR PJs is featured in key online destinations where Japan’s night owls spend their time, including leveraging top tier Twitch streamers to interact in real-time with consumers.

Tokyo, Japan – Global communications network Publicis Groupe has appointed Tomoko Akizawa, former executive vice president and client growth leader at global communications company Edelman, to be its new managing director of MSL Japan and new business director of Publicis Groupe Japan.

In her new roles, Akizawa will further develop and deepen MSL’s presence in Japan. She will also lead the MSL team in strengthening its service capabilities to drive greater impact for their clients under the Publicis Groupe’s Power of One offering, which is a frictionless collaboration between all of Publicis Groupe agencies that are able to better service their clients and people. 

Akizawa brings with her 20 years of experience in communications. Aside from her most recent roles at Edelman Japan, she has also held the director of technology and digital practices role.

Commenting on her appointment, Akizawa said that she is excited to join MSL especially as it looks to strengthen its positioning in both corporate and integrated communications in the Japan market.

“Given how MSL is so closely connected to the different solutions under the Publicis Groupe, I strongly believe that MSL is uniquely positioned to contribute and deliver integrated communications solutions as part of the Power of One partnership,” she added.

Meanwhile, Gareth Mulryan, the CEO of Publicis Groupe Japan, believes that Akizawa’s senior appointment will enable them to offer a stronger suite of communications services to their clients via the Publicis Groupe’s service offering of Power of One. 

“I look forward to working with her as part of the Publicis Japan executive team and am confident that she will help to continue our growth in Japan,” said Mulryan.

Margaret Key, MSL’s CEO for APAC and AMA, commented, “With her extensive experience in public relations and integrated communications, MSL Japan will have greater prowess in delivering impact and influence for our clients. I look forward to working closely with Tomoko to scale MSL business in this key growth market.”

Yokohama, Japan — Automobile manufacturer Nissan Motor has announced a senior management change in its communications division as it appoints Lavanya Wadgaonkar, current divisional manager in charge of global communications, to now become the vice president of global communications, effective as of April 01, 2022.

Wadgaonkar holds an extensive understanding of the industry with over 27 years of international experience in strategic communications, public affairs, brand management, marketing and sustainability. Prior to joining Nissan in 2012, Wadgaonkar worked at a printing company, Lexmark, petrochemical conglomerate, Reliance and diversified power management company, Eaton in various leadership roles in communications and marketing.

Wadgaonkar previously spearheaded and developed the communications and external and government affairs functions for Nissan Asia and Oceania. Now in the new role, she is tasked with the responsibility to lead all of Nissan’s communications including building the company’s reputation globally, engaging the internal and external audiences and driving sustainability communications.

Wadgaonkar will continue to report to Sadayuki Hamaguchi, corporate vice president for Nissan Global Communications.

Singapore – Japan-based virtual space office platform VoicePing has tapped global cloud communications company Vonage to power its virtual reality travel experience via its Dokodemo (Anywhere) Door Trip service, which uses 360° photography and video, as well as VR goggles and a computer, to enable users to enjoy virtual travel as if they were there in real life.

To provide a high-quality VR travel service, VoicePing needed to implement superior video calling capabilities quickly and seamlessly within their application and at scale. Using the Vonage Video API, VoicePing built a VR travel service that enables overwhelmingly realistic video playback, two-way voice communication, and automatic AI translation. 

In addition to Dokodemo Door Trip, VoicePing and MetaReal are developing a variety of VR services powered by the Vonage Video API, including Dokodemo Door Party, which creates a realistic karaoke experience; VR Therapy, which allows users to experience therapy in a virtual space; and VR Music, a live music distribution service. 

Kei Shimizu, project manager at VoicePing, said that their company aims at building solutions that empower people around the world to interact with anyone, anytime, anywhere, language-free, and enjoy their lives, work, and lifestyles through the use of the latest technology.

“We chose Vonage to develop the video function within our advanced VR experiences because Vonage provides high-quality video and audio, is easily implemented and operated within our applications, and has global reach and scale to grow as user adoption grows around the world,” Shimizu said.

Meanwhile, Amitha Pulijala, VP of product, platform services, AI and video at Vonage, commented that they are proud to enable innovative businesses at VoicePing to build immersive, interactive virtual experiences around the world.

“The pandemic has greatly restricted the ability to travel and experience new countries and cultures, and caused a major shift in the way we engage with one another. As more and more experiences become virtual, demand continues to increase for experiences that rival in-person interaction,” Pulijala said.

Los Angeles, California — Prolific video game developer Riot Games has announced its expansion into several countries in the Asia Pacific (APAC) as part of its business reorganization in the region. 

With a focus on hyper-localisation and fresh plans to extend its publishing reach to Japan and India, Riot Games will also open new publishing offices in the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. Riot had previously run the SEA business out of its Singapore hub office and also had an office in Japan.

Riot has also brought in Alex Kraynov, its previous managing director of emerging markets for Southeast Asia, India, Latin America, Brazil, Middle East, North Africa, and Japan, as the new managing director for APAC to lead publishing.

The reorganization will also see a diversification of Riot’s operating model with publishing at the forefront, alongside its other business pillars of games, entertainment, esports and enterprise.

In this effort to strengthen their presence APAC, Riot has made the following regional appointments namely Shinji Komiyama as director of country management for APAC, Jennifer Poulson as head of publishing partnerships for APAC, Alasdair Gray as head of marketing for APAC, and Derek Winder as head of business development for APAC. Riot also made some appoint for its local division namely Yasushi Fujimoto as country manager of Japan, Joel Guzman as country manager of the Philippines, and Resha Pradipta as country manager of Indonesia and Malaysia.

Since re-establishing its Singapore HQ for Southeast Asia in 2018, Riot has significantly grown its workforce and is now doubling down on publishing in the region. This organizational expansion translates into the establishment of local offices and hiring country managers in key markets such as the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and India, joining publishing forces with Riot’s Japan office, and enhancing its publishing hub in Singapore to over 80 people across the region. Key departments within APAC Publishing include country operations, publishing partnerships, brand marketing, growth marketing and services, business development, and regional tech. 

Alex Kraynov, managing director of Riot Games Asia Pacific, commented that this is a natural step in progression for Riot’s publishing business in Southeast Asia, and they recognized that APAC has the potential to become the biggest region in the world for the company. Kraynov continued by saying that APAC is intricately diverse, with massive gaming communities that have diverse needs and a strong appetite for mobile gaming. 

“In the past few years, our offices in Singapore and Japan have worked hard to release several new games and have nurtured new esports leagues to excite and delight players. Working towards more physical presence in our key APAC markets, we’re extremely excited to double down on these efforts to continue striving towards being the most player-focused gaming company in the world,” Kraynov said. 

Beyond the gaming space, Riot has also released projects and campaigns in animation adaptation, music, and fashion. More recently, Riot also collaborated with Filipino urban streetwear brand Team Manila on an exclusive capsule collection to celebrate the launch of Neon, the first Filipino agent in its tactical shooter VALORANT.

With the goal of being the most player-focused game company in the world, Riot has in the last couple of years launched new titles including its recent shooter hit VALORANT. Riot’s games within the League of Legends universe have garnered over 600 million players globally in the past decade.

Tokyo, Japan – HIKKY, a Japan-based virtual reality startup, has raised another ¥500m (around USD4.3m) in a new series A funding round through a third-party allotment with management consulting company MEDIA DO. Said funding will help the startup amplify its services to the local and global market.

This funding follows the recent ¥6.5b funding round (around USD57m) raised by the startup with the aid of mobile phone operator NTT DOCOMO. In total, HIKKY has raised a total of ¥7b (around USD60.6m) in funding.

The funding will also aid in strengthening HIKKY’s organisational structure and building a new VR consulting service. Their services include development and operation of a Vket Cloud-powered open metaverse, Vket events and Vket Cloud.

Other objectives include service provision and development of the open metaverse, team building for Vket Cloud engine development, improving the development system for Vket events, launching a VR consulting business, and internal team recruitment.

“HIKKY is developing and providing services for the open metaverse using their proprietary VR engine, Vket Cloud, and with the help of many creators and partner companies connected by the Vket business. The open metaverse will also provide a variety of innovative services recognizing the unprecedented value of creativity and communication,” the company said in a press statement.

As part of the funding round, HIKKY and MEDIA DO also entered into a partnership, which entails the two companies creating an official publisher’s space where users can exchange their thoughts and opinions in the metaverse. In this place, users will enjoy meeting other fans of their favourite manga or other content, publishing and exhibiting their fan art, and expanding the possibility of IP collaborations with exhibitors at Vket events.

In addition, the partners will also pursue synergies with MyAnimeList, a global anime and manga communities and database site, which is operated by the MEDIA DO Group.

For Yasushi Fujita, president and CEO at MEDIA DO, they believe that the metaverse, with its diverse communities just as in physical reality, will become an ecosystem with a large area for content distribution as the gap between the metaverse and physical reality disappears.

“We are delighted to partner with HIKKY, organisers of a global event in the metaverse who develop a unique and open VR platform. We empathise with the concept of creating a new ecosystem in an open metaverse, and we take on the challenge of metaverse content distribution in a wide variety of sectors, including e-books. Together, we will deliver new experiences to users and help expand the distribution of all kinds of content,” Fujita said.

Meanwhile, Yasushi Funakoshi, CEO at HIKKY, commented that through leveraging the trust and experience that MEDIA DO has built with many publishers and bookstores together with HIKKY’s know-how, they plan to elevate how users read content in the metaverse.

“We also aim to build a new environment where users interact to share the charm of manga and other content, either with other users or with publishers. I am confident that these initiatives will further expand creator potential,” Funakoshi said.

He added, “Today’s announcement with NTT DOCOMO and MEDIA DO is a first step towards the realisation of other ideas in the works, and we will continue our efforts to expand the metaverse and provide experiences that bridge it with the real world.”

Tokyo, Japan – Investment and asset management has become the norm for people to grow their money, and more and more young people in Japan are showing interest in these topics and discussing them more frequently with their peers, new research from comprehensive real estate service platform RENOSY shows.

More than 70% of the young people in their 20s interviewed say that they do discuss asset management with their friends while only 30% of the older generation in their 50s discuss it. In addition, around 60% of interviewees in their 20s said that they do not worry about the assets build-up arrangement they are doing for now.

However, around 80% of the people interviewed answered that they feel they do not have enough money to support their lives after retirement relying on pension only.

In terms of the average amount they are willing to spend on investing, the average amount of investment for the younger generation is about ¥50,000 per month, while the older generation responded to an average of ¥150,000 per month.

“Since asset management will become part of the new high school curriculum starting from April 2022, we are expecting to see the younger generation become more cautious and familiar with money,” RENOSY said in a press statement.

In terms of the woes of the respondents in regards to having enough money to support investment after their retirement, the company remarked, “As people tend to live longer nowadays, the issue of finance after retirement will become a more and more serious problem for most people. As a result, we could see from the research result that 87% of the people we interviewed feel anxious about the financial arrangement after retirement.”

Tokyo, Japan – Japan-based multinational conglomerate Hitachi has joined the strategic partnership program of experience management company Medallia in Japan. Through the partnership, Medallia will align with Hitachi’s Financial Institutions Business Unit to reinforce support for sales and service delivery efforts.

Said partnership is catered to Hitachi’s clients within domestic financial institutions, ranging from customer experience (CX) advisory service to system adoption.

Denise Miura, who was recently appointed as vice president for Asia-Pacific at Medallia, noted that the CX solution market in Japan is hitting a major tipping point in terms of expansion.

“In such a market environment, there is significant importance to forming a partnership with a first-rate company such as Hitachi. We are looking forward to this partnership,” she stated.

Meanwhile, Shigeru Suzuki, senior director for financial information systems, 2nd Division, at Hitachi, commented, “We feel honored to have this collaboration opportunity with Medallia to provide quality CX service to our customers in Japan. We look forward to providing new value through this excellent experience management program that will contribute to the improvement of customer experience value.”

Medallia’s presence in Japan has been ramped up in recent years, including inclusion of Japan-based tech system integrator Dirbato, as well as a partnership with multinational conglomerate SoftBank.
Irence Wee, APJ head of alliance and ecosystem at Medallia, commented, “We are very happy to announce our partnership with Hitachi in Japan. We look forward to accelerating the adoption of experience management programs by Japanese companies through our closely aligned effort with Hitachi.”

Singapore – Following the company’s funding in April this year, coffee chain Flash Coffee has officially extended its operations in South Korea and Japan, with branches opening up in each country’s capitals, Seoul and Tokyo.

The coffee chain launched with two outlets in Seoul, a two-storey flagship establishment at Sinsa, and a store in Yeoksam, both located in the heart of the bustling, upscale Gangnam district. In Tokyo, Flash Coffee unveiled a two-storey concept in the city’s iconic shopping destination within Omotesando.

David Brunier, CEO at Flash Coffee, said, “We are very excited to officially launch in both Seoul and Tokyo, and introduce our mission to provide high-quality coffee at affordable prices to these cities. These markets are known to embrace technology, and we hope to bring ease to the lives of consumers with our digital-first solutions, ultimately changing the face of coffee consumption across Asia for the better.”

The coffee chain will continue to grow its footprint across the seven markets it is currently in: Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea and Japan, with a goal of opening over 350 stores by early next year. The coffee chain has also set sights to enter three new countries next year; Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines.

Un Koh, managing director for South Korea at Flash Coffee, said, “South Korea is filled with coffee enthusiasts and our coffee consumption rate ranks within the top 10 in the world. We are confident that our high-quality beverages crafted by award-winning baristas at Flash Coffee will appeal to South Korean coffee lovers. Our goal is to make our specialty coffee accessible to all, so for those who’ve not come across Flash Coffee yet, you will find us brewing very soon in a location near you. ”

Meanwhile, Shu Matsuo Post, managing director for Japan at Flash Coffee, commented, “Coffee culture has been prevalent in Japan for many years, and we’ve observed the rising preference for premium coffee locally. Specialty coffees tend to be expensive, but with Flash Coffee, consumers can now enjoy it at an affordable price point. We look forward to sharing our award-winning menu with customers in Japan, and hope they will enjoy our innovative creations.”