J@pan Inc is the single best English-language source I've found for keeping up with the various elements of Japan's IT community. I like the balance of good reporting and the "edgy" tone of the articles: serious business, but still gives an adrenaline kick.

Keith Kirkham
Commercial Attache for IT
American Embassy Tokyo

Congrats on a great magazine that seems to be Japan's answer to The Red Herring and Tornado-Insider.

Guy J.S. Douglas
Brodeur Worldwide
London

I just want to tell you how impressed I am with your site, your magazine, and your content. This type of consistent quality is sorely lacking in anything I've read from anyone covering Japan. Keep up the good work!

Marc B. Ira
mbira@jpcomcenter.com
President
JPComCenter

This Web site is a breath of fresh air. It's amazing how the majority of people in America know next to nothing about Japan, yet know so much about European countries. I will continue to enjoy your site, and thanks for the shared knowledge!

Peter Huddleston
huddlestonfamily@hotmail.com

As a content developer for the wireless Internet, I found Chieko's Diary very interesting. Just the kind of information I need. I would really like a broad article with different people and how they use their i-mode phones in their daily lives! That would be extremely valuable to people like me! Thank you for a useful magazine.

Simen Svale Skogsrud
simen@triggerduck.com
Game Designer
Triggerduck

An October 2000 article seems to take issue with NTT DoCoMo offering "walled garden" service. The article says that without open Internet access, the future of wireless is limited. I propose the exact opposite: i-mode's success happened specifically because NTT DoCoMo took an AOL approach and started i-mode by offering a limited number of pre-selected, quality contents. Compare i-mode's success at gathering users for pay content to the rest of the Internet's ability to do so.

I always believe a pat on the back goes a long way. I would like to congratulate your magazine. I have been a reader for some time now and enjoy not only the weekly email updates, but the hard cover copies as well, which adorn my new office in Tokyo, where many foreigner visitors have picked up my only monthly copy as a souvenir. No hard feelings of course, as I can get another, but it is interesting to note that foreign visitors are interested in the content and impressed at the quality of the production.

David Middleton
BLM International
Sumiregaoka, Takarazuka-shi

I agree completely that Japan is at least 8 to 12 months ahead of the closest wired country. In the GSM world, GPRS will not rival current DoCoMo and CDMA One speeds until mid- to late next year. As you stated, the US is slow to deploy the latest technology due to balkanization.

The problem that I see with converting all these Japanese wireless subscribers to wireless consumers is the byzantine Japanese credit card system. Japanese banks have never led the way in innovation. Will they suddenly do an about face now? I see this as a big stumbling block.

With great interest did I read the article "Why Japan Needs to Speak English." In your analysis concerning the problems that Japanese normally have in communicating with the outside world, you are absolutely right, I think. But in one respect I cannot follow your argumentation: you state that 80 percent of the Internet is in English -- this is definitely not true. As serious investigations show by now, it is at most 50 percent in English, with a dramatically decreasing tendency. As more and more people join the Internet worldwide, the Net gets multilingual.

I want you to know that I read your magazine nearly cover to cover. I have enjoyed reading it, but one thing stands out: Joi's Diary. Get rid of it, please. Listening to Joi name drop and extrapolate the state of Japan based on the opinion of his sister is not journalism.

Jason Keith Radnor
JRadnor@ibesjp.com

Reader response: Spread the Joi!