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Mini-mosque as an "anti-terrorist" measure

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Ground Zero: Its Boundaries Are Elastic

If this ugly fight is not about religious freedom, as the center’s opponents assert, if it is instead a question of honoring the dead and showing respect for the families of those murdered by Islamist fanatics on 9/11, how far from the World Trade Center site might Park51 be built to keep everyone reasonably satisfied?

via www.nytimes.com

I told my 13-year old son about this "mosque on Ground Zero" issue today, and this game infected brain said, "it is a good idea to put a mosque on Ground Zero. Then, muslims will not attack there again."

Yes, that is right, son!! I never thought of it, but you are quite right.

So borrowing frin this idea, why don't we put a mini-mosque on top of every high-rise building in the U.S.? In Japan, small Inari shrine is often built on top of buildings. So we copy that. Put the mosque on the "top" so "they" can see it clearly from an airplane.

As for airplanes, also borrowing from this idea, we can paint a phrase from Quran on the body, so "they" can clearly see it. Then, they would not think of blowing up such an airplane.

These would be a way cheaper anti-terrorist solution than airport security such as today.

Michi

Inari shrine on top of a department store building in Japan:

Inari_7_thumb

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Great news for all Japanese entrepreneurs - Zynga Buys Tokyo-Based Startup Unoh

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via techcrunch.com

Congrats to my friend Shintaro Yamada, founder and CEO of UNOH, for (reportedly) successful exit with Zynga!!

Not only for Shintaro, but also to all entrepreneurs in Japan. There has been lots of talks about why there aren't enough successful Japanese startups, and I said in my 2008 book "Paradaisu Sakoku" (Seclusion in Paradise) that the biggest problem, although not often mentioned in Japanese press, is that there is no exit, except for IPO - Japanese big corporations just don't acquire startups. IPO is a high hurdle, particularly these days. In Silicon Valley, the most common exit is the acquisition by a bigger company.

Now, this precedent will HUGELY encourage Japanese entrepreneurs. Even though Japanese companies don't acquire startups, US companies can.

Shintaro has lots of friends in the Valley. It is not a luck. He worked really hard to make it happen, not just by building services, but also by building human relationships in the Valley. He knows what is important in this world.

Hope many more will follow his trail.

Michi

My comment to WSJ "Google Says Regulators Are Okay With Yahoo Japan Search Dea"l

via kara.allthingsd.com

I wrote the comment to this article:

While I am concerned about the monopoly drawback too, I think your article lacks the point of view from "actual quality of service" for consumers.

I know, as an industry insider, that Japanese search engine people (both G and Y) have been investing so much time, effort and money for R&D in Japanese language search, and as you know, it takes a lot of market knowledge and tweeking effort to perfect the search technology.

On the other hand, Microsoft has not been doing their homework to catch up with them in Japan. Even in their core business, their Office products Japanese language handling is getting worse every minute. I don't use MS Kanji translation software anymore; I use Google's. I hear that they have moved their R&D to China, and even MS Japan employees don't use their Kanji software. The fact that they have minuscule market share in search is not a coincident. Their product quality is simply BAD.

Given that market reality, I can agree with Yahoo Japan's decision, which was probably the only way to keep their Japanese customers happy, and Japanese authority probably share my sentiment as well.

The rumor turned out to be true. Fujitsu and Toshiba to Merge Mobile Phone Businesses

Tokyo, June 17, 2010 — Fujitsu Limited and Toshiba Corporation announced that today they have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to merge their mobile phone businesses. According to the MOU, Toshiba will transfer its mobile phone business to a new company to be established October 1, 2010, and Fujitsu will acquire a majority of the shares in the company.

via www.fujitsu.com

They denied the rumor in the past, but as everyone expected, it turned out to be true. Fujitsu and Toshiba are merging their mobile handset business.

Fujitsu was the core member of "NTT family" in the past and is a long-term DoCoMo shop. Toshiba started off from a CDMA/KDDI camp as a new entrant at digitization period. In the past, there have been a loose "carrier shop" relationships in Japan, because DoCoMo had an invisible but "strong" influence to their handset vendors. Now that the Japanese mobile market is at the infliction point, finally such "power structure" seems to be collapsing.

Still, there is a very slim chance that they (Japanese handset vendors, in general) will regain the position in the global market, unfortunately.

I just wish they did this 10 years ago, but let's not speak useless "would have, could have" anymore.

Michi

To my sons, who hate studying Japanese...

via www.youtube.com

I hope you guys like this video. I have to tell you that there are only two countries in this world, at least now, who have the technology, wealth and ambition to do this kind of things.

Some time in the future, I believe that you will appreciate to have these two countries as your heritage.

So be proud to be Japanese American, and keep studying Japanese. Space-full of stars are waiting for you.

Michi

HP-Palm, key is the positioning of WebOS

via online.wsj.com

Generally speaking, I think HP-Palm combination makes a lot of sense - Palm as a part of HP cloud strategy, Palm's rich patent/IP asset and developer community support, and their common DNA as Silicon Valley natives.

I think that the key question is where HP/Palm position its WebOS in the increasing crowded smartphone battlefield.

iPhone has established itself with fashion statement, as well as its ecosystem with iTunes, and it is basically a comsumer electronic device, with "viewing" as the main purpose.

RIM Blackberry is still popular among business people, not only because it has a strong grip in corporate mail server market with Blackberry Enterprise Server, but also its superiority as the "input device". Geeks look down on Blackberry apps, but for layman business users, small number of apps are well integrated into BB's basic functions (mail, address books, calender etc.), much easier to use than iPhone. RIM is way ahead of the game in the subscription model for SME market of anybody else.

Google's Android is going after the mobile advertisement model, so it is rapidly expanding its platform to many handsets. Some may or may not be as cool as iPhone, but it does not matter - as long as the platform is broad, Google can make money.

Microsoft has failed to eat up RIM's market, where they logically has a strength. But their new Phone7 platform does not sound like a match for RIM-type customers. Phone7 emphasize "social network" and "integration with Xbox" - sounds like a teen market. Their new Kin1/2 model is exactly that. Sounds like a strategy confusion for me.

And Palm. Their Pre model was positioned between iPhone and Blackberry, but the focus was not too clear. HP says Palm is a key element for their mobile cloud strategy. Logically, HP's market is the enterprise market, and I don't think they are going for consumer electronics strategy like Apple. So are they going to directly compete with RIM? Or are they going after any "Blue Ocean"?

I am curious.

Michi

Japan's telecom minister interested in spectrum auction

asahi.com（朝日新聞社）：電波割り当て、競売方式導入に前向き　原口総務相 - 政治

Asahi.com reports that Japanese Minister of General Affairs and Telecommunication is interested in introducing auction system for allocating wireless spectrum.

I have long been advocating auction but have not had much hope, particularly I believe it is too late, so am VERY surprised at this news.

I am very curious how it will pan out.

Michi