2 posts from December 2007

It's been some time since I talked about Joe Odagiri.  Here we go, a big news.

Joe is getting married with Yu Kashii, an actress he co-starred in "The Pavillion Salamandre".  I like her a lot - though she is young, she is very good in acting and has quite a cool demeanor.  Among the films available in the U.S., she is in "Linda, Linda, Linda".  You can get it on Netflix.

But actually, I was more interested in his comment in the press conference.  He says that he decided to announce the marriage at this time because he will be "out of the country most of the time starting from the next year."

What's that supposed to mean!!???

According to reports, he will appear in a Korean film and will go to Korea early in January.  So I understand it.  But he says "starting from the next year", not just "around new years".

Now, I am in this hallucination again about him playing in Scorsese's "Silence" - hmmm....  and if he will be in LA a lot, then I can have an access somehow to him...

No, no, Michi.  Stop day dreaming.  Get back to work.

Japan's industry people often criticize their own mobile industry as "Galapagos".  The largest carrier NTT DoCoMo chose their proprietary technology for 2G, and therefore became segregated from the rest of the world and the market developed in a quite unique way, just like unique animals in Galapagos Islands.

It turned out to be an obvious bad decision, so they have tried very hard to standardize their technology in 3G cellular.  Yet, in 2.5GHz wireless broadband spectrum, they have made another "Galapagotizing" decision.

Yesterday, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication (MIC) decided to give 2.5GHz licenses to two groups, one headed by KDDI, utilizing WiMax, and another by WillCom with "Advanced PHS" technology.

In the 90's, NTT tried and failed to make PHS their home-grown technology to be used worldwide.  It did make it to China and some other Asian countries as the cheap fixed wireless alternative, yet it is of very limited use compared to mobile phones.

PHS mostly failed in its own market also, except for a so-so success by Willcom, with its data plan for PC card modem.  So Willcom does have some expressed interest from its customers for the higher speed connection, but in the larger state of spectrum politics, it looks nothing but another try for Japan's home-grown technology again, with another risk of "Galapagotization".

Even KDDI's WiMax, whose consortium includes Intel - the largest backer of WiMax -, with the growing clouds over mobile WiMax initiative in the United States, may not be the sure bet.  It is a shame to see Japan going further into the Galapagotization, just because it is too advanced and technology decision has to be made much earlier than the rest of the world.

I know that everyone wants to escape from Qualcomm's reign in CDMA monopoly world.  Yes, I know it is politics.  But I am still a bit concerned.