Japanese mobile phone culture
This article needs to be updated.(March 2012) |
In Japan,
A majority of the Japanese population own cellular phones, most of which are equipped with enhancements such as video and camera capabilities. As of 2018, 65% of the population owned such devices.[1] This pervasiveness and the particularities of their usage has led to the development of a mobile phone culture, or "keitai culture," which especially in the early stages of mobile phone adoption was distinct from the rest of the world.
Features
Japan was a leader in mobile phone technology. The first commercial
Some of the main features of a mobile in Japan are:
- E-mail
- Configurable databases
- Phone and address books
- Alarm clocks and stopwatches
- Live video feed via Piconet
- Mobile games (e.g. RPGs like Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy series)
- Timers
- Camera phone features (e.g. selfie, front-facing camera) with mandatory shutter sound.[5] This is because taking upskirt shots of schoolgirls on subway is a problem in Japan.
- Image enhancementcapabilities, such as the option to add borders, create animations, and more.
- Instant messengers
- Emoji
- Calculator, calendar, schedule notes and memo pad
- Audio recording
- MP3 player, etc.)
- MP4player, etc.)
- Nico Nico Dougaetc.)
- Video calling
- GPSnavigation
- Television (1seg) and radio (FM/AM) access
- Video-on-demand(VOD) content
- Theft prevention buzzer (with automatic reporting system to the police)
- Pedometer
- 'Read aloud' system
- Touch-pad system
- A fingerprint/face recognition system for the protection of personal data
- Mobile centrex service with wireless LAN
In recent years, some cellular phones have been updated to be used as debit or credit cards and can be swiped through most cash registers to buy products as varied as mascara and jet planes, as more and more companies offer catalogs for cell phones. These functionalities include:
- E-money service and various certification functions through Untouched IC card (FeliCa etc.)
- Various services with NTT DoCoMo's ‘Osaifu-Keitai (mobile phone with walletfunction)’
- E-money service e.g. ‘Edy’
- ‘Mobile Suica,’ allows the phone to be used as a rail ticket
- Cmode: vending machines which can be used with QR Codes'Osaifu-Keitai'
- GPS
Some newer models allow the user to watch movies and/or television. Most phones can be connected to the Internet through services such as i-mode. Japan was also the first to launch 3G services on a large scale. Users can browse text-only Internet sites, and many Japanese sites have sub-sites designed especially for cellular phone users. One of the most popular services allows users to check train schedules and plan trips on public transit.
The wide variety of features, many original to or limited to Japan, lead to the term "
Market
As of 2013[update], the Japanese mobile phone market is broadly divided into a high-end, consisting of
In use
The use of mobile phones to make calls on public transport is frowned upon, and messages asking passengers not to make calls and to switch their phones to silent mode ("public mode" or "manner mode" in Japanese) are played frequently. This, combined with the low per-message price and ample allowed length per message (10,000 characters), has increased the use of text messaging as an alternative to calls. Abbreviations are also widespread. '\' may be attached at the end of a sentence to show that they are not happy about the event described. A sentence like "I have a test today\" (translated) could be used to imply that the student did not study enough, or that the test itself invites
Emoji
The SkyWalker DP-211SW, a mobile telephone manufactured by
A highly influential early set of 176 cellular emoji was created by
Gyaru-moji
One very distinct form of writing is called 'gyaru-moji ('gal characters' named after the fashion style 'gyaru' or 'gal' because the people of this fashion style are the ones who often use this kind of lettering). For example, lt wouldn't correspond to the Latin characters 'L' and 't' but instead it would correspond to the hiragana, け ('ke'). Notice that it looks very similar when written. Many hiragana, katakana and kanji are taken apart and reassembled using different characters including alphabet characters. It is unclear why this usage is now seen. Some believe[who?] that this started as a way of making secret messages that a quick peek wouldn't reveal, while others[who?] claim that it was just for fun. This can be related to the way the English language hacking culture uses 1337 language to hide the meaning of the words typed. It is also possibly due to different character limits when different languages are used, e.g. 160 Latin characters and 70 Unicode (inc. kanji). By splitting the characters into alpha-numeric characters, it extends the possible over-all length of the message.
Cell phone novels
A cell phone novel, or mobile phone novel (
Mobile gaming
In the early 2000s,
Graphics improved as handsets became more powerful, as demonstrated by the mobile version of Ridge Racer in 2003, though such titles typically cost twice as much as other mobile games. Ridge Racer was published by Namco, one of the most successful mobile game publishers at the time. That same year, Namco also released a fighting game that uses camera phone technology to create a player character based on the player's profile, and interprets the image to determine the character's speed and power; the character can then be sent to a friend's mobile to battle. Namco began attempting to introduce mobile gaming to Europe in 2003.[20]
Other mobile games released in 2003 included a
Japan is the world's largest market for mobile games.[21] The Japanese market today is becoming increasingly dominated by mobile games, which generated $5.1 billion in 2013, more than traditional console games in the country.[22]
Decoration
Phone decorations are common, notably
Teenagers and mobile phones
Paging devices used in the late 1980s to early 1990s predate mobile phones and paved the way for the popularity of the phones among teenagers. Pagers could only display numbers and were intended to alert the owner that they had received a call from a certain phone number, but teens quickly began using numeric messages to communicate many things, including greetings and everyday emotions. Most were based on various ways numbers could be read in Japanese. Examples are
- 4-6-4-9 – yo-ro-shi-ku ("hello," "best regards")
- 3-3-4-1 – sa-mi-shi-i ("I feel lonely")
- 8-8-9-1-9 – ha-ya-ku-i-ku ("hurry up, let's go")
With the rapidly falling prices of cell phones in the mid-1990s, young people began experimenting with the short message service that the mobile phone companies started offering. When the i-mode service became available, the mobile phone culture began flourishing earnestly as this service offered an E-mail application. Magazines and television regularly make specials focusing on the current trend of how mobile phones are used by young people.
Forefront of consumer technology
There is a popular trend in Japan to use the mobile phone handset to read information from special
The Ubiquitous Business Department of NTT DoCoMo is developing the technology for a mobile phone to be the purchase system for virtual shops and smart shops, an authentication system in the medical field, and the purchase point for street poster advertisements.[23]
Gracenote and Media Socket have a service where the user can hold the phone up to a source of music (such as a speaker), and, by dialing a certain phone number, find the song in a database and have it identified. The user receives the song's title, artist, and album within seconds. This information can in turn be used to search the mobile Internet to find that song. Many of these technologies are now common place throughout the world thanks to the rise of smartphones, such as Android and iOS devices.
Selfie culture
The modern
To capitalize on the purikura phenomenon in East Asia, Japanese mobile phones began including a
Negative aspects
It is considered a violation of good etiquette to answer a cell phone in certain public places. For example, on trains it is rude to answer or talk on cellphones. Many people keep their phone in 'manner mode' (silent mode) in order to not bother others and to avoid embarrassment on trains. On the other hand, writing emails or playing games with a cell phone while riding the train is completely acceptable.
Electromagnetic energy is theorized to cause interference with heart
Most trains contain signs demanding that mobile phones be turned off when around seats reserved for the elderly and handicapped, but passengers rarely do so. In hospitals, it is expected that one should turn it off entirely.Both talking on the phone or texting/messaging while operating a vehicle or riding a bicycle are prohibited, but nevertheless remain fairly common.[citation needed]
See also
References
- ^ "Japanese ownership rates smartphone 2018".
- ^ a b c "Camera phones: A look back and forward". Computerworld. 11 May 2012. Archived from the original on 9 October 2019. Retrieved 15 September 2019.
- ^ "From J-Phone to Lumia 1020: A complete history of the camera phone". Digital Trends. 11 August 2013. Retrieved 15 September 2019.
- ^ a b "Taking pictures with your phone". BBC News. BBC. 18 September 2001. Retrieved 15 September 2019.
- ^ "Japan's noisy iPhone problem". Engadget. Retrieved 25 September 2020.
- ^ a b Blagdon, Jeff (4 March 2013). "How emoji conquered the world". The Verge. Vox Media. Retrieved 6 November 2013.
- ^ Sternbergh, Adam (16 November 2014). "Smile, You're Speaking EMOJI: The fast evolution of a wordless tongue". New York.
- ^ "Android – 4.4 KitKat". android.com.
- ^ "How Emojis took center stage in American pop culture". NBC News. 17 July 2017.
- ^ a b "Correcting the Record on the First Emoji Set". Emojipedia. 8 March 2019.
- ^ Alt, Matt (7 December 2015). "Why Japan Got Over Emojis". Slate. Retrieved 22 January 2019.
- ^ Steinmetz, Katy (16 November 2015). "Oxford's 2015 Word of the Year Is This Emoji". Time. Retrieved 28 July 2017.
- ^ Sternbergh, Adam (16 November 2014). "Smile, You're Speaking Emoji".
- ^ Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 16 August 2015.
- ^ "NTT DoCoMo Emoji List". nttdocomo.co.jp.
- ^ Nakano, Mamiko. "Why and how I created emoji: Interview with Shigetaka Kurita". Ignition. Translated by Mitsuyo Inaba Lee. Archived from the original on 10 June 2016. Retrieved 16 August 2015.
- .
- ^ Päper, Christoph. "(NTTドコモ), (iモード, アイモード)". original-emoji.
- ^ "普通の若者が携帯小説 ベストセラーも続々" [Ordinary young people are mobile novels, bestsellers one after another]. book.asahi.com. 11 February 2007. Archived from the original on 21 October 2012. Retrieved 5 November 2009.
- ^ a b c Hermida, Alfred (28 August 2003). "Japan leads mobile game craze". BBC News. Retrieved 22 September 2011.
- ^ Mayumi Negishi (11 December 2013). "Japan Tops World in Mobile Apps Revenue". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
- ^ "Japanese console market down as mobile gaming takes over". MCV UK. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
- ISBN 978-0-374-29279-9.
- ^ ISBN 9781783204533.
- ISBN 9781317528937.
- ISBN 9783319579498.
- ISBN 9780415254410.
- ^ "First mobile videophone introduced". CNN. 18 May 1999. Retrieved 15 September 2019.
- ^ "How 'playing Puri' paved the way for Snapchat". BBC. 23 November 2018. Retrieved 16 September 2019.
- ^ Jay P. Thaker, Mehul B. Patel, MD, Krit Jongnarangsin, MD,* Valdis V. Liepa, PhD, † Ranjan K. Thakur, MD, FHR. "Electromagnetic interference with pacemakers caused by portable media players" (PDF). Jay Thaker. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 April 2012. Retrieved 17 October 2011.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ "Cellular Phones Can Cause Pacemaker Problems". Medicine.net. 31 December 1997. Retrieved 17 October 2011.
Further reading
- "Cell phone culture here unlike any other". The Japan Times. 2 September 2009. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
- "Fashion, function meet in Japan cell-phone culture". indianexpress.com. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
- Naomi Canton for CNN (27 September 2012). "Cell phone culture: How cultural differences affect mobile use". CNN. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
{{cite web}}
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has generic name (help) - Palash Ghosh (25 September 2012). "Dire Threat To Culture? - Mobile Phones, Email Destroying Penmanship". International Business Times. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
- Mayumi Negishi (11 December 2013). "Japan Tops World in Mobile Apps Revenue". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
- Nanette Gottlieb; Mark McLelland (2003). Japanese Cybercultures. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-134-46764-8.
External links
- "Mobile Phones, Japanese Youth, and the Re-Placement of Social Contact" by Mizuko Ito
- "Personal, Portable, Pedestrian: Mobile Phones in Japanese Life"(2005) edited by Mizuko Ito, Daisuke Okabe and Misa Matsuda. Click here for a pdf of a draft of the introduction.[1]
- Why Do We Rarely See Japanese-Made Smartphones? Article Published in Viralxd.com