JAPANESE CELL PHONE CULTURE

Japanese Cell Phone Culture - Etiquette - Japanese Cell Phone Culture - Latest Technology

In Japan, cell phones have become ubiquitous art of the Japanese culture. In Japanese, cell phones are called keitai denwa (携帯電話), literally "portable telephones," and are often known simply as keitai.

Much of the Japanese population own cell phone (keitai), most of which are equipped with enhancements such as video and camera capabilities. This pervasiveness and the particularities of their usage lead to the development of a mobile phone culture, or "keitai culture."

Japanese Cell Phone Culture - Etiquette

Talking on a cell phone (keitai) while riding a bus or train is frowned upon, and messages asking passengers not to make calls and to switch their phones to silent mode ("manner mode" in Japanese) are played frequently. This, combined with the low per-message price, the ability to enhance messages with special characters, emoticons, pictures, and small animations, and to write in English or Japanese, has made text messaging extremely popular among people of all ages.

Many people send and receive a large number of text messages daily; teenagers are especially fond of this simple, fast, and private method of communication, and many schools ban the use of cell phone (keitai) on campus. The Japanese cell phones use an email based system and not SMS as used in most other countries.

Cell phone (keitai) text messages are also a popular way to communicate with potential friends or lovers. Many internet sites maintain cell phone (keitai)-accessible portals via which users can search for and contact others with similar interests.

Japanese mobile phones have the capability to use very large sets of characters and icons based on JIS standards that define characters for industrial appliances. More than one thousand characters including all of the Latin alphabet, hiragana, katakana, kanji and special characters like cm (centimeter), arrows, musical notes and more can be used to compose messages. Japanese mobile phones use also emoticons differently from Western mobile phones (see Japanese emoticons).

These character sets are used extensively, and often in a way that do not use their original meaning by relying more on the information based on the shape each character has. For example, '\' 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) might mean that he or she didn't study enough, or that the test itself is depressing. Some of these usages disappeared as suitable icons were made but these newly made icons also acquired a usage not originally intended. Another example deals with the astrological symbol for Libra (♎). It resembles a cooked and puffed mochi, and is sometimes used in a happy new year's message as mochi are often eaten then. The symbol for Aquarius (♒) resembles waves, so this would be used to mean 'sea'. The number of icons gradually increased and they are now colored on most cell phones, to make them more distinct. ASCII art is also used widely and many of them are faces with expression.

Most cell phone (keitai) sold in the last three years have integrated cameras; some more up to date models have high quality digital cameras. Many of the cameras are capable of taking both still and video images. Images can usually be sent to other mobile phones and embedded in messages.

Japanese Cell Phone Culture - Latest Technology

Japan has always led the world when it comes to the latest technogy in cell phone. Many new technologies are released years earlier in Japan or become much more common earlier in Japan. While the difference between what is available in Japan and the rest of the world has reduced in recent years there is still a significant difference. Many cell phone (keitai) have a range of additional capabilities, such as:

• TV phone

• E-money service and various certification functions through Untouched IC card (FeliCa etc.)

• Various services with NTT Docomo’s ‘osaifu-keitai (mobile phone with wallet function)’

• E-money service e.g. ‘Edy’

• Function as ‘Suica,’ which can be used for a season ticket and a train ticket

• Cmode: vending machines which can be used with QR code and ‘osaifu-keitai’ of a mobile phone

• Crime prevention buzzer (with the automatic report system to the police)

• Pedometer

• 'Read aloud' system

• Touch-pad system

• Mobile phones with HDD (Hard Disk Drive)

• Mobile centrex service with wireless LAN

• A fingerprint/face certification system for the protection of personal data

• Navigation by GPS

• Configurable databases

• Phone and address books

• Alarm clocks and stopwatches

• Games, such as RPGs like Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy

• Daytimers

• Varying degrees of image enhancement capabilities, such as the option to create borders, to create animations, and more.

• Instant Messenger

• Calculator, Calendar, Schedule note and Memo pad

• Playback of downloaded music

• Recording and playback of voices, music, images and pictures

• Portable music player (MP3 player etc.)

• Viewing and listening to TV and radio (FM/AM)

• Faster software development with pan-OSes such as Symbian OS and Linux

In recent years, some cell phones even have the capability of being used as debit or credit cards and can be swiped through most checkout lines to buy everything from mascara to jet planes, as more and more companies offer catalogs for cell phones.

Some newer models allow the user to watch movies and/or television. Most cell phone (keitai) 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 cell phone (keitai) users. One of the most popular services allows users to check train schedules and plane trips on public transit.

There is a popular trend in Japan to use the mobile phone handset to read information from special barcodes. The current technology is based on something called 'QR codes' which are a form of 2D barcode that is written out in a square shape instead of a bar shape. The phone handset can scan the barcode using its camera or other input, decode the information, and then take actions based on the type of content. The most popular usage of these QR codes is in advertising. All over Japan there are posters with the codes on and they are found extensively in magazines and even on some people’s business cards. The QR code usually has links to a web site address that the phone can visit or it might contain address and telephone numbers.

Sony, working with NTT DoCoMo, has been spearheading the mobile phone wallet technology, commonly known as 'FeliCa'. This technology makes use of a RFID chip inside the handset that can communicate with reading devices when the phone is placed near them. Though the technology is relatively new, there are many convenience stores which allow users to pay for goods using their phones; some vending machines even accept phone payments. Users must 'charge up' their accounts with credits before they can pay using their phones. The growing popularity of the system is compelling other manufacturers to make compatible phones.

Gracenote and Media Socket have a service where the user holds the phone up to a source of music (such as a speaker), and, by dialing a certain phone number, the song is found in a database and 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 on the mobile internet.

(Article based on Wikipedia article and used under the GNU Free Documentation License)