RFID in Japan

via Reuters

Hitachi aims to raise sales in its "traceability" business, including radio frequency identification (RFID) and IC tags, to 80 billion yen ($695 million) in the year to March 2011, against an estimated 5 billion yen in 2006/07, by introducing 125 different systems targeting specific industries and purposes.

[image from uid4u.com]

Personal Media Corp. has launched a new website called uid4u (www.uid4u.com) that describes various solutions and products using Ubiquitous ID Center's ucode tags.

NTT DoCoMo will introduce a new feature called Toruka for thier RFID-chipped wallet phones. DoCoMo's new handsets (FOMA 902i) that will likely be released this coming winter will come with this feature.

Toruka allows wallet phones to receive information from RFID readers.

This feature can be used to get discount coupons, store information, ads, etc. that are sent from reader devices. The received information is then stored in a special "folder" on a mobile phone. Once stored in the folder, the information can be exchanged with others by using a infrared port, external memory device, or email.

Toruka could also be used at arcade game centers to connect arcade games with java-based games on mobile phones.

via ITMedia, Septermber 4, 2005, in Japanese

Sun Microsystems Japan and The Nippon Signal co-developed a system for managing (physical) files etc. using RFID-enabled file cabinets. On August 24, they announced the availability of the system for the Japanese market. The RFID-enabled cabinets recognize RFID tags attached to documents, files, and DVDs in order to prevent theft.

The system is called "Sun Ray Data Security Office" and it's a combination of Sun's disk-less network computer "Sun Ray", a server, a software tool for dealing with RFID tags, and The Nippon Signal's RFID-enabled file cabinet.

Users must show their smart cards and enter their passwords to the system in order to take things in cabinets.

via Nikkei Sangyo Shimbun, August 25, 2005.

KDDI, Hitachi, Itochu, and Itochu Techno Science announced yersterday that they together will test a new information delivery service using RFID reader phones. Hotel Emil Kasai in Edogawa-ku, Tokyo is where they test the system. The hotel will install a special RFID-tagged map of nearby areas -- about 70 points of interest are marked with RFID tags. Users can scan the RFID tags embeeded in the spots they are interested in by using RFID reader phones to create a personal mobile "portal website" with relevant information. The companies call this service a mobile phone based "concierge service."

KDDI has developed prototype phones that integrates passive and active RFID readers in March. For this pilot test, mobile phones with integrated passive RFID readers (mu-chip readers) will be used.

The pilot test will last for a month at the hotel. The company may consider rolling out the service depending on the result of this pilot test .

via ITMedia, September 5, 2005, in Japanese

via yamada desu

looks like I forgot to blog this one last week. IIJ is one of the first Internet providers in the country and is very competent in wide range of Internet technologies.

Hewlett-Packard is teaming up with Internet Initiative Japan and IIJ Technology to develop and market EPC RFID services in Japan.

--
Jonathan Collins(2005) HP to Offer RFID Services in Japan. RFID Journal, August 18, 2005. <http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/articleview/1812/1/1/> (August 22, 2005)

NTT DoCoMo and Mitsui Sumitomo announced that they will collaborate to develop a new service that will allow consumers to use RFID'd "wallet phones" (aka i-Mode FeliCa phones) as credit cards.

via Internet watch, April 27, in Japanese

NTT Data, Fujitsu, Hitachi, and NEC agreed to establish a standardized technology of traceability -- they will discuss standardized methods for companies to exchange information (place of production, date of shipment, etc.) associated with RFID tags. They intend to encourage food manufacturers to use their standard.

The four companies will agree on a common information structure (i.e., data attributes) and protocols for information exchange. Such standardization is expected to make systems from different vendors interoperable.

via Nikke Shimbun, April 20, 2005, in Japanese.

UPDATE (April 20, 2005):

MYCOM PCWEB describes this as an effort to establish infrastructure for so-called "ID Commerce." This infrastructure would likely be based on standards proposed by EPCglobal and others. The company continue discussions on requirements and interfaces, which will be summarized this August. Then, design, development and technical testing follows in order to start pilot tests in January next year. Results of pilot tests will be summarized next summer when real deployments may start.