Here you can find interesting startup news from Japan, not only from its capital, Tokyo, but also other startup hubs like Fukuoka, Kyoto, Osaka, and many more.

(1) Several sources have reported that the folks at telecomms company KDDI will debut a Win7 handset in August running on the next-gen. Mango platform.

(2) Mobile Healthcare Inc (“MHC”), a pioneering mobile health company and home to the global award winning lifewatcher cell phone and cloud-based health management platform, announced that it has initiated collaboration with Jean-Michel Halfon to contribute to the expansion of the company as an advisor and investor.

(3) Colopl, a mobile phone and GPS-based game, officially announced that a total of 2 million users in Japan are playing Colopl (needless to say, it’s the country’s most successful service of its kind). What’s interesting is that the game needed close to 5 years to hit 1 million users in April last year and just 15 months to add a second million.

(4) Takako Kansai (@kansai_takako), a full-time engineer at Tokyo’s web service start-up and also the best known tech geek girl in the country, just released her first iPhone app called Zaim, the socialized cashbook app, on Tuesday.

(5) Following the introduction of cloud girl Claudia, Microsoft Japan will continue their attempt to appeal to the Japanese by using a new anime character.

We thank nordicfactory for the flag image.

Chris Ismael, Microsoft Developer Evangelist, will discuss developer opportunities and rapid application development for the new Windows Phone 7. The new phone platform from Microsoft has been dubbed a “game changer” and a complete change of strategy from Microsoft. This session will also touch on Microsoft’s vision of three screens plus cloud, which in a nutshell is about creating the best and contextualized user experiences powered by the cloud and delivered seamlessly across different devices. He also runs the Microsoft startup program called BizSpark in Singapore.

Date: Thursday 27th May 2010
Time: 4 – 6pm
Where: BuzzCity (Yellow Pages Building), 1 Lor 2 Toa Payoh Yellow Pages Building #02-03 Singapore 319637 [Map]
Dress Code: Casual

Light refreshment and networking to follow.

Email baoyi@buzzcity.com to RSVP as seats are limited on a first-come first-served basis.

Our friends at Tech65 starts off this week with their weekly podcast on the following issues that dominated the tech landscape: [1] Apple Sues HTC For Infringing On 20 iPhone Patents, [2] Apple yanks Wi-Fi detectors from iTunes, [3] Microsoft: “No Windows Phone 7 upgrade for Windows Mobile 6.x devices”, [4] Nokia N900 and [5] Norton 360 V4.0. Do click and check out their latest podcast here. You can now also listen to the Tech65 podcast here as well by coming to the blog post directly.

Our friends at Tech65 start their weekly podcast on the following issues that dominated the tech landscape last week: [1] Windows 7 has landed in Singapore, [2] Easing XP Netbook owners’ path to Windows 7, [3] Amazon: Windows 7 is ‘the biggest pre-order product of all time, [4] Linus Torvalds Gives Windows 7 a Thumbs Up, [5] Apple Targets Windows 7 With Three New ‘Get a Mac’ Ads, [6] Microsoft partners with Facebook, Twitter on search, [7] Google strikes a Twitter search deal, too, [8] Barnes & Noble Nook dual-screen reader officially announced, [9] Apple redesigns iMac and 13-inch MacBook, revamps Mac Mini, [10] Nokia sues Apple for patent infringement, [11] Dell Adamo XPS Can Only Be Opened By Rubbing It. Do click and check out their latest podcast here.

Our friends at Tech65 start their weekly podcast on the following issues that dominated the tech landscape last week with special guest, Kevin Lim: [1] Hotmail passwords leaked online (Gmail, Yahoo Mail affected too), [2] Flash 10.1 Full Flash for Everyone Except iPhone, [3] AT&T Allows VoIP Over 3G for iPhone, [4] Kindle 2 goes to $259, International GSM version coming October 19 (List of countries getting Kindle 2 international), [5] DoubleTwist Unveils An Alternative To The iTunes Music Store, Powered By Amazon MP3, [6] New Ways to Try and Buy Microsoft Office 2010, [7] Norton 2010 Launch, [8] Sony Notebook Launch, [9] Canon Camera Launch, [10] Windows 7 Social Party, and the bonus: Google Wave Is Easier To Understand Than… Do click and check out their latest podcast here.

Our friends at Tech65 start their weekly podcast on the following issues that dominated the tech landscape last week: [1] SingTel vs Local iPhone Developers, [2] MOE Adopts Open Standard Internet Email and Collaboration Services for Over 30,000 Teachers, [3] Sony Ericsson’s motion activated MH907 headset could change things forever (update: or not), [4] Phoenix Instant Boot BIOS starts loading Windows in under a second and the Byte of the Week: Chrome Frame on IE. Do click and check out their latest podcast here.

Our friends at Tech65 start their weekly podcast on the following issues that dominated the tech landscape last week: [1] Singapore first in world to sell titles via direct download at stores, [2] Microsoft in new EU browser offer [a] [b],
[3] How To Hijack ‘Every iPhone In The World’, [4] Windows Mobile becomes Windows Phone, [5] Microsoft and Yahoo in 10-year Web search partnership, [6] Twitter, Facebook attack targeted one user and the Byte of the week: Etherpad. Do click and check out their podcast.

Our friends at Tech65 start their weekly podcast on the following issues that dominated the tech landscape last week: [1] Starhub’s Prepaid Mobile Broadband Plan, [2] Windows 7 RTMed, [3] Jolicloud (A Netbook OS designed for the Cloud) Alpha-ed, [4] Twitter Correcting Follower Counts: 1000s of Spammers Perish, [5] Facebook let you change your username – Just one more time and the Byte of the week: Google Latitude for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Do click and check out their podcast.

Our friends at Tech65 start their weekly podcast on the following issues that dominated the tech landscape last week: [1] Microsoft Office 2010 Tech Preview, [2] Adobe puts PDF creation online (and more) with Acrobat.com, [3] Windows 7 to RTM (?), [4] Downloading IE8 on Windows 7 E, [5] Feynman Lectures Put Online by Bill Gates (lectures here), [6] HTC Hero, [7] Norton 2010 and the Byte of the Week: Backup My Tweets. Do click and check out their podcast.

Our friends at Tech65 start their weekly podcast on the following issues that dominated the tech landscape last week: [1] Steve Jobs is back at work, and so is Jerrick!, [2] Twitter to trademark the word “Tweet”, [3] Standardized mobile phone charger coming to EU (Correction: The proposed standard only applies to “data-enabled” mobile phones), [4] Windows 7 Beta automatic shutdown has begun, [5] iPhone 3GS on sale in Singapore this week, [6] Apple patching nasty SMS vulnerability, [7] Amazon Kindle and Palm Pre getting only so slightly closer to Singapore and the conclusion to the Month of Smartphone: (a) S60, (b) Windows Mobile, (c) Android, (d) iPhone, (e) Why not the iPhone and how the S60 v3 is not going to die anytime soon and (f) The Tech65 team’s favourite smartphones, and finally, the Byte of the Week: gdgt.com. Do click and check out their podcast.