Japanese brewing giant Asahi has revealed that a cyber attack in September saw personal information belonging to 1.5 million customers exposed.

The incident, discovered on 29 September, saw an attacker gain unauthorized access to the firm's data center network via network equipment at its headquarters.

"Ransomware was deployed simultaneously, encrypting data on multiple active servers and some PC devices connected to the network," said Asahi in an update.

"While investigating the extent and details of the impact, focusing on the systems targeted in the attack, we identified that some data from company-issued PCs provided to employees had been exposed."

The company said there was no evidence that the data had been published on the internet, and that the attack was limited to systems managed in Japan.

Customers affected in the incident are those who had contacted the customer service centers of Asahi Breweries, Asahi Soft Drinks, and Asahi Group Foods, with names, gender, addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses exposed.

Meanwhile, the names, addresses and phone numbers of external contacts to whom the company had sent congratulatory or condolence telegrams were accessed.

Employee details were also exposed in the breach, Asahi confirmed, with information including names, dates of birth, addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses impacted along with the names, dates of birth, and gender of some family members.

Asahi cyber attack recovery still ongoing

The company said it continues to restore systems on a phased basis, is redesigning communication routes and network controls, and tightening connection restrictions.

It's also limiting connections to external parties via the internet – including email and web applications – to secure zones and improving security monitoring systems.

Backup strategies and BCP plans will be redesigned and updated to ensure rapid recovery in the event of an emergency, the firm said, while security standards will be continuously reviewed.

“I would like to sincerely apologize for any difficulties caused to our stakeholders by the recent system disruption. We are making every effort to achieve full system restoration as quickly as possible, while implementing measures to prevent recurrence and strengthening information security across the group, " said Atsushi Katsuki, president and group CEO.

"Regarding product supply, shipments are resuming in stages as system recovery progresses. We apologize for the continued inconvenience and appreciate your understanding.”

Who was behind the attack?

At a press conference in Tokyo this week, Katsuki said the company hadn't communicated with the attacker and hadn't paid any ransom.

"Even if we had a ransom demand, we would not have paid it," he said.

The attack has been claimed by the Qilin ransomware group, which has listed Asahi on its data leak site.

The group claims it exfiltrated 27GB of files from the company, including financial documents, budgets and contracts, along with the personal data of employees, as well as plans and development forecasts of the company.

In a recent report, Guidepoint said the Russia-linked group was now the world's leading ransomware gang, with its activity surging 318% year-over-year during the last quarter, and claiming 234 victims.

The group has claimed responsibility for attacks on manufacturers, financial firms, retailers, government and healthcare providers, including London hospitals.

“The Asahi ransomware attack is a powerful reminder that the fallout from a cyber breach can stretch far beyond the initial incident," said Chris Dimitriadis, chief global strategy officer at ISACA. 

"Months later, it’s been revealed that 1.5 million customers potentially had their data breached, and the company has been forced to delay its financial results. This is clear evidence that the damage from ransomware attacks can be deep, expensive and long-lasting." 

Dimitriadis added: “While we’ve seen more of these large-scale attacks in 2025, we cannot afford to become desensitised to them. With AI now enabling criminals to hack at the speed of intent, the job of defending against attacks is even more critical. The window to detect and stop an attack is shrinking."  

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NTT, Japan’s biggest telecoms company, is set to invest $3.5 billion (£2.8 billion) into India’s digital infrastructure over the next seven years.

The investment will be staggered in $500 million (£404 million) chunks each year over the time period, as reported by Nikkei Asia.

NTT's investments will mainly be focused on digital infrastructure, with some of the money also going towards building nine new data centres, although it’s unclear exactly how much it will spend in this area. This would bring the telco’s capacity to 300 MW, almost double what it currently has.

Data centre power is measured in megawatts (MW), with the more MW present at a facility, the more infrastructure that can be deployed. Due to advancements in server technology, it’s harder to work out how many servers are deployed if data centres are measured in the physical space available, such as square feet, so it has become more common to measure the energy consumed instead.

NTT is also looking to construct subsea cable landing stations in the Indian cities of Mumbai and Chennai in 2023. The venture forms part of its digital infrastructure investment into the country. The new investment is a step up from the $800 million (£647 million) the company invested in India from 2021 to 2022.

As of May 2022, the company had launched a data centre in Mumbai and was expected to open eight more around the country, according to the Economic Times.

It already had 12 sites across India, in Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, and Delhi, totalling a 220 MW capacity. In 2021, the company revealed it was intending to invest $2 billion into the country on data centres, networks, and solar projects, reported Data Center Dynamics.

IT Pro has contacted NTT for comment.

Japan’s domestic market is shrinking, causing some companies to look overseas for other markets for their investments. This has been fuelled by an ageing population, the weak yen, and the impact of the pandemic.

In October 2022, NTT launched NTT Data to control the company’s international overseas operations. At the time, the company said that NTT Data would have a total revenue of around $30 billion (£24 billion), with $18 billion coming from outside Japan from more than 80 countries.

Since 2007, NTT has been steadily growing its international business by more than 20%. It offers technology consulting, edge-to-cloud infrastructure, and global data centres.

India has continued to attract investments into its data centre industry, with local telco Bharti Airtel revealing this month it was going to invest £200 million into a new data centre in Hyderabad. It’s set to be a large hyperscale centre, with 60 MW of capacity.

Although NTT hasn’t invested in data centres in the city, it has hinted in the past that it is interested in entering Hyderabad, but is waiting for more demand before it does.

“Hyderabad is indeed turning out to be a hub for hyperscaler data centres in India as the government of Telangana is looking to attract investments in the state,” Rajiv Ranjan, associate research director at IDC India, told IT Pro.

“Mr K T Rama Rao, IT and industries minister, is very IT-friendly. Besides, it’s a seismic zone, has a stable power supply which is essential for data centres. Lastly, presence of talent and skilled professionals is another driving factor with more IT professionals working there, good number of engineering colleges in the state.”

Japan is reportedly considering establishing a new organisation to protect the nation against cyber attacks, after the country has suffered a number of major incidents in the past few years.

If the country proceeds with the plans, the new unit will be created within the National Security Secretariat, a department that leads Japan's National Security Council, and tasked with advancing its cyber security capabilities.

The organisation will oversee cyber security across Japan's military and its National Police Agency if plans to establish it go ahead, according to a government source who spoke to Kyodo News.

To create the new organisation, the government is currently developing a new security budget for 2024. It’s set to expand on the function of the current National Center of Incident Readiness and Strategy for Cybersecurity (NISC).

NISC is responsible for promoting cyber security policies across the government and sharing information on attacks with ministries, agencies, and businesses.

Taking a proactive approach to cyber defence is not typically part of the NISC's remit, but powers are being proposed to give the new body the freedom to actively pre-empt and stop attacks before they reach Japan's systems.

The head of the new organisation will aim to strengthen the country’s response to cyber attacks by increasing cross-border collaboration and intelligence-sharing between Japan and its counterparts in the US and European cyber security agencies.

This comes as Asia moved into first place as the most-attacked global region in 2021, being the targeted in 26% of all cyber attacks, according to IBM’s Security X-Force Threat Intelligence Index 2022 report. Japan, Australia, and India are the three most attacked countries in the region.

Additionally, the average ransom demand for Japanese businesses was around 26 times greater than for UK organisations in 2021. Research from Sophos, published in April 2022, found that organisations in Japan paid the highest ransoms in the world in 2021, with the average payment recorded at around $4,327,024 (£3,440,330).

The creation of the new body may be spurred by the increasing number of cyber attacks that have hit Japan recently. In May 2021, the country's government had its data leaked when hackers gained access to Fujitsu’s project management platform. One ministry said that it had suffered a data breach, with around 76,000 email addresses exposed.

The month after, Fujifilm was hit by a potential ransomware attack, forcing it to shut down part of its network.

In 2022, Bandai Namco confirmed in July that it had been a victim of a cyber attack. Several of its companies in Asian regions were breached by a third party earlier in the month. Some reports suggested that AlphV, or BlackCat, were the ransomware group behind the attack.

The government also came under attack this year when in September investigations focused on the pro-Russia Killnet group launching cyber attacks on government websites.

It had problems accessing more than 20 websites across four ministries, an incident which was thought to be caused by denial of service attacks (DDoS). The Tokyo police launched an investigation into the attacks as well.

Japan is set to establish a $450 million (£400.2 million) fund to support research into 6G as countries around the world are looking to dedicate more resources to the emerging technology.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications is set to dedicate 66.2 billion yen in a second budget for 2023 to create the fund, according to Nikkei Asia. It will be set up and live in the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, and look to provide financial support for 6G research and development for a number of years.

The ministry added that 70% of the global market for mobile base stations belongs to three overseas companies: Huawei in China, Ericsson in Sweden, and Nokia in Finland.

The sector is dominated by these foreign rivals, although some organisations in Japan are competitive when it comes to some of the components used in the base stations.

Although 5G technology is still yet to be rolled out across the globe, the industry has started to gear itself up for 6G. The new technology is expected to be ten times faster than its predecessor, offering peak data rates at 100 Gbits/sec. However, the technology is still early in its research and development cycle, meaning there are no official standards for it.

This hasn’t stopped countries around the world from beginning to invest in it, however. Aside from Japan, India declared in May 2022 that it was hoping to roll out 6G technology by the end of the decade. Despite this, it didn’t outline what the technology would be used for or explain how it would help the country.

Additionally, the UK and South Korea announced in July 2022 that they would collaborate on 5G and 6G development. The UK invested £1.6 million into a competition totalling £3.6 million, alongside South Korea. The money was set to be used to create research and development of interoperable solutions like Open Radio Access Network technology.

Lastly, the US teamed up with Japan in January 2022 to work on creating international standards in unmanned technology that uses 6G. The pair were hoping to prevent Chinese companies from dominating the field, as there’s fierce competition from companies like Alibaba, Tencent, and Huawei.

Fujitsu and a Japanese university research institute have published research on the concept of a 'Trustable Internet', which aims to make it easier to verify the authenticity of data on the internet.

The Japan-based tech company teamed up with the Keio Research Institute at Keio University to publish a whitepaper on the Trustable Internet concept. The companies said that the verification of large amounts of information on the Internet remains a difficult task, highlighting the need for a more general-purpose method to prove the authenticity of data.

The pair's proposal would aim to help verify the authenticity of data by adding an interface, which they have dubbed the 'Endorsement Layer', which would theoretically help users confirm the credibility of various data based on additional information related to the generation and processing of data.

This includes information on confirmation and evaluation by third parties that have viewed the data, and information on physical spaces related to the data including from sensors, for example.

“This enables users to judge the credibility of data from a variety of perspectives to ultimately prevent the use of unverified data and the spread, unintentional or otherwise, of false and unverified information ('fake news'),” said the companies in the research.

An example that the companies gave in a video was a person seeing a river swollen by heavy rain and consequently posting on social media that a flood is about to occur.

The companies said the message could be misinterpreted that a flood is about to occur, or has occurred, generating anxiety among the general public as well as triggering social and economic confusion.

If the companies’ technology was applied in this case, it could inform the users reading the message about the source of the data and the process by which it was generated, as well as extra information like the actual water level of the river, collected from sensors, or the fact that no evacuation is needed since no message has been issued from the authorities.

“In this way, a chain of verifiable data is established, reinforcing the certainty of the data,” said the narrator in the video. “The confirmed data is then presented to the viewer in a way that is easy to be understood. Viewers can compare the posted message to the confirmed data and act with common confidence without confusion.”

The two companies suggested the proposed Endorsement Layer should sit between the existing 'Internet Layer' and the 'Web/App' layer. This configuration can be implemented without impacting the existing internet, they said, and allows users to use the internet and applications as usual.

If necessary, they could also obtain additional information to verify the authenticity of data and information.

The additional information can be used to verify the authenticity of data and can be provided by people and devices at the time of data generation, including information on the name, affiliation, and qualifications of the creator of the data, such as the person or company, or the device used, place, and date and time.

Extra information also includes verifications and evaluation from third parties such as independent experts and information obtained from physical spaces including sensor measurements that can be added after the data is generated.

Users would be able to search and check additional information necessary to verify the authenticity of data on the internet in the Endorsement Layer, where information would be stored as graph data.

Through this, the companies hope users would be able to evaluate data authenticity from a different perspective, to make data-driven decisions more accurate, and help to prevent the spread of unverified data.

“By providing a mechanism that enables users to verify and judge the reliability of data available on the internet from various perspectives, we contribute to the health of society and economic activities,” the companies stated. “This is what we are aiming for a trustable internet that people can use information securely.”

Japan is investigating whether Killnet, a pro-Russian group, launched cyber attacks on multiple government websites after they suffered disruptions yesterday.

The government had problems accessing more than 20 websites across four government ministries which may have been caused by a denial-of-service attack (DDoS), according to Reuters.

"We are aware that the (Killnet) hacker group suggested it was behind the attacks, but at the moment we are still investigating the cause of the failures, including the group's involvement," said Hirokazu Matsuno, chief cabinet secretary.

Matsuno explained that government websites couldn’t be accessed on Tuesday evening but services were restored later in the day.

The attacks have also led the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department to launch an investigation into the attacks, according to the Japan Times.

There were difficulties accessing several websites yesterday including the government’s e-Gov portal website, the eLTAX local tax-related portal, and IT company Mixi’s social media platform.

Killnet has posted a message on its Telegram channel claiming it targeted the country’s online public services and the tax authority’s electronic system. The hacker group said it was revolting against Japan’s militarism and that it was “kicking the samurai.”

Earlier this week, Japan protested over Russia carrying out military exercises on Russian-held islands claimed by Japan, as reported by SCMP. Following this, Russia scrapped an agreement with Japan which allows former Japanese residents visa-free visits to the islands.

Killnet has been thought to be behind several cyber attacks on other countries recently. In August, it allegedly blocked access to over 200 state and private Estonian institutions’ websites. This came after a Soviet Tu-34 tank was moved from a public display in Narva to a museum. The Estonian government said that this was the most extensive cyber attack it had faced since 2007.

In May, Italy’s Computer Security Incident Response Team (CSIRT) warned organisations of a heightened risk of cyber attacks from pro-Russian hackers. Although the authority didn’t specify the identity of the hackers, it was thought the hackers were the Killnet group. Earlier in May, CSIRT also prevented a Killnet-linked cyber attack on the Eurovision song contest’s voting system, which was believed to be an attempt to stop Ukraine from winning the competition.

Toshiba has revealed that it has surpassed its AI engineer recruitment target by taking on 2,100 new employees.

The Japanese electronics giant launched an AI engineer training programme in 2019, which has increased its engineer headcount from 750 to 2,100, it revealed today. This beat its 2022 target of 2,000.

The company also plans to increase the number of employees who understand AI. Alongside the engineer training programme, it has recently introduced new training to enhance the AI literacy of non-engineering managers. It aims to improve its ability to provide trustworthy AI to customers. Toshiba also hopes to develop training programmes for a wider range of employees, not only limited to managers or engineers but didn’t say when this would be implemented.

Additionally, the company has also set up an in-house platform for sharing of information on over 200 AI assets, 55 of which are now showcased in its Toshiba AI Technology Catalogue.

As part of its AI push, the company has also announced the Toshiba AI Governance statement to promote the development, provision, and use of trustworthy AI. It establishes seven principles to help the company train human resources who can research, develop, and use AI. It also aims to strengthen the development of its framework for maintaining the quality of AI systems and promote group-wide AI governance.

The seven principles are:

1. Respect for human dignity
   Toshiba aims to work towards a society where humans and AI can live in true harmony, working on the research, development, provision, and operation of AI with respect for human dignity.
2. Ensuring safety and security
   It is looking to continually work to maintain and improve AI quality to realise a safe and secure society.
3. Commitment to compliance
   The company will conduct research, develop, and operate AI while strictly adhering to laws and regulations, societal norms, and ethics.
4. Developing AI and cultivating talent
   Toshiba stated it will work to train human resources that can research, develop, and use AI that contributes to resolving social issues for a more prosperous future, while fully understanding the advantages and disadvantages of AI.
5. Realising a sustainable society
   Toshiba will contribute to developing a sustainable society that can successfully tackle global environmental problems and climate change where people with diverse backgrounds can pursue their well-being by researching, developing, providing and operating AI.
6. Emphasis on fairness
   Toshiba aims to work to research, develop, provide, and operate AI with consideration given to fairness to avoid unjustified discrimination.
7. Emphasis on transparency and accountability
   Toshiba aims to secure transparency so that it can explain to its stakeholders the mechanisms behind the AI decisions used in its products and services. It will also work to fulfil accountability through repeated dialogue with stakeholders about the various benefits and effects that can be expected when using AI in society.

“While AI adds to convenience, problems from its misuse or unintended operation point to the need for ethical guidelines and governance covering its utilisation,” stated the company. “In Japan, the government has formulated multiple guidelines, and legislatures overseas are increasingly taking action, exemplified by the EU's AI Act. Addressing AI governance is now a must for companies that use AI.”

The company also revealed that AI systems with MLOps are now in use at its manufacturing sites and in social infrastructure, and Toshiba is hoping to expand its application in the future. MLOps is the infrastructure for machine learning system development and operation, which helps maintain reliable machine learning models and prevent performance degradation due to changes in the operational environment.

The Japanese telco KDDI has said that it has fixed a problem with its network which affected over 39 million users for over three days.

KDDI users were unable to access the internet or make voice calls in what is one of the country’s worst-ever network outages, as reported by the Japan Times. It also impacted service providers in sectors like banking, weather, logistics, and health care.

The operator experienced network failure on Saturday 2 July at around 1:35 am when it replaced a router for its core network as part of regular maintenance, which ended up preventing the connection of voice calls. The carrier attempted to fix the problem but experienced a heavy amount of traffic which exacerbated connection difficulties.

The company said on Monday that the network was almost restored and more or less stable, but it needed to keep monitoring it to ensure it had fully recovered. KDDI also said it would consider offering compensation to users.

"We deeply regret this as a telecommunications carrier in a position to support critical infrastructure and provide stable services," said Makoto Takahashi, KDDI president, according to Reuters. He said it was the biggest system failure in the carrier's history.

Around 70% of the network’s services had recovered by mid-morning on Sunday and KDDI planned to recover the rest by around 5:30 pm, said Takahashi. However, problems persisted until after this deadline, with the company only confirming that it had fixed the network today.

Earlier today, Japan’s communications minister, Yasushi Kaneko, criticised the company and said it had not fulfilled its responsibility as a telecommunications operator. Kaneko added that due to the unprecedented impact of the outage, the government will set up an expert panel to compile measures to prevent a recurrence.

"It is extremely regrettable that it has got to the point of potentially threatening people's lives and we are taking the situation seriously,” said Kaneko, referring to the disruption of emergency calls during the outage.

The Meteorological Agency has also demanded that the organisation come up with measures to prevent the incident from occurring again after some data distributions from its regional weather observation system were suspended. It has around 1,300 observation stations across the country, of which 550 had stopped transmitting data because of the network disruption.

In the health sector, some medical facilities had difficulty in communication with doctors and drivers who were delivering pulse oximeters to coronavirus patients due to the disruption, revealed health minister Shigeyuki Goto.

"To ensure there is no serious interference to medical and nursing-care services, we will work with prefectural governments to secure a stable system from normal times," said Goto.

Japan’s largest mobile telco, NTT, experienced a similar outage in October last year which lasted for around 29 hours and impacted 12.9 million users.

Tencent Holdings is planning to open a third data centre in Japan, after entering the country’s cloud market in 2019.

The Chinese technology giant’s Japanese business has posted triple-digit annual growth, driven by cloud services for games, said Poshu Yeung, senior vice president of the company’s international cloud operations, in an interview with Nikkei Asia.

"We are considering a third site for a data centre," said Yeung. "We have the experience, so this won't take much time."

The company entered Japan’s cloud market in 2019 but hasn’t shared its Japanese revenue or capital expenditure for data centres.

After entering overseas markets in 2016, Tencent currently has a presence in over 10 countries and regions. It currently operates 30 data centres outside China with new additions expected in Brazil and Indonesia, shared Yeung.

"Tencent will tap its experience in the gaming sector to support game companies in Japan and South Korea in expanding their customer bases to Brazil and Southeast Asia," explained Yeung.

He added that in the US and Europe, orders are growing for cloud services designed to link businesses there with their offices in China. Yeung revealed that US companies are not avoiding Chinese cloud services much amid trade frictions either.

What is Japan’s data centre market like?

The Japanese data centre market was valued at $6.9 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach $10 billion by 2026, according to research firm Arizton. In the country, Tokyo and Osaka were major data centre investment destinations in 2020, with other regions like Jobe, Nagoya, and Yokohama also projected to grow.

The largest data centre companies in Japan include Equinix & GIC, MC Digital Realty, NTT Communications, Colt DCS, and NEC Corporation. There are 208 data centres in the country, stated research from Cloudscene, with most of them located around Tokyo and Osaka.

In 2021, Greater Tokyo accounted for 57% of the distribution of the net supply of Asia Pacific tier I colocation data centre markets, according to CBRE Research. New data centre supply in four-tier I Asia Pacific markets, Greater Tokyo, Hong Kong, Sydney, and Singapore, totalled 305 MW in the second half of 2021. Two-thirds of this new supply was found in Greater Tokyo. Additionally, Chinese hyperscale cloud companies like Alibaba and Tencent have been early movers in emerging South East Asia, but those from the US are now catching up.

There is currently over 183 MW of data centre capacity under construction in Japan, research from Cushman & Wakefield revealed. This comes as the country’s government announced an investment of $46.8 billion in 2022 for accelerating rural-urban digital integration under its Digital Garden City State vision. This includes building over a dozen regional data centres in the next five years, completing the nationwide submarine cable network in three years, and bringing fibre optics into universal service by 2030.

Japan is aiming to reduce its reliance on major cloud service providers by designating cloud services as a priority for economic security.

The country hopes this initiative will help to cultivate domestic providers in a sector led by foreign companies, as reported by Nikkei Asia.

The government is reportedly worried that placing sensitive state information on foreign clouds could threaten national security and that overseas companies won’t respond as fast to cyber attacks that target Japan.

By designating cloud services as a critical product, it would allow companies to access government subsidies and financing with reduced interest rates.

Japan is also set to require that domestic cloud services maintain an engineering team in the country to provide a quick response to any issues.

Members of the Japanese government think it will be challenging for Japanese players to compete with established foreign rivals on public cloud services. The government wants domestic providers to focus on private clouds too, which are used for storing sensitive information.

Signing up for cloud services is usually cheaper than building proprietary data and software infrastructure. The internal affairs ministry said that 68.7% of Japanese companies used cloud services in 2020, while the government is moving more administrative functions to the cloud too.

However, foreign providers currently dominate Japan’s cloud market. Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft, and Google controlled a 60-70% share in 2020, up from 5-10% nine years earlier, said the Japan Fair Trade Commission. The Fuji Chimera Research Institute said that In 2020, foreign operators held a combined market share of 72%, while Japanese players like Fujitsu or NTT have fallen behind.

Despite the government aiming to reduce its reliance on foreign cloud companies, the country’s Digital Agency selected AWS and Google Cloud to run its first nationwide cloud computing project in the country last October. The two providers were chosen as they met around 350 requirements across security legal issues and data management.

The government cloud project is aiming to unify and standardise digital infrastructure across ministries and around 1,700 municipalities, which run their own systems. The budget for government cloud computing until last March was around 2 billion yen (£12.3 million).

Japan’s Digital Agency has selected Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud to run its first nationwide cloud computing project in the country, as the government tries to implement digital transformation across its ministries.

The two providers were chosen as they met around 350 requirements across security, legal issues, and data management, an official from the agency, according to Nikkei Asia. AWS and Google will first be used to run the agency’s website as well as by eight municipalities on a trial basis.

The government cloud project is aiming to unify and standardise digital infrastructure across ministries and approximately 1,700 municipalities, which run their own systems. Domestic system integrators have usually been selected to manage data centres and business applications, which the government believes has led to customised systems with high maintenance costs and overlapping functions.

The vendor lock-in has also prevented the rollout of public services and hampered the country’s COVID-19 response.

It was also revealed that the budget for government cloud computing until next March is around 2 billion yen (£12.3 million) with the budget for upcoming years still to be determined.

The Digital Agency was launched on 1 September and is set to control most of the government’s IT budget. It is aiming to move local governments to the cloud by 2025, which could reduce the annual IT budget of £5 billion by about 30%, according to a government official.

“As a cloud services provider directly contracted by the Digital Agency, AWS will help the Japanese government to modernize IT by directly offering advanced technologies and global best practices,” an AWS spokesperson said to IT Pro.

“It will also enable us to continue to work with Japanese AWS Partners and startups to accelerate innovation in citizen services, drive local economic growth, and solve some of the biggest challenges in society.”

IT Pro has contacted Google for comment.

The move comes as part of a push by the Japanese government to implement digital transformation across its ministries, which have tended to lag behind.

The government has only just begun to phase out the use of floppy disks, according to a report from Nikkei Asia, as officials saw the outdated tech as ultra-reliable, saying they almost never broke or lost data. Sony stopped producing the disks in 2011 but, thanks to their reusability, there are still plenty to go around. However, various subdivisions of the Tokyo government have already started moving the data from floppy disks to other online storage formats.

Japan is globally regarded as technologically ahead of the game, being the birthplace of huge players including Sony and Toshiba – yet the country has tended to be unsupportive of startups. Now though the period of Abenomics seems to have come to an end, with a new election on the horizon and the current prime minister promising to establish a £637 million fund for advanced technology: Could this be the turning point for Japanese startups?

Crunching the numbers

Compared to other developed nations, Japan has few unicorn companies and low levels of startup funding, says Harunori Oiwa, ventures associate at Plug and Play – an organisation dedicated to linking startups with more established companies, particularly in Japan. Oiwa points out that, according to CB Insights, there are over 800 unicorns around the world as of October 2021, but only six of them are in Japan. By comparison, there are 432 in the USA.

He adds that, in 2020, the total amount of venture capital (VC) investment in the US was around $166 billion, compared to just $1.5 billion in Japan – a 110-fold difference. And the number of deals made in the US during 2020 was 12,254, compared to Japan’s 1,160.

To help grow the startup ecosystem, Oiwa believes Japanese startups need to be seen as an investment asset for overseas investors. Ideally, startups should not merely aim for a small initial public offering (IPO) in their native market, but should develop their business with a view to being acquired by overseas companies. One startup leading the way is Spiber, which raised $312 million in funds from global private equity firm Carlyle this year. “This is the group's first non-buyout minority investment, which is very rare,” Oiwa explains.

Things are looking up, however. Startup funding in Japan totalled $3 billion in the first half of 2021, whereas there was just $5 billion in funding for the whole of 2020, says Kenichiro Hara, principal at venture capital firm DCM. That’s a threefold increase since 2016, and ten times the amount of funding provided a decade ago.

Yet the figures are still small relative to the size of the market: South Korea, with a third of Japan’s GDP, has seen $4 billion in VC investment. This is partly down to a lack of late-stage mega-deals: Japan saw just two $100 million+ funding rounds in the whole of 2020, and only six in the first half of 2021. “If we see an increase in later-stage deals, the growth of startups and their successes will definitely accelerate,” Hara says.

Taking on the world

Another negative factor for the Japanese startup scene is that, traditionally, starting a company or joining a startup was not considered an attractive career path for the country's students, says Masaya Kubota, partner at Japan's largest VC firm, World Innovation Lab (WiL). Risk-taking was not encouraged, failures were severely stigmatised, and banks were reluctant to invest in new ventures.

“One of the major reasons why Japan lags behind is the lack of self-reinforcing mechanisms between innovators and financiers that we have seen in places like Silicon Valley,” he says.

This has been changing, however, as large corporations began to lose their status and are seen to be no longer taking the lead on technological innovation. Kubota points out, too, that Japanese startups tend to focus on the domestic market – but with the entry barriers for foreign companies wanting to invest in the country falling away, this may in turn offer Japanese companies an opportunity to compete on a global scale.

Indeed, there are an increasing number of top-tier investors worldwide looking for opportunities. Corporate VC (CVC) activities in Japan have grown fivefold between 2013 and 2018, and startups are raising record amounts of money.

The Japanese government is providing incentives too, ranging from tax breaks for corporates investing into startups to national funds like the Japan Investment Corporation, which has a budget over $20 billion.

To help the startup ecosystem, Kubota says continued financial and business support from the government is needed, along with an increase in large corporations’ involvement in investing in and using startup services.

Breaking out of the mould

Japan’s rapid economic growth in the 1960s and 70s fostered a general sense that the best career path was to graduate from a prestigious university and work for a blue-chip company, according to Masako Eguchi-Bacon, CEO and founder of Ocean Bridge Management. During this period, most large companies offered a good salary and lifetime employment.

Even so, she notes that the late 1990s did see the emergence of a startup culture in Japan, as elsewhere, with one famous IT startup cluster in the Shibuya area of Tokyo known as Bit Valley.

Over the last five years, startups have again become a significant focus. Japanese government agencies, both central and local, have launched various support programmes and as technology development has accelerated, many major businesses have realised they need to look for innovative technologies and ideas from outside the organisation, leading them to engage more with startups.

“This time, I think, it will not just be a ‘trendy boom’. Startups will play an important role in Japanese society,” says Eguchi-Bacon.

She adds that since there weren’t previously many startups in the country, there has been a lack of experienced investors – but this is changing. As startups have become more important, local companies have started to set up CVCs, leading to an influx of Japanese VCs and angel investors in addition to growing numbers of non-Japanese investors.

Japanese startups also face a major challenge in finding the right talent, says Joshua Flannery, founder and CEO of Innovation Dojo Japan. He notes that not only do new ventures require engineers and other skilled partners, to compete on the global stage, they also need English-language skills and cross-cultural communication experience – and these aren’t always found in the average startup founder or employee.

Indeed, due to a long-term domestic focus within Japanese industry, global practices and frameworks for growing businesses have only recently been introduced into accelerators and incubators. Those efforts have been primarily carried out by foreign players, such as Rainmaking from the UK (via Startupbootcamp), Plug and Play from the US, or Innovation Dojo from Australia.

Japan’s startup environment is already strong in one area: The country has one of the largest pools of corporate capital floating around the ecosystem for startup investment and M&A deals, reveals Flannery. While the number of startups receiving funding has been declining, the amount raised per startup is increasing significantly. In 2021, the top three deals were $142.5 million into cloud based HR software company SmartHR, $230 million into mediatech company SmartNews and an acquisition of $2.7 billion into fintech company Paidy.

“The area in need of most attention is the pre-seed and seed stage, where in other markets angel investors and other very early-stage investors are active,” Flannery explains, adding that while some angel investors do exist in Tokyo, the number of deals is relatively low, and outside Tokyo is rarely heard of.

Nevertheless, Flannery believes things are rapidly improving. The government’s has nominated several locations as official “startup cities”, and given funding to them to strengthen their startup ecosystems. In Kobe, it has invested in a digital platform called Kobe Startup Hub to help members of the startup sector connect with each other. In late August this year, it launched the Global Mentorship Programme, aiming to nurture 200 startups by March 2022 and at least 1,000 by 2025.

Flannery says that what’s now needed is an effort to help graduates get startup-ready and prepare them for the future of work. He also argues that paths need to be forged to help foreigners enter Japan and grow the pool of available talent.

Finally, he recommends that more education and support for angel and early-stage investors are needed to help young companies flourish and the concept of starting or working in a startup needs to be normalised, with entrepreneurism recognised as a critical piece of Japan’s future economy.

Japan is set to establish a 100 billion yen (£637 million) fund that will accelerate research and development of advanced technologies and reinforce economic security.

The government is planning to launch the fund next year and investments will be focused on quantum technology, robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), and biotechnology, according to Nikkei Asia.

The fund will be managed by the country’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization and the Japan Science and Technology Agency and will also be used to fuel research into 5G networks, big data, and semiconductors.

The money will be allocated to companies and universities with the aim of carrying out demonstrations and practical applications, and promoting research and development in areas the government considers to be important.

The fund will potentially be co-administered by the Cabinet Office, Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, and the National Security Secretariat. It is set to be included in Japan’s fiscal 2021 budget which will be formed after the general election on 31 October.

The government also wants to prevent researchers and technology from leaving the country through the fund, as in the past it has struggled to keep its talent and faces the risk of insufficiently funded companies being acquired by rivals overseas. As part of this, the government will create a law to protect domestically developed tech, to be introduced in January. It will focus on a system that prevents tech leaks to other countries.

Prime minister Fumio Kishida, who took office on 4 October, is hoping to increase domestic tech development. He also wants to correct the "harmful effects that result from deciding public finances on a single fiscal year basis” and change the state budget rules to ensure the funds are available for five years instead.

This comes as part of a push to develop more technology in the country, as in June the government approved a £238 million semiconductor research project with TSMC to develop new chip technology in the country, amid an ongoing global shortage. Over 20 Japanese were set to take part in the project, of which the government would pay half.

During the same month, it emerged TSMC was thinking of setting up a chip plant in Japan which was then confirmed last week, as the country tried to attract more foreign investment into its manufacturing sector. The facility will sit near an existing plant owned by Sony, one of the company’s key suppliers, and help meet demand for image sensors, automotive microcontrollers, and other chips.

The University of Tokyo has revealed plans for a wave of startup investment through a new 60 billion yen (£399 million) fund, designed to support the creation of unicorns and help Japan catch up in the global tech race.

The institution will begin with a 10 billion yen investment which it hopes to increase to 60 billion yen in 10 years and support the formation of 300 startups, according to Nikkei Asia. This is set to double the number of startups the university produces a year and take the number to 700.

The university is capitalising on an upcoming change in Japanese law, set to be introduced in April next year, that will make it legal for educational institutions to invest in startups. So far Kyoto University, Tohoku University, and six other institutions have also expressed interest in funding new ventures.

To date, the university has been forced to rely on private sector partnerships in order to bypass the law, investing in over 110 startups through venture capital firm The University of Tokyo Edge Capital Partners.

The University of Tokyo, which has created 323 startups as of October 2020, is hoping to establish new companies through this initiative and make Japan's startup scene more competitive internationally, which has only produced a handful of unicorns so far, according to CBInsights. In total, the country has six unicorns, behind APAC competitors South Korea with 11 and India with 41. When it comes to the most startup friendly countries in the world, CEO World ranks Japan at 13, coming behind India at 5 and Malaysia at 8.

The university is also aiming to transform its Hongo district campus into a hub for startups and investors, with the intention of creating Japan’s own version of Silicon Valley.

Although Japan lags behind other nations, investment is on the rise. Over the first half of 2021, Japanese startups raised around ¥324.5 billion (£2.1 billion) in investments, which is nearly as much as in the whole of 2017, according to the consulting firm Initial. Overseas investors are also taking more interest in Japanese startups, with five of the country's top 10 fledgling companies revealing they had received funding from foreign investors.

In September, PayPal revealed it was acquiring Paidy, a Japanese ‘buy now, pay later’ (BNPL) startup for ¥300 billion ( US$2.7 billion). PayPal said the acquisition would help it expand its capabilities, distribution, and relevance in the domestic payments market in Japan and complement its existing cross-border e-commerce business in the country.

Hackers have stolen the login names of 22 million Yahoo users in Japan, prompting the internet search giant to urge people to change their passwords immediately.

The company said the details were contained in a file that may have been stolen during an attack on its systems, which was picked up by Yahoo on 16 May.

"We don't know if the file (of 22 million user IDs) was leaked or not, but we can't deny the possibility given the volume of traffic between our server and external [terminals]," said the company in a statement to AFP.

However, the company has been quick to stress that no information that would allow the hackers to seize control of users' accounts was pilfered during attack.

Even so, the company is urging users to change their passwords as a precautionary measure.

According to reports, Yahoo Japan has around 200 million members, which means the attack could have affected around 10 per cent of the country's total user base.

Ross Brewer, managing director and vice president for international markets at security vendor LogRhythm, said Yahoo should be commended for coming clean about the attack.

"[Yahoo] should also be commended for providing its members with actionable advice on how to stop hackers from compromising their individual accounts," said Brewer.

"However, in the aftermath of any breach, it's also absolutely vital to investigate how the attackers managed to get in, and then use this intelligence to beef up security defences in the future."

Sony continues to take drastic measures as part of its restructuring plans, with the firm set to axe 2,000 jobs at its headquarters and shut down a manufacturing plant in Japan.

The manufacturer has announced the jobs in Japan will be axed by the end of the fiscal 2012 year. The workforce at Sony headquarters is expected to be reduced by 20 per cent, by March 2013, although many employees are expected to benefit from early retirement schemes.

As part of its $945 million (75 billion yen) restructuring plan, Sony has also made the decision to shutdown a 56,713 square metre plant in Minokamo, which has 840 employees.

The plant currently produces lenses for digital SLRs, lens blocks and mobile devices. Sony has scheduled the plant to be closed at the end of March 2013, and operations relating to smartphones will be transferred to its site in Kisarazu, Japan.

These aggressive restructuring plans are part of Sony's mid-term strategy, as it looks to reduce costs by approximately $378 million (30 billion yen) by March 2014.

"Amidst a highly competitive business environment, Sony has been undertaking a series of measures to revitalise and grow its electronics business," the firm said in a statement.

"Sony [has] progressively implementing various structural reform measures to optimise costs, streamline its overall organisation, accelerate decision-making processes and establish firm foundations for sustainable future growth."

Sony is still on course to shed a total of 10,000 jobs by March 2013, a decision which was made after the firm posted a record $6.4 billion net loss for the financial year ending 2012. A further 3,000 to 4,000 jobs in Japan are set to cut to fulfill this target.

ANALYSIS Say the words cyber war' when referring to online attacks and you will find yourself on the wrong end of a tongue lashing when amongst certain security professionals.

Why? Because it's difficult to ascertain whether any cyber strikes have been an act of war. There is simply no guarantee that anyone is correct when saying a hack was carried out by a nation state, largely because of a lack of corporeal proof.

We are going to see a new revolution, focusing on information operations and cyber warfare.

Yet there is a general acceptance that nation vs. nation hacking is a reality. The problem lies in the lack of 100 per cent certifiable proof.

This week saw another significant moment in the history of cyber warfare. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), one of Japan's major weapons suppliers, admitted 45 of its servers and 38 computer terminals were infected.

Targeted malware was allegedly used as part of a spear phishing attempt similar to other attacks that have attempted to breach Governments in recent times, including in the UK.

RSA was compromised by such tactics too another situation in which some suspected a nation state's involvement, as at least one of the eventual targets turned out to be major US defence contractor Lockheed Martin.

As the evidence amasses, can we now start confidently talking about cyber war? Not quite, even if the age of cyber war is nigh.

Show me the hackers!

In the case of MHI, no one has yet claimed responsibility for the infection. China, the number one suspect according to some sources, has denied any involvement. As with so many recent cases, no nation has been found guilty, nor has any Government admitted to being the perpetrator of an attack.

When the DigiNotar attacks emerged last month, eventually resulting in the certificate authority's demise, many pointed fingers at Iran. Yet in that case, ComodoHacker claimed responsibility, saying the Iranian regime had no hand in the hacks.

For any onlookers, it's near to impossible to know whom to trust. There is just too much obfuscation and potential for covert behaviour to lump any event under the cyber war' umbrella.

As for the MHI attacks, Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at F-Secure, rightly questioned where the war was. With no two sides fighting one another, how could there possibly be a war?

The revolution is coming

Nevertheless, Hypponen thinks change is afoot. A new age of warfare is upon us.

"Just like modern hi-tech research revolutionised military operations over the last 50 years, we are going to see a new revolution, focusing on information operations and cyber warfare," Hypponen told IT Pro.

"This revolution is underway and it's happening right now."

Both public and private organisations will therefore be targets. Furthermore, individuals will be affected. There will be civilian casualties too, in the data sense at least.

"The amount of hacking of government agencies and major government contractors worldwide this year heralds private and personal problems as well," said Catalin Cosoi, head of the BitDefender Online Threats Lab.

"With so many data breaches, it's safe to assume that a quite a lot of private data has been leaked. This high-quality information could be used for blackmail, illegal gains and even sold to terrorists."

Tinker, tailor, soldier, hacker

Yet, in its incipient stages at least, this revolution will still carry the same issue Japan is dealing with now: there is no one to legitimately blame.

This lack of attribution has the potential to escalate into more serious confrontation. The US has said it retains to right to carry out real-world attacks in response to cyber strikes. But what if it retaliates against an innocent party? What if it assumes an attack is an act of cyber war, when it really wasn't?

An attacker could launch an assault on the government and agencies of one country while making it look like they came from another country.

More worryingly, it opens the door for those wanting to play nations off of one another.

"Cyber warfare operates in an atmosphere of shadow and mirrors - more so than conventional military intelligence or espionage," Cosoi added.

"This could allow groups and nations to operate anonymously to stir up trouble between nations. For example, an attacker could launch an assault on the government and agencies of one country while making it look like they came from another country. If the nations are already on the brink of war, or share a history of animosity, it could escalate dangerously."

Yet cyber war will not always operate in such a surreptitious manner, according to Hypponen.

"The main point of any arms race is the let your adversaries know about your capabilities so they don't even think about starting a fight. We're not yet at this stage in the cyber arms race. Almost all of the development in this area is secret and classified," he said.

"However, eventually it will become as public as any other defence technology. Maybe we'll eventually see public cyber war exercises where a country will demonstrate their attack capabilities. Maybe we'll eventually see cyber disarmament programmes."

Cyber warfare is, it seems, a reality. We just don't have any case studies just yet. Until we do, we cannot talk confidently about it.

Keep in mind, however, that it's simply a matter of time until we have those case studies to hand.

It's been a rather somber and sobering week in the IT PRO office as we've watched the natural disasters afflicting Japan become even more serious than we could ever have imagined, while Libya undergoes a very different type of catastrophe that's still nonetheless heart wrenching.

If you haven't already done so, we'd encourage you to make a charitable donation to the ongoing relief efforts in Japan.

Despite all the drama in the real world, there have still been a few japes and guffaws in the surreal and unreal world of IT to bring a smile to our faces.

The Neutral Zone

Net neutrality may be a political hot potato for our colonial cousins on the other side of the pond, but it's been an underreported and underappreciated issue over here, especially in the Westminster Village.

That may change though as Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, has spoken out against the idea that ISPs should be able to charge customers more for access to some sites rather than others.

The effect of such a provision could be chilling for aspiring British internet entrepreneurs, customer choice and free speech. That naturally means that IT PRO's favourite Tory boy, Communications Minister Ed Vaizey, has voiced his support for such an inequitable idea. We reckon Berners-Lee and Vaizey should settle the matter using fisticuffs. Geek vs lawyer-turned-politician! Our quatloos (that means money in Star Trek tongue) are on the Geek.

I'm having a broadband sleepover and you're not invited!

In spite all the fuss about net neutrality Virgin Media is pushing ahead with plans to roll out stonkingly fast 100Mbit/s broadband throughout the UK.

This would be good news except we've heard reports of 100Mbps customers supplied by various ISPs being subject to indignities such as less-than-stellar customer service and download restrictions and traffic management rules. Party poopers.

I still prefer Mosaic or Netscape Navigator to be honest

Microsoft has released Internet Explorer 9, the latest version of its imaginatively-named web browser.

Although it's the best version yet, it's kind of hard to take it seriously since it's not compatible with Windows XP and it seems like a mash-up of Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox, but not really different enough from either of them.

Personally, I can't use any browser unless it has an 8-bit mode that makes websites look like Teletext pages.

The UK has been ranked 24th in a global league table for broadband value, far behind Hong Kong in first place.

Japan and Romania were in second and third respectively in the Point Topic quarterly table, which ranked countries on how much a consumer pays for a megabit of bandwidth.

One reason why the UK did not appear in the top ten may have been because of a lack in fibre broadband offerings.

"Nine of the ten best value tariffs are either pure fibre or hybrid offerings where fibre is a significant part of the local loop," explained Fiona Vanier, senior analyst at Point Topic.

Whilst the UK is not too high up the table this time around, Point Topic noted rankings could shift very quickly.

For instance, if operators upgraded networks or introduced a new tariff, then value may well improve in the relevant nation.

Globally, average broadband prices slightly increased but Point Topic said wider implementation of fibre services could help provide greater value for consumers.

"Bandwidth will continue to increase as fibre edges closer to the consumer," Vanier explained.

"Higher speeds generally mean better value for the consumer. All that remains is to work out how best to use it."

Last month, BT questioned Virgin Media's 100Mbps pricing, suggesting the costs were too high, especially in the current economic climate.

Recent research from Akamai, meanwhile, found in the first quarter of 2010 the UK was 27th in a table ranking nations' broadband speeds.

Vodafone has bumped up its profit expectations for the full-year as the communications giant posted some positive results in its half-year results.

The provider now believes it will achieve between 11.8 billion and 12.2 billion operating profit, up from 11.2 billion and 12 billion.

For the six months leading up to September, Vodafone saw group revenue rise 3.9 per cent year-over-year to hit 22.6 billion.

Despite the positive results, European performance was not as strong as other regions, with service revenue falling 1.3 per cent.

Spain was noted as a particularly weak point when compared to continuing growth in the UK and German markets.

Vodafone also revealed it has agreed to sell its shares in Japanese telecoms firm SoftBank for a total of 3.1 billion.

The UK-based company received the shares when SoftBank bought Vodafone Japan in 2006.

The sale will take place in two phases, the first in December when SoftBank will pay 1.6 billion. The remaining 1.5 million is expected to be transferred in April 2012.

The news comes shortly after Vodafone sold its shares in China Mobile in September, as the UK company seeks to move away from areas where it holds minority stakes.

As part of a new strategy update, Vodafone said it will now focus heavily on Europe, Africa and India, where it will improve its already well-established data and voice networks.

"We have today announced an updated strategy, which positions Vodafone to realise further value from non-controlled assets, take full advantage of the most valuable telecommunications growth opportunities ahead and which will deliver sustainable revenue growth, stabilising margins and strong free cash flows," said Vittorio Colao, Vodafone group chief executive.

As for enterprise efforts, Vodafone said it will ramp up revenue in this sector with new services for the SME, small home and business, and corporate segments.

Last week, Vodafone launched its Smartphone Professional service, designed to protect business data on workers' mobile devices.

The UK has been named as the 30th most dangerous place in the world for surfing the web, a report has shown.

The most perilous place to go online is Turkey, according to AVG, whose software was needed to protect on average one in 10 users in the last week of July.

Russia was the second most dangerous internet nation with one in 15 surfers needing AVG's software to block threats. Armenia was third, while Azerbaijan was fourth.

In the UK, AVG software helped block threats for one in 63 users.

Among other Western nations, the US was the ninth most dangerous place for going on the internet, with Australia down in 37th.

AVG claimed Japan is arguably the most secure country to search the web, even though Sierra Leone had the fewest attacks.

Interestingly, seven out of the 10 safest places to surf the web were in Africa, although South America was ranked by AVG as the safest continent.

AVG's chief research officer Roger Thomson suggested one reason for the geographical divide is denizens of more dangerous countries are probably "less cautious when it comes to sharing links and files online."

"Another factor is the popularity of internet cafes and people generally sharing computers. However, it is safe to say that even in these countries, a minority of users account for a large proportion of attacks," he added.

However, the relatively low number of internet users in some of the "safe" countries surveyed will have affected rankings.

Talking about why Japan was ranked highly for safety, Thomson suggested the country's web surfers "are generally more aware of safe and risky surfing behaviours."

Twitter has passed a notable milestone after a Japanese graphic designer posted the 20 billionth tweet.

The message was sent over the weekend and was posted by a member going by the name of GGGGGGo_Lets_Go.

Although the message was written in Japanese, the widely reported English translation reads: "So that means the barrage might come back later all at once."

After realising he had helped Twitter pass the 20 billion mark, the tweeter was inundated with congratulatory messages.

"Looks like I posted the 20 billionth tweet. I'm getting replies from people all over the world. It's scary. What are the chances? Maybe I'm going to die," GGGGGGo_Lets_Go, a self-confessed fan of Pete Townsend and baseball, added later.

The 10 billionth tweet was only posted in March this year, and that milestone was passed less than half a year after the micro-blogging sensation hit the five billion mark.

Last month, founder Biz Stone claimed Twitter delivered 800 million search results a day and this figure was only set to grow.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg says Russia and the Far East hold the key to the social network's further expansion as its growth in Western markets starts to taper off.

With over 500 million users, Facebook's dominance around the globe is all but complete. But with the social network nearing saturation point in many markets, Facebook's focus is shifting to four markets where it is not yet the dominant player: Russia, Japan, China and South Korea.

Chief executive Zuckerberg says cracking those markets is now a priority, and believes doing so could see user numbers break through the one billion mark.

"We are down to just four countries where we aren't the leading social network," Zuckerberg told delegates at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival yesterday. "Now for the first time we are focused on doing some specific things in specific countries."

He failed to detail what these "certain things" might be, but possibilities could include local customisation or strategic alliances.

In Russia, Facebook has just one million members, where Vkontakte is the number one player. In Japan, Mixi and in China, Tencent QQ hold similarly dominant positions.

"I think if we succeed, we have a good chance of being the company that brings [social networking] to 1bn people," he announced.

Zuckerberg said the company had learned how to tell when a phase of rapid growth was imminent by looking at the "friending" trends.

"We know that a country has tipped when local-to-local connections outnumber local to foreign," he added. "It is a long-term thing and we are probably not going to win in six months, not in a year. But things look promising for three to five years out."

The founder of the social network admitted that its rapid expansion overall was probably now at an end, but said such aggressive growth was never going to continue indefinitely.

"We saw our exponential growth rate continue for a very long period of time, and it still does at a super-linear rate, though not quite three per cent a week any more," he told the Inside Facebook blog.

Intel Capital has invested $43 million (27 million) in a Japanese WiMAX mobile services company.

UQ Communications plans to use the money to achieve its goal of providing WiMAX coverage to 90 per cent of Japan before 2012.

Arvind Sodhani of Intel Capital, Intel's global investment sector, said: "Intel Capital's investment in UQ Communications is one of our most significant commitments in developing the WiMAX ecosystem around the globe. UQ's WiMAX deployment in Japan is a spectacular example of technology innovation being put to work."

Intel has an interest in WiMAX development, having been involved in the creation of chips to embed into devices. It has also invested in the network globally.

This is the second cash splash for Intel in as many weeks following last Friday's $884 million acquisition of Wind River.

Panasonic isn't like most laptop manufacturers. Its machines don't even try to compete with the rest of the horde, and it would never be so low brow as to offer a pure consumer laptop. Instead its ToughBooks are designed for those who want reliability, good battery life and of course real toughness in a small and light package.

A few months ago IT PRO was privileged enough to be invited to Japan to visit Pananonic's ToughBook factory in Osaka, Japanto see how its notebooks were put together. It was a fascinating insight into high level manufacturing and we got to play and touch its latest 8-series line of products .

On our return we got a chance to have an extended look at the CF-W8, its executive product that offers semi-rugged protection, which is still more than most business notebook. The unit we were sent was preproduction and as of writing the price isn't confirmed, though the fact that its predecessor, the CF-W7 cost around 1,500 should be used as a guide price.

Of course one of the downsides of being very tough is that you're unlikely to be pretty too. Panasonic's Toughbooks aren't exactly known for their good looks, so to say that the CF-W8 isn't the most stylish laptop around isn't much of a surprise. The lid extends with a huge silver bulge, the bottom is covered with numerous covers and screws, and the rest of the chassis is decorated with protruding lumps of plastic.

It's all there for good reason, though the CF-W8 falls into the Business Ruggedised' area of Panasonic's Toughbooks, which means that three of the main key areas the screen, hard disk and keyboard are, in theory, protected. This tripled-pronged protection tackles safe-guarding your laptop in numerous ways: the 12.1in TFT screen is held in a magnesium alloy chassis which can withstand pressures of up to 100kg. The hard disk is also protected by magnesium this time, it's in a small chassis with four pressure-sensing absorbing pads that can detect and withstand shock in the event of the CF-W8 being dropped.

The final element of protection focuses on the keyboard it's designed to withstand a 200ml soaking, with every drop of liquid able to filter out through drainage channels, leaving the electronics intact.

In Japan we saw ToughBooks being subjected to prolonged spraying with water and surviving, so we're inclined to believe its claims. Panasonic also claims that the machine can be dropped without incident from a height of 76cm just over of a metre and we found no reason to doubt these claims several drop-tests from heights at the limit found that the CF-W8 shrugged them off with little fuss. A fully ruggedised Toughbook would offer even more protection, but this should be more than enough for all but the most demanding of users.

Several touches around the suitably tough chassis are sure to please business users who need their notebook to take a bit of a beating. The optical drive a DVD writer sits below the keyboard, accessible via a small switch. It's an effective way of keeping your drive safer than had it been in the traditional position on the side of the chassis, although opening the door is actually quite difficult. There's a physical wireless switch on the front of the Toughbook, and the battery is secured by two tough locks.

The CF-W8 is well equipped for ports and sockets, too. Three USB ports sit beside Ethernet and modem sockets, and the SDHC card reader sits in a small recess below the ExpressCard/54 slot. There's a VGA output, but that's it as far as display outputs go and the available port replicator, which costs at least 80, doesn't rectify this situation. Still, the USB ports, card reader and connectivity options have most of the bases covered.

Open up the Panasonic and start to use it, though, and you'll run into problems the amount of ruggedisation that's been applied to the CF-W8 mean that it isn't an ergonomic success. The keyboard, for instance, feels reasonably comfortable to use the keys offer plenty of travel and as pleasant to type on but several aspects of its design leave us cold. Each individual key is slightly shorter and wider than the average laptop key, which initially threw us off, and the single-height enter key and tiny space bar make for an annoying initial period before you get used to the Panasonic's various nuances. We'd go as far as to say that the best netbooks offer a more comfortable typing experience, although obviously these devices don't have anywhere near the hardware protection, or performance, that the Panasonic offers.

The trackpad isn't without fault, either. It's a quirky circular unit but we're not entirely convinced. While the surface is reasonably snappy and responsive, it's far too small, and the accompanying pair of mouse buttons, again, lack in the size department. The circular pad may look trendy and modern, but a traditional rectangular pad would have done a far better job.

The screen, along with the keyboard, isn't without fault. There was a small amount of backlight bleeding through from the bottom of the panel, and bright colours looked slightly dull. Bright white tones also had a slight red hue to them, which means that this wouldn't be ideal for precise photo editing. During every day use in Word and Excel, for instance the screen's minor deficiencies aren't noticeable, and the many brightness options mean that it's a particularly versatile panel.

The CF-W8 has a modest set of specifications, but it's a reasonable amount of power considering that this machine will be mostly used for surfing the web and working with Office applications. The processor, an Intel Core 2 Duo Mobile U9300, is a low-power part with a modest clock speed of 1.2GHz, but the tiny TDP of 10W and 45nm manufacturing process mean that it draws hardly any power. 1GB of RAM is enough to handle Windows XP Professional, but we'd say it's a little on the mean side it's rare to find any notebook with that little these days, business or consumer, unless it's a super-cheap netbook rather than a Toughbook that costs a considerable amount more.

The hard disk has a capacious 120GB of space enough to handle a reasonable music collection as well as the work files that the CF-W8 will typically hold. Connectivity is handled by Intel's 5100 wireless chip which means that this is a fully Centrino 2-equipped machine and offers draft-n alongside the usual three wireless 802.11a/b/g standards. Bluetooth is offered, too.

Battery life doesn't suffer, even with a Centrino 2 specification with plenty of bells and whistles in tow. In our light use test, the Toughbook lasted an astonishing nine hours and five minutes, with this figure dropping to just over four hours at heavy use. It's a fantastic result, and proof positive that this notebook can last virtually an entire day away from the mains.

The specification also includes several features that will please corporate users. Security is handled by a TPM 1.2 module, and the usual user password is joined by an administrator password to restrict access into the BIOS and a hard disk password, too. There's a Kensington lock slot, and Panasonic has assured us that a fingerprint reader will be included in future models but it hasn't found room for one here.

As well as this, Panasonic has included several applications that add to the CF-W8's versatility. There are fan control options, battery recalibration tools, power saving utilities and options for customising the trackpad, as well as BackOnTrack and Creator LBJ from Roxio. Several of these will undoubtedly prove useful for customising your Toughbook and keeping it in good working order.

While the CF-W8 has many good points, then its durability, excellent battery life and competent specification among them we're unable to give it a whole-hearted recommendation when it's so uncomfortable to use. The mediocre screen, oddly-shaped keyboard and circular trackpad are certainly an acquired taste, but they're slightly too awkward for us.

Verdict

Undoubtedly a tough machine, with fantastic battery life too, but uncomfortable ergonomics and a low-power specification mean that you'll have to really want those Toughbook qualities to choose this over competitors.

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo Mobile U9300 (1.2GHz) RAM: 1GB 667MHz DDR2 Hard disk: 120GB Toshiba Screen: 12.1in 1,024 x 768 TFT Graphics: Intel GS45 graphics controller Wireless: Intel 5100AGN WiFi Link (802.11a/b/g + draft-n) Ports: 3 x USB, VGA, HDSC card reader, ExpressCard/54, Gigabit Ethernet, modem, port replicator OS: Windows XP Professional Security: TPM 1.2, OS, BIOS and HDD passwords, Kensington lock Dimensions: 272 x 48 x 214mm (W x D x H) Weight: 1.28kg Warranty: 3yr RTB

Nokia has announced it is withdrawing from the Japanese mobile phone market.

The world's largest mobile phone maker blamed difficulties in expanding in the Japanese market, known for favouring home-grown technology, for its decision.

However, its upmarket niche Vertu phones will continue to be available in Japan.

Despite its global market share of nearly 40 percent, Nokia holds less than one per cent of Japan's mature wireless market as its products have failed to lure consumers from high-performance Japanese-made devices.

"We have judged that we cannot continue to invest in product development just for Japan amid the current tough economic conditions," Nokia executive vice president Timo Ihamuotila said in a statement.

Panasonic has confirmed that its new CF-F8 ToughBook Executive will be available on UK high streets, having struck a deal with the Dixons Store Group.

This was announced at the global launch of its new ToughBooks in Japan.

However, the company insisted that the move was merely a trial to test the retail waters for its ToughBooks and that it would continue to primarily focus on the corporate market rather than the consumer.

"We want to concentrate on vertical markets," said Jan Kaempher, product marketing manger for ToughBooks. "We don't want to go into the mass market and not know what we're doing."

This is in sharp contrast to the Japanese market, where Panasonic's ToughBooks have been the number one in the ultra-portable markets for the last three years. In Europe however, Panasonic will focus on direct sales to enterprise, and through resellers covering small to medium sized businesses.

Kaempher told IT PRO that the newly released CF-T8 was, like its predecessor the T7, approved for use in medical environments with features such as EMI-safe, so it won't interfere with equipment, and a water resistant display and keyboard, so it can be kept clean for hygiene reasons. He also highlighted the strong relationships it has with European customers such as L'Oreal, and UK customers such as BT and the NHS.

Despite the deal with Dixons, Kaempher told IT PRO that Panasonic had no plans to move into wider retail space. "We're not interested in fighting it out in the consumer space with the other laptop manufactures. Most of our competitors use third-party OEM chassis, but this means there's too little product differentiation, and not enough scope for profit margins."

Panasonic takes a different approach to most manufacturers by building almost every component of its notebooks in its own factories. "Our PC strategy is totally different, as we design and produce our technology ourselves," said Toshiyuki Tayaki, director of PC products. "It's very hard to give customers what they need when you use OEMs. We don't want to have to ask third parties when we want to improve our products."

Tayaki added that this was why Panasonic produced far fewer machines than competitors, with only 360,000 units in 2007 compared to Toshiba's ten million. Balancing this, he said that customer satisfaction rates were much higher than other PC companies and that Panasonic planned to increase global sales by 2012 to 1.3 million units.

"I don't want to change our strategy," he stated emphatically.

The factory began in 1990, producing dedicated Word Processing machines, while PC production started in 1991. Panasonic has been producing ToughBook's since 1992. Current production is 360,000 units a year and by 2010 this is planned to increase to one million.

Panasonics's Toshi Harada, who is in charge of the factory said that, "our first job is to destroy the product", and over 1,000 units a year are put through the wringer with the aim Harada said, "to produce high quality." Harada referred to the plant as a "Productive Destruction Facility."

For a selection of pictures click on the gallery tab above.

In Europe, while everyone think of the likes of Sony, Toshiba and Lenovo when it comes to laptops, Panasonic is a bit of dark horse.

This is for two reasons. First, it simply doesn't make them in the same of numbers as the other companies churn out there notebooks, and for that the fact that it prefers to sell direct to large companies so the chances are they if you don't have one, ToughBooks will not be on your radar.

This could be changing with the launch of the CF-18. As well as the normal routes to market, Panasonic will be making this available through the Dixons Group, so if you want to pick a single one up before making a decision on it for committing to larger purchases, it will be possible to do so.

Panasonic ToughBooks have always been designed with functionality rather than aesthetics in mind, and the new range is no different. But there's something rather cool about the new version with its black cover. The alternative is silver, and unfortunately we won't be getting the multiple colours available to the Japanese market, where it is sold as a 'Letsnote'.

The display is now widescreen, giving it an up-to-date feel. And, while its not LED backlit, it looks good. However, there was some debate as to the resolution it will be 1,440 x 900 in Japan, but it was unclear whether the European model would offer the same resolution or make do with 1,280 x 800.

The other major change is the integrated handle, which might sound silly but is very practical, and its done better than Apple did it about 10 years ago with its fruity-coloured iBooks. With the laptop weighing only 1.66Kg, it really is a pick up and go machine. We were told that the lid can handle up to 100Kg of pressure; it was designed with the famous commuter crush on the morning Tokyo trains in mind.

As it's a ToughBook, you don't have to worry about it getting roughed up a little. While the Executive range may not be deemed 'fully rugged', it can still handle a decent 76cm drop and every component is isolated and protected.

Spec wise, things have been updated to use Intel's Centrino 2 platform, which brings with it the latest speed bumps in terms of processors, graphics and wireless. Integrated Gobi wireless is an option so that you can get connected anywhere, from the US, to Europe and Asia. The crucial battery life is claimed to be around six hours.

There a decent range of connectivity on the outside too, with three USB ports, SD card slot and VGA, which is all fine no HDMI multimedia fripperies here.

On first glance the CF-18 looks like its achieved what Panasonic wants bringing ToughBook up-to-date, while keeping things lightweight and portable. We'll follow up with a full review as soon as we get a sample, in November.

Verdict

Panasonic sets the benchmark when it comes to tough machines and there's no doubting that the CF-18 has what it takes to survive all but the most careless treatment. A large display, a decent processor and integrated broadband should make this a fine work tool to boot.

Are you hard enough? Panasonic brings its ToughBook line up to date with the Centrino 2 based CF-18.