Japan Style

The North American anime distributor Sentai Filmworks has announced that it will release English dubs for the Clanned, Blue Drop, Ghost Hound, Legends of the dark king: A Fist of the Nort Star Story, and Tears to Tiara anime series. Seraphin Digital, the company formed from the assets of A.D. Vision's Amusement Park Media dubbing outfit, is overseeing the dubbing process with veteran ADR directors such as Steven Foster.

Microsoft Corp Japan will give small local governments free software to help with clerical work related to providing child-rearing allowances the national government will introduce in fiscal 210, company sources said Monday. Microsoft intends to start offering the software via download from its website, possibly on Tuesday, to local governments that might find it financially too burdensome to have software written for the clerical work, the sources said.
Microsoft plans to give the template for its Excel spreadsheet program to local and municipal governments with 100 or fewer employees and 10,000 residents or fewer, they said, adding it aims to get more than 40 local governments to take advantage of the free software.
Costum ordering such a template would cost some 1.5 million to 3 million yen per order, they said.
Employees at local governments will be able to transfer data on residents from the Basic Resident Register, a computerized comprehensive list of Japanese citizens, onto the template, and use that to check qualified households, confirm payments and compile reports, the sources said.

The British anime distributor Manga Entertainment has begun streaming the first five episodes of the Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood anime series for audiences in the United Kingdom. Each week the company's website will add five more episodes of the series, which will replace the previous ones. Manga Entertainment Youtube Chanel will run the same episodes for one week after they are taken down from Manga Entertainment's website. Once the streaming episodes catch up with the Japanese broadcast, the company will then stream one episode per week, one week after each episode airs in Japan.

Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi on Wednesday installed a robotic arm outside the country’s Kibo laboratory module on the International Space Station, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said. Working together with NASA astronaut Timothy Creamer, the 44-year-old Noguchi opened the air lock for the first time, brought out the 2.2 meter-long arm into a space and attached it at the tip of a longer, 10-meter arm. The installation of the smaller arm is aimed at allowing astronauts to engage in more delicate operations, including fixing problems with experimental devices, from inside the space station.

Hitachi Ltd, NEC Corp and Casio Computer Co said Friday the launch of their merger on mobile handset operation will be delayed by about one month beyond it's original schedule in April. The three companies agreed in September to integrate their mobile phone operation in April this year by forming a new joint venture to boost their global competitiveness amid a saturated domestic market. But in joint statement issued Friday, Hitachi, NEC and Casio Computer said they put off the launch of their venture called NEC Casio Mobile Communications Ltd to lessen the impact on their businesses due to imminent delays in overseas antitrust screening procedures. NEC Casio Mobile Communications will be formed by merging NEC's mobile phone business with Casio Hitachi Mobile Communication Co, and existing venture firm founded by Casio and Hitachi in 2004.