Europe and Japan will work together on a strategy to make the Internet safer for children and teenagers. The new strategy was announced by Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes on Wednesday. On Thursday, she met with Tatsuo Kawabata, Japanese minister for Internal affairs and Communications to discuss how the European Union and Japan could collaborate on such plans.

Some 40% of Japan's biggest brands are still not active on Twitter, just one indication of the extent to which they lag behind their US counterparts in exploiting the microblog's potential. Adam Acar, associate professor of communication at Kobe City University of Foreign Studies, analysed the engagement levels of the 100 largest Japanese brands on Twitter.

New media is colliding with old media as part of a big marketing campaign. Japan’s biggest networks are pushing their social games to new formats, including television and magazines. Three of Japan’s biggest names in mobile and social gaming are to raise their profile whilst finding new business prospects, by adapting their games to television, magazines and comics.