"What's so exasperating for the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry ... is the current situation in that platforms, terminals and apps have become dominated by foreign entities," remarked an unnamed writer for a trade publication. "The ministries aren't happy about this at all. What can be done to reinvigorate Japanese companies?"
The above excerpt from Weekly Playboy (July 28) was about several new deregulatory moves that would be disadvantageous to Apple's iPhone, currently the dominant player in Japan's smartphone market. But most of the other entities the speaker referred to — Android OS, Facebook and Twitter — were also based in the U.S.
What was not included above, but is being covered heavily in other media, was Line, a hugely successful mobile-messaging application that can be downloaded for free. While incorporated in Japan, Line is a fully owned subsidiary of South Korean IT giant Naver Corporation.