Serkan Toto does a great roundup of Japanese websites analogous to popular American and European sites. There are even a few on the list that I didn’t know about. Last April I analyzed the top 100 sites accessed in Japan and tried to point out gaps in the Japanese web that could be filled by enterprising foreigners. I think music is a gaping hole in the Japanese net. Serkan confirms this when he mentions that the Japanese equivalent of last.fm is Mixi Music which “will be turned off soon.”

However, methinks that this hole is not due to a lack of domestic web programming talent, but the iron fist of JASRAC. Not even Steve Jobs can get these people on his side!

ADDENDUM: Apparently mixi music is closing due to lack of user growth.. Did its catalog warrant many users?

Q&A: What’s the Japanese equivalent of [enter foreign web service here]?