Japan toying with idea of cellphone "sommeliers"

Japan seems set to begin licensing cellphone vendors as "sommeliers" in an attempt to help guide cheerful consumers through the quagmire of choices available for handsets and plans in Japan. Japan's communication ministry is looking to the private sector to manage the potential nightmare exam and certification process, with children's online safety highlighted as an important part of the plan. Mobile sommelier sounds like a pretty sweet title, we can totally feel how an HTC TyTN II might be paired with an earthy unlimited plan followed by the soft nutty finish of a 200-minute a month daytime calling package.

[Image courtesy AFP/File Photo]

[x20mar @ Jan 21st 2008 11:17AM]

I thought all mobile/cell phones in Japan came from vending machines

[Joel Rose @ Jan 21st 2008 11:21AM]

I know you're joking... but I could only wish it was so easy to get a cell phone in Japan. When I moved there less than 2 years ago, I had to wait for my Japanese ID before I could buy a phone. My passport and credit card wouldn't do it for me. They have some surprisingly strict rules with cell phones.

[CUBSWILLWIN @ Jan 21st 2008 11:40AM]

Well I was in Shanghai and I literally saw a vending machin spitting out Nokia GSM KIRFs for about 10 bucks.

[CUBSWILLWIN @ Jan 21st 2008 11:42AM]

exact price was 72 yuam

[CUBSWILLWIN @ Jan 21st 2008 11:42AM]

*yuan

[Ariane @ Jan 21st 2008 1:48PM]

Japan does indeed have cellphone vending machines, but that doesn't really say much because the internet doesn't exactly specify how common they are.
In my country we have vending machines for soup, and vending machines for icecream, but they are definitely not found in every building (in fact there are not that many of them around) and it also doesn't mean we don't have any icecream parlors or that restaurants don't serve soup ;)

[OddManOut @ Jan 21st 2008 3:04PM]

"I had to wait for my Japanese ID before I could buy a phone. My passport and credit card wouldn't do it for me. "

Strange...I was able to get a phone just a month after I arrived in Aichi-ken in late 2005(and I totally forgot to pick up my alien registration card until about 6 months after I got there). And many other students were picking up [hones at the Mini-stop and 7-Eleven weeks before I got mine.

Of course, they weren't the most feature rich handsets (you had maybe three different ones to choose from at each different convenience store chain), and the plans were pre-paid and pretty basic. Were you perhaps holding out to get a really nice phone and plan (certainly tempting when you're in Japan)?

[hal9K @ Jan 21st 2008 2:40PM]

Shanghai moved to Japan?

[tmnag @ Jan 21st 2008 12:25PM]

Hmm... sounds like a way to restrict access to the the market from parties outside the established cell phone club. Could the industry be circling the wagons at the approach of Apple?

[Ivand @ Jan 21st 2008 1:08PM]

oh for god's sake

[Taylor @ Jan 21st 2008 3:31PM]

Shut the F@*k up fanboy! Jesus!
-Taylor

[Cesar Cardoso @ Jan 21st 2008 5:26PM]

If you read the article... oh, forget it, Jobs said nobody reads anymore, so you forgot how to read, dumb Apple fanboi.

[Fernando @ Jan 21st 2008 12:34PM]

Japan = Superior

[sdf,sdnflaithwek @ Jan 21st 2008 5:08PM]

Great idea. First blend it. Then let the sommelier's work begin.