Miki Fujimoto, 24, wore a splendid long-sleeved kimono to an event in Minami-Aoyama this week to promote the start of online networking site Mixi’s New Year Card service for this year.
The service began last year and saw some 700,000 cards sent to homes through the website, but this year’s demand is expected to double or triple that figure now that members can use the service from their mobile phones.
Users don’t have to know each others real names or addresses, and can simply accept an offer of a card and enter their details which are relayed to the postal system. Senders can pay by credit card or have the charge added to monthly phone bills. The standard price is 98 yen per card, but some cards including ads can be sent for 48 yen or for free.
Fujimoto, or Mikitty as she is affectionately known by her vast legion of fans, registered her marriage to comedian Tomoharu Shoji, 33, in July. She said: “My surname changed this year, so I’ll be sending more cards than usual I think. I might be sending my husband’s ones for him as well.”
The newlyweds are scheduled to hold their wedding ceremony on Nov 27 at the Grand Prince Hotel Akasaka, and Mikitty said that they had a long way to go on deciding what she would wear.
© Japan Today
8 Comments
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dcpoor
"Fujimoto, or Mikitty as she is affectionately known by her vast legion of fans"
lewl
smithinjapan
'Mikitty'? Bizarre...
Anyway, mixi has become pretty useless to a huge number of people. It's too insular. Everyone's on Facebook now.
Junnama
Mixi has 25 million users. Facebook Japan has???
gogogo
For a digital company they sure like to paste paper, you would think they could come up with something better than to sell ad space on paper card mail outs.
Hephatsheput
"Mikitty" means Miki Ando, not this nobody.
ablestmage
Hephat -- Mikitty is very very widely known for being a nickname for Miki Fujimoto, a self-given name prior to her Hello!Project involvement, and she is by FAR not a nobody. She has a decent fanbase even in the US (me included), where none of the H!P products have even been in release.
fondofj
Mixi users strategy is to communicate with peers hiding own original identity. This is the common behavior of Japanese 'being unidentifiable'. But the same Japanese people use their real name and photos when using Facebook or Myspace. Actually Japan is a perfect example of contradiction in every layer of the society.
bdiego
Everybody in Japan knows Mikitty means Miki Fujimoto. Nice try though.