In Japan, cellular phones have become ubiquitous and much of the population is equipped with such a mobile telephone including enhancements such as video and camera capabilities. This pervasiveness and the particularities of its usage lead to a cell phone culture developing.

First, Japanese cellphones are very small and folding cellphones are 'cool' as this satisfies both the need to be small and the need for a large screen. Many people usually keep one in their pockets, and sometimes people have a "keitai" or a cell phone as small, light and thick as a credit card. Many phones can take pictures and video with their small lenses.

Japanese cellular telephones (as well as many in the Western world) can be connected to Internet through service such as i-mode. Japan was also the first to launch 3G services on a large scale. Teens shoot off a very large number of E-mails daily and these are often attached with a picture.

However, there is a negative aspect. Radio waves can cause interference with heart pacemakers and other medical devices. Public etiquette is often violated, and due to the internet connectivity, spam has become a problem. After series of studies, it is now recommended that talking using a mobile phone is avoided in a train and a silent mode is recommended while on one. Around seats reserved for eldery and handicapped, it should be turned off. When train is crowded, it should be turned off. In a hospital, one should turn off entirely. Talking on the phone while driving is to be prohibited in the mid-2004.

Teenage Culture
Mobile phones have become an inseparable part of everyday teenage life. It is so rapidly evolving that everything written here should be considered already old informations.

It is believed that the paging device used in late 1980s to early 1990s that predates mobile phone and could only display numbers seeded the cell phone culture. Though this ability was supposed to tell the number to call, it was quickly used to convey a short message. A complex sets of numbers were devloped that communicated everything from greetings to everyday emotions. Most were based on various ways numbers could be read in Japanese. Some of few that could still be recognized are; 4649, Yo-ro-si-ku, lit. nice to meet you or hello. 3341, Sa-mi-si-i lit. I feel lonely. Unlike similar paging 'messages' sent in other culture, many messages spoke about things like inner emotions and tend to talk about non-business matters.

With a rapidly falling price of mobile phones in mid 1990s, these people 'graduated' from paging devices and begun experimenting with the 'short message' service that the mobile phone company offered. When i-mode service begun, the mobile phone culture begun flourishing in the earnest as this service offered E-mail service. Magazines and TV regulary makes specials focusing on the 'current trend' of how mobile phones are used by young people.

Japanese mobile phones have the capability to use very large sets of characters and icons based on JIS standards that defines characters for an industrial appliance. More than thousand characters including all alphabets, hiragana, katakana, Kanji and special characters like cm (centimeter), arrows, musical notes, etc. can be used to make a message.

These character sets are used extensivly and often in a way that do not use their original meaning by relying more on the shape they have. For example, '\' may be attached at the end of a sentence to show that they are not happy about the event described. A sentence like "I have a test today\" (translated) might mean that he or she didn't study enough or that test itself is depressing. Some of these usage disappeared as suitable icons were made but these newly made icons also acquired a usage not originally intended. Astrological note of Libra looks like a cooked and puffed mochi and is used in a happy new year message as mochi are often eaten then. Aquarius looks like waves so this would be used to mean 'sea'. Numbers of icons were increased gradually and they are now colored to make them more distinct.

The Ascii art is also used widely and many of them are faces with expression.

One of the vey distinct form of writing is called 'kogal moji', lit. girls' character. For example Lt does not mean alphabets 'Lt' but is a hiragana, け 'ke'. Notice that it looks very similar when written. Every hiragana, katakana and kanji are taken apart and reassembled using different characters including alphabets. It is unclear why this usage happened. Some believe that this started as a way of making secret message that a quick peek wouldn't reveal while others claim that this is just for fun. However, it is interesting to note that hiragana had been made by women from Heian-era and that they too, are intentional simplifying and partializing of Kanji.

	Got Japan - Renting a cell phone in Japan.
	Got Japan - Guide to buying a cell phone in Japan.