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For all of the cutting edge mobile technology that Japanese consumers have routine access to, surprisingly little of it has made its way outside of the country. Its government, however, wants to change this, and will begin an "aggressive push" to market the technology overseas, reports AP . One of the big questions, however, is how much of the country's technology can be exported. In Japan, it's common to have high-speed access to the web, to watch and record TV broadcasts, and to pay using a mobile phone. But as Masayuki Ito, official at the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications acknowledged, "Some critics say Japanese mobile technology tends to be quirky like the Galapagos Islands," that is, the country's isolation has given it very domestic-specific technology. One of the products Japan hopes to flog is the technology behind the FeliCa wallet phone, which debuted in 2004, and is now a standard feature in most Japanese handsets. Instead of a smart card, which is how most popular mobile phone payments work in Europe, a tiny chip called FeliCa, partly developed by Sony Corp ( NYSE: SNE ). is embedded into the phone. Some analysts believe, however, that the success of mobile payments in Japan is down to low credit card use in the country, as well as the popularity of convenience stores and vending machines. Still, there's little choice for Japanese carriers and manufacturers, who are backing the government initiative. The new campaign comes at a time when the saturated domestic handset market has begun to decline , hurt by carriers who have cut phone subsidies in favor of lower tariffs and better service, and by increasing consumer fatigue over more complex technology. Related Japan's Handset Market Drops 20 Percent; Advanced Features Hit Saturation Point? Lost In Translation: Japanese Market Not Sold On iPhone Cool Factor Japan To License Cellphone Experts Check out the best business jobs in digital media. Go here for...

European Union banks and mobile operators have agreed to work together on mobile payments. Mobile industry group, the GSM Association, and the European Payments Council, have already begun trials for contactless mobile payments, with seven operators conducting mobile payment trials, and another seven tests to start soon. Reuters report s that the goal of the cooperation is to create more competition and choice in the way that people in the EU pay for things, and to reduce the cost of paying for something while travelling outside of one's home state. Operators are said to be keen on mobile payments as a source of new revenues. The EU, meanwhile, would eventually like to see an EU standard on wireless payments agreed upon. Our mobile application for Blackberry and other Smartphones brings you the latest headlines when you're on the go. Go here to download .

Just for fun, this Friday's mobile content bits will feature only companies with "cell" in their name.... -- Cellpoint builds mobile bookstore for SAXO.com: Saxo.com , an online bookstore in Denmark, said that it's using Cellpoint Moble's mPoint technology to build a mobile site. Customers can access the store by texting "saxo" to a Danish short code. The customer will then receive a message that takes them to the mobile store, where they can browse and purchase books. -- CellSpin creates multimedia features for Twitter: San Jose-based Cellspin said that it is supporting audio, video, picture and text messages that can be uploaded to micro-blogging sites Twitter and Pownce. Users who download Cellspin's mobile application, can leave audio Tweets, or send a picture or video, which allows a message to get across very fast and easily. The application is free, and works on more than 300 phones with the Symbian, Windows Mobile 5.0 and 6.0 or Blackberry operating systems. Others are expected to come soon. Multimedia tweets can also be sent from CellSpin's Web site. Release. -- Cellufun and PlayPhone partner for game portal: San Jose-based PlayPhone said its working with Cellufun to gain access to Cellufun's more than 5.5 million monthly unique visitors and a catalog of free mobile games. The two companies said it is a good way to cross-promote their content, and will continue to look for similar partnerships in the future. PlayPhone will make Cellufun's free ad-supported games available through at http://www.playphone.com and a custom WAP site powered by Cellufun. Release. Our mobile application for Blackberry and other Smartphones brings you the latest headlines when you're on the go.

Indo-U.S. mobile payment company Obopay Inc has secured a $20 million in a fourth round of investment led by India's Essar Communications Holdings , and included Alliance Bernstein, ONSET Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Richmond Management, Citi, Societe Generale, Qualcomm ( NSDQ: QCOM ) and Promethian India. Obopay has also named K.B. Rajendran, SVP Essar Global and Robert G Hottensen Jr, SVP (Public Equity) at Olayan America Corporation as new members of its board of directors. There had been reports last year of Promethean Investing $5 million in Obopay India, but there's no confirmation of whether that happened. [via release and GigaOm ] Obopay had raised around $48 million in its first three rounds; James Pearce, at mocoNews mentions that Obopay wants to become the Western Union/PayPal of the mobile world, and in order to do that it had to get 41 licenses to become a registered money transfer agent just in the US. I think the involvement of Indian companies in this round is significant, particularly for Obopay's operations in India: The Essar group is a shareholder in Vodafone ( NYSE: VOD ) India (earlier Hutch-Essar), and also is reportedly behind Loop Telecom. Essar is also in the mobile retail business - in partnership with Virgin, they've launched The Mobile Store in India.

The mobile phone is too complex for users to feel comfortable using them to buy physical goods, however, consumers in the U.S. and the U.K., say they are likely to use the phone to check prices and the location of a store, according to research conducted by Gartner . The report said in addition to complexity, the second-biggest reason not to shop on the phone is fear of having their location tracked. Gartner: "Retailers and wireless providers will need to clearly state the benefits that consumers gain by divulging their locations — and that their information is secure and kept private. As with loyalty cards, consumers are willing to allow retailers to collect information about them and their purchases in exchange for a discount." Still, despite these limitations, there seemed to be an opportunity—20 percent of respondents in the U.S. and 16 percent in the U.K. said they would be willing to receive promotions on their mobile phones. Based on a survey conducted among 2,000 consumers last summer, the report found: -- 32 percent of U.S. and 33 percent of U.K. respondents said complexity of using a mobile phone would be a significant barrier. -- U.S. respondents (ages 18 to 27) were 1.98 times more likely to shop on the mobile phone than respondents (ages 43 to 61). In the U.K., the younger age group was 2.63 times more likely than their older counterparts. -- Service charges for using the mobile phone as a shopping tool were not a concern in the U.S., but the fourth-largest concern in the U.K. Of course everyone is hoping the U.S. and U.K. will develop into a market similar to Japan's. Even though a small percentage of overall retail sales are conducted on mobile phones in Japan, in 2006, it totaled 562 billion yen, or $5.3 billion (that excludes content such as ringtones or games). Of this figure, 258 billion yen, or $2.4 billion, was for retail goods. The rest was for transactions and services such as purchasing tickets through a mobile phone.