How Japanese Schoolgirls Started A Mobile Phone RevolutionS  My
good friend Brian Ashcraft at Kotaku wrote another book! It's
called Japanese Schoolgirl Confidential, and this time, he
explores and explains how Japanese schoolgirls have changed and
shifted Japanese society. Among the most important things
they've influenced? Cellphones.  The mobile phone revolution
came early to gadget-crazy Japan, and 80 percent of Japanese now
own at least one. There are over 100 million users with advanced
third generation handsets. But it was schoolgirls, not business
men, who kicked phone technology into high gear. And it all
started with pagers.  Originally intended for salary men, pagers
caught on with teens in the early nineties, and millions and
millions of colorful versions called "Pocket Bell" were sold.
Professor Mizuko Ito, a cultural anthropologist known for her
research on how teens use technology, suggests that Pocket Bells
were the first viral youth tech. Though basically just a pager,
what made the Pocket Be