In its first Asian launch, Huffington Post expands to Japan

The Huffington Post rolled out its Japanese site Tuesday, in partnership with the Japanese newspaper company Asahi Shimbun. This is the Huffington Post’s first launch in Asia. It also has editions in the U.K., Canada, France, Spain and Italy, and plans to launch in Germany this fall.

In a post announcing the launch, editor-in-chief Arianna Huffington noted that “when it comes to media, Japan presents unique challenges and opportunities.” Mobile permeates the market, and “the Japanese are voracious users of social media and social-networking sites — not only Facebook and Twitter, but smartphone [social messaging] services like Line, Comm and Gree.”

Along with topics like zen meditation, tea ceremonies and crying baby contests, Huffington notes that HuffPost Japan will be covering “one of my favorite subjects, sleep — from capsule hotels to the abundant photoblogs of people sleeping on trains.”

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