The service, which is owned by eGalaxy Multimedia, has set a target of 10,000 Japanese mobile subscribers in its first year. A companion website to the mobile site, jp.NakedNews.com, is expected to launch next week.
“We would not have dared to come to Japan unless we were convinced that there was a definite market, and we now see there is a massive market here,” eGalaxy Multimedia CEO David Warga told the Hollywood Reporter Tuesday.
Naked News expanded its news format to the gay community in 2004, and includes news and features in 22 minutes, updated daily at 2 p.m., all featuring women — and men — in various states of undress. Naked News also is available on In-Demand and On-Command networks, which provide in-room hotel video entertainment.
A company spokesperson told XBiz that the sites average four million visitors a month.
Warga said that the Japanese service would launch with news from the site’s existing markets, but with Japanese subtitles. Though no exact date was set, the plan is to eventually broadcast local news in Japan.
“We believe there is a huge untapped market for the right kind of information if it [is] properly packaged,” Warga said. “So we created a news-entertainment program in which women, and later men, informed while removing their clothing."
Naked News in Japan will not feature totally nude presenters at first, Warga said, in response to the strict full-frontal nudity laws in Japan. Although breasts abound on Japanese television, local obscenity laws are quite strict when it comes to permitting anything else.
As a result, Naked News in Japan only will showcase presenters in their underwear during its initial run, but plans to “push the boundaries” of the law in the coming months.