"Once you take this out of Japan, it's just a piece of metal." Japanese companies only make 5 percent of global mobile phone sales, and all of those sales are domestic.

Before being compressed for transmission, the video stream is reformatted for the standard Japanese phone's 320-by-240 pixel screen.

But even traditional storytelling will adapt: the new mobility has already spawned forms like the Japanese phone novel, and it will give a boost to the old form of the short story.