Disney is pitching a mobile phone service (Disney web sites, games, videos and ring tones on phones covered with the Mickey Mouse head) to Japanese women, says the WSJ, a year after the entertainment company shut down a similar U.S. service. More has changed than the target demographic; the new program gives more of the grunt work to carrier Softbank Mobile than Disney's failed partnership with Sprint. But Disney is also encouraged by its popularity among women over 20; the Journal notes that 75% of Disney sites' subscribers are this demographic, and that Tokyo Disney is popular for dates. What will the Japanese schoolgirls do to set themselves apart from their older sisters?

Incidentally, while the Journal reports that Tokyo Disney got almost 26 million visitors in 2006, half the attendance of Disney World, its Hong Kong park only earned 4 million visitors in its second year, down from 5 million. (This was noted with today's news that Disney may increase its share in the struggling park.) Apparently a day of Disney is less appealing when you work eighty hours sewing Lilo & Stitch decals.

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