SOBETSU, Hokkaido--Hatsune Miku, the Sapporo-born “digital diva,” struggled to gain fandom when she was launched abroad. But a German resident of this northern town played a key role in taking ...

Hiroyuki Itoh, chief executive of Crypton Future Media, which developed Hatsune Miku and is based in the northern Japanese city of Sapporo, said creating a character to go with the voice software ...