Tag: BIGINJAPAN

Online retailer Amazon.com has recently removed listings for a Japanese computer game called 'Rapelay' in which the player stalks and rapes young girls. The game was not sold directly through Amazon, but was available for purchase through the site's third-party merchant program. Patty Smith, an Amazon spokesperson, told the AFP, "We determined that we did not want to be selling this particular ...

Japan's famous Shinkansen bullet trains will be getting an upgrade. The folks at JR-East -- the East Japan Railway Company -- have already ordered 590 of the aluminum alloy cars (which will comprise 59 trains), and promise that they will top out at 320 kilometers per hour (199 miles per hour for us Standard folk), versus the 270 kilometers per hour (or 168mph) that current Shinkansen trains can ...

Leave it to our clever, if bizarre, Japanese friends to come up with the NoPoPo battery. According to Unplggd, the battery gets power when one of several fluids mixes together with its magnesium and carbon components. Among those fluids are beer, saliva and -- that's right -- urine. Apparently, those unlikely charging agents help the batteries to live for as long as ten years. And the bizarre ...

Oh, we get it alright; Kintore-Z is a robot designed to compete in Japan's Baca RoboCup (baka means "fooolish" or "stupid" in Japanese). But that doesn't explain why the child is absently holding a toothbrush now does it? Click through for one of the strangest, most bizarre videos you'll ever see. ...

So imagine this -- you're sitting at your desk. You decided to skip the bra, because it's summer and pretty warm out. But, of course, some jerk at the office has the AC blasting. It's probably about 50 degrees in the office, and now the girls are getting a bit chilly. So you open the bottom drawer of your desk, pull out your USB-powered breast warmers and slip them under your shirt... Don't ...

Once again, the Japanese have developed a robot that's smart, creepy, and designed to replace human workers. This time, it's Saya -- a mechanical receptionist that can converse with humans using a vocabulary of 300 words and 700 phrases, and even express emotions via facial expressions. The idea behind Saya is that she is designed for companies that would like to cut costs without totally ...

For our video roundup of cool Japanese items under $50, we gathered and reviewed tons of gadgets. As the hours drew on, we began to speculate on an epic battle between the cutest toys. Late one evening, two of Japan's hottest went head to head. The Hex Bug ($13, acgears.com) is a tiny robotic crawler whose antennae sense when he's run into something, allowing him to turn around. It would ...

It might not look like much, but this little... er, big guy is a robot recently developed and employed by Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd and Sumitomo Corporation in Osaka City, Japan to clean their floors. Now we've seen plenty of service robots that love to clean, some even professionally, but this one, operated by Reibi, is especially full-featured. Based on a robot developed in Tokyo in 2001, ...

Trying to parse the vagaries of the economic future may be as difficult as peering into a fortune teller's crystal ball – but many Japanese are forking over their hard-earned Yen to do just that, even while cutting back on other expenses. Zappallas Inc. is a Japanese company that operates a huge network of fortune-telling Web sites for mobile devices with names like "Your Future in Three ...

It's 2008 and we've finally achieved the ultimate goal of modern robotics. No, not singularity... better: a cross-promotional marketing deal between the world's leading robots. Meet the Wall-E edition of iRobot's Roomba 530. The special edition Roomba is just like the original 530 only with the addition of that magnificent sticker for a extra ¥5,000 (about $50) premium. 400 units of the ...

Continuing their march toward the obliteration of mankind, robots are now learning the art of theater, the BBC reports. These robotic thespians will take the stage for the first time, at Japan's Osaka University, for the production of 'Hataraku Watashi {I, Worker).' Acting alongside humans, the robots have been programmed to converse and interact with the human actors on stage. Two robotic ...

Looking for something sleek and cool and design-y that can pretty much guarantee you won't find anywhere else? (That is, unless you feel like schlepping all the way to Tokyo, and then schlepping all the way back with a heavy paper shredder.) If that sounds like you, discerning gift-giver, then you'll want to head straight over the the just-launched Gizmine, an online boutique run by the same ...

If you're the sort of man who has a certain penchant for lady's clothing, and we don't mean helping your wife or girlfriend find a pair of jeans at JC Penney, you may be interested in a hot new product currently available in Japan. It is, quite simply, a bra made for men, and if you like that you'll love the company's other products. The bras are exclusively available at Rakuten's WishRoom Shop, ...

Several videos of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police using seemingly excessive force on demonstrators are getting thousands of hits on YouTube, with one clip surpassing the 100,000 mark. Last month, around 40 protesters gathered outside the house of Prime Minister Taro Aso on behalf of the country's "working poor," the approximate 10 million citizens who make less than $20,000. The most popular ...

Not sure if this is going to be helpful or a total flop, but a new device called Rain Wipe from Japan is being marketed to stores for display at their entrances. It essentially removes rainwater from wet umbrellas by absorbing the water with a cloth, and then uses pressure to push the water to a tray toward the bottom to keep things tidy. If you're keeping score at home, each tray only needs to ...