Japanese

PARO is an animatronic baby seal companion robot designed by some very clever people with one simple purpose in mind - to make you love him. From everything we've seen, he's exceptionally talented at his job.

As part of a New Year’s promotional sale Japan’s Sogo, Seibu, and Robinson’s department stores will offer people the chance to buy a humanoid robot custom-built to look, move and sound just like them.

Japan’s Sapporo Breweries is launching the world’s first beer produced using malt made 100 percent from “space barley,” which is the fourth generation descendant of the Haruna Nija malting barley that was kept in space for five months during 2006.

One of the stand-outs at the IRex robotics expo in Japan this week was the Yurina Care Robot from Japan Logic Machine. Essentially a robotic bed, the 3.5 million Yen (around US$41,000) Yurina reconfigures electronically, on-the-fly and does 4kmh

Japan’s biggest mobile phone operator, NTT DoCoMo, has unveiled a raft of new phones – 19 in all – along with a 3G-capable digital photo frame, so there’s sure to be something to suit whatever market segment you find yourself in.

The latest concept bra from Triumph International doubles as a putting mat and is designed to appeal to the growing numbers of female golfers in Japan looking for a unique way to practice their putting.

The Curio Avventura stroller is designed to fit through narrow checkouts and tight train station turnstiles

Casio has announced its upcoming Exilim CA003 camera phone featuring a 12MP camera with autofocus and 3X optical zoom.

The wn-2 watch emulates the rotation of the Earth and a view from space.

Hōshi is a hotel and spa in Komatsu, Japan. It has been owned and run by the same family for 46 generations so far, and its famous hot springs have been refreshing and revitalising its patrons for no less than 1291 years.

i-Aroma receives signals from a PC and emits different odors on command

Japanese researchers have developed a robot capable of reading aloud from that most ancient of random access mass storage devices - a book.