Japan

A terrifying Monster Wolf robot has been installed by a town in Japan as part of efforts to scare off bears.

A newly opened public bathroom in Tokyo, Japan, has transparent walls so that you can gauge how clean it is before deciding whether to use it.

A chain of convenience stores in Japan is testing out VR-controlled robots controlled by employees to stack shelves. It's social distancing, Skynet-style.

An assembly line in a Sony factory in Kisarazu, Japan, which features a total of 32 robots, takes only 30 seconds to assemble a complete PlayStation 4 console.

Onlookers in Japan were left baffled on Wednesday when an odd-looking contraption appeared in the skies over Sendai in the northeast of the country.

The aquarium is asking folks at home to video chat with its eels to give the fish some company and help them maintain familiarity with humans during lockdown.

The Olympic torch relay usually involves lots of people carrying the flame through the host nation's communities. But Japan will do it a little differently.

In the latest example of how drones are transforming the way we work, Tokyo Metro is using a custom-built flying machine to inspect its subway tunnels.

Japan will send a spacecraft to Mars in 20204. The mission will seek to learn more about Mars' two moons, and to bring back rock samples from one of them.

The coronavirus will impact the production of the Nintendo Switch in China affecting pre-orders of the new Animal Crossing-themed model and other hardware.

Nintendo has been awarded more than $450,000 in damages against a company operating a copycat Mario Kart course. The company has since ceased offering Mario costumes for its customers. The payout increased dramatically from the original ruling back in 2018. Nintendo is set to have its own Mario Kart ride this year.

Toyota plans to build an entire city to test out different technologies. Called Woven City, it will house 2,000 people in sustainable buildings, with streets crisscrossed by self-driving cars. Toyota also plans to integrate robots and smart home tech in Woven City, which will be located in Japan.

Smart cities are often seen as hives of future tech, only made possible with high speed connections and autonomous cars. In the Japanese city of Fukuoka, messaging app Line is already operating a smart city -- just in a different way than you may expect. Instead of focusing on the future, it concentrates on helping its citizens right now.

Japan's Hayabusa2 spacecraft is on its way home following a successful 17-month rendezvous with the Ryugu asteroid some 200 million miles from Earth. And there’s a good reason for it coming back as it’s carrying with it the first-ever rock samples collected from the subsurface of an asteroid.

Japanese weather forecaster Weathernews has teamed up with Toyota to utilize its data communication module technology to pinpoint windshield wiper usage and therefore low-level rain that does not appear on weather radar. This technology will help drivers prepare for wet roads.

Toyota took components from its Mirai hydrogen fuel cell car and used them to make a generator to power one of its factories. If testing goes well, Toyota plans to add hydrogen power at more factories. Toyota is one of the main proponents of hydrogen fuel cells vehicles, which still face many obstacles.

Japan’s summers are so oppressively hot that organizers of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics are considering using snow machines to keep spectators cool at outdoor events. The machines were tested on a crowd of volunteers in Tokyo on Friday, but the system clearly needs a bit of work.

Aviation fans flying out of Tokyo's Haneda Airport, there's a new hotel room designed just for you. It features a full-size Boeing 737-800 flight simulator, though you'll have to pay extra to use it. The Haneda Excel Hotel Tokyu opens the room this week, with flight lessons offered by a qualified flight instructor.

It can be hard waiting for news from 200 million miles away, but on Wednesday night, Japan's space agency said it believes its Hayabusa2 probe had successfully collected the first subsurface material from an asteroid. Now comes the tricky job of getting it back to Earth.

App-based car-sharing services where you can rent a vehicle for a short period of time are becoming increasingly popular in Japan. But some operators have recently noticed that more and more people aren't going anywhere in them. A recent report threw some light on what’s going on.

A mobile payment system launched by 7-Eleven in Japan has been forced to shut down just days after launch after it was targeted by hackers. Poor security measures have been blamed for the mishap, which saw 900 customers lose a total of $500,000 in fraudulent transactions.

If you're flying a drone in Japan, better not be sloshed when you send your bird skyward. A new law passed this week could see drunk drone pilots sent to jail for up to a year or hit with a hefty fine. New Jersey brought in a similar rule last year threatening a six-month prison sentence or a $1,000 fine.