Robot developer tmsuk has unveiled a remote-control robot that promises a new way to shop from the comfort of home. A prototype of the telerobotic shopper — a modified TMSUK-4 humanoid robot that incorporates a variety of cellphone communications technology — was demonstrated on July 10 at the Izutsuya department store in the city […]

Photographer Sato Jun Ichi explores the architecture of Japan’s flood control infrastructure in a huge collection of photographs taken over a period of 10+ years.
Ibaraki, 1997
Tochigi, 2006 // Saitama, 2007
Saitama, 1999
Chiba, 1997
Saitama, 1999
Saitama, 2006
Saitama, 2006 // Saitama, 2007
Ibaraki, 1998
Saitama, 1998
Miyagi, 1998
Visit Sato’s Floodgates site for about 600 more photos. (Use the links […]

This photo snapped by Aomori-based blogger Pochiko shows remnants of the JAL logo still visible in this year’s Inakadate rice paddy art, several days after organizers attempted to “erase” it.
Read more: JAL logo uprooted from rice paddy art

Do these fellows look old enough to smoke? Yes indeed, say Japan’s cigarette vending machines that use face-recognition technology to determine the age of the purchaser.
Just two weeks after a major sports paper reported that magazine photos could be used to fool vending machine age-verification cameras, an even more surprising flaw has come to […]

These oversized octopus stickers on the wall outside the Shibuya Parco building are dangerously close to the swimwear display.
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A delightfully odd form of communication is demonstrated in this music video for Supercar’s “Wonder Word.” Directed by Koichiro Tsujikawa.

Related: Videos by Koichiro Tsujikawa (+ Cornelius)

Has Japan Airlines’ crop-based advertising gone too far? For some residents of Inakadate — a small town with a big reputation for cultivating fantastic works of multi-colored rice paddy art — the answer is “yes.”
This year’s crop art, which is Inakadate’s 16th work since 1993, features giant images of Daikoku (god of wealth) and […]

Police in Nagasaki, Japan have arrested a man for developing a sophisticated robotic arm that uses a mouse and keyboard to autonomously Digg stories around the clock. Watch the “news report” for footage of the machine in action.

UPDATE: Ahem… In case it’s not obvious (as it should be), this “news report” is intended as […]

On July 2, 108 days after departing from Hawaii on the world’s longest voyage in a wave-powered boat, 69-year-old Japanese sailor Ken’ichi Horie was spotted in his boat off the coast of Japan. The solo sailor of the wave-powered Suntory Mermaid II was seen about 50 kilometers (31 mi) offshore south of the Cape of […]