Toshiba said on Thursday it will start selling the world’s first recorders for the HD DVD high-definition video disc next month. The new recorder, the RD-A1, combines an HD DVD burner with a one-terabyte hard disk and can record and store up to 130 hours of high-definition broadcasts, Toshiba said in a statement.
Japanese researchers have developed a new type of pillow talk — a cushion that offers pointers on how to get a good night’s sleep. The pillow called Sleep Doctor analyses slumber patterns and subsequently provides 40 kinds of advice and encouragement on a miniature screen.
World Cup fever is kicking up already-strong demand for flat-panel televisions as consumers desiring a sharper picture of matches are finding lower prices and marketing pitches honed for soccer fans. At a Yamada electronics store in Tokyo, TVs are awash in blue — the Japanese national team’s jersey colour.
The United States could consider new sanctions against North Korea if it goes ahead with plans to launch a long-range missile, US ambassador to Japan Thomas Schieffer said on Monday. Schieffer said that a test by the communist state would be a ”very, very serious matter” that could be brought before the United Nations Security Council.
North Korea directed its people to hoist the national flag and await a state message on television on Sunday, a Japanese newspaper said, amid reports the North was planning a new missile test. South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said North Korea’s reported instruction might not be linked to the missile launch, saying it could be preparations for another national event.
Hiroyuki Iwaki, who conducted major orchestras across Europe and the United States, died of heart failure at a Tokyo hospital on Tuesday at age 73, his agency said. On New Year’s Eve 2004 in Tokyo, Iwaki conducted performances of all nine symphonies written by Ludwig van Beethoven.
Director Shohei Imamura, who portrayed modern Japan’s downtrodden in raw realism and eroticism and became the first Japanese to win the prestigious Palme d’Or at Cannes twice, died of cancer in Tokyo on Tuesday. He was 79. Imamura was often considered the top Japanese director since the late Akira Kurosawa.
Anyone for rattlesnake ice cream? Japan is no stranger to bizarre frozen deserts and this year is no exception with cow tongue, Indian curry, cheese and even cactus among the flavours on offer for courageous taste buds at an annual event at the Namjatown theme park.
The Tokyo High Court on Tuesday rejected a second appeal against the death sentence of a doomsday cult guru convicted over the deadly 1995 nerve-gas attack on the Tokyo subway. The decision brought Aum Supreme Truth founder Shoko Asahara closer to the gallows, more than 10 years after his sect stunned the nation.
Sending aid isn’t enough to help reduce poverty in Africa, World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz said on Monday. Rich countries need to do more by investing in basic services like electricity and transportation, he said. These services are necessary for businesses to function and engage in trade, as well as help people in their daily lives, communicate with one another and acquire knowledge.
A Japanese whaling expedition has caught 60 minke whales in the Pacific Ocean, the government said, the maximum number allowed under a research programme that critics say is disguised commercial whaling. The 43-day expedition off the coast of Sanriku, about 500km north-east of Tokyo, also found that the minkes feed on sand eels and sardines.
Former executives of Japan’s once-high-flying internet firm Livedoor admitted on Friday to fraud allegations as they went on trial for a scandal that rocked Japan’s financial and political circles. The four executives wore dark suits and looked humbly at the ground as prosecutors read charges of hiding financial losses.
Japan has finally emerged from the ”lost decade” of deflation and is set to continue on a path of robust growth, weathering an expected end to zero interest rates, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Wednesday. ”Japan has now exited from the period of deflation,” said the deputy director of the IMF’s Asia and Pacific department.
A major Japanese television network apologised on Monday after almost 160 people were struck with vomiting and diarrhoea after following a weight-loss plan it broadcast. A May 6 show on Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) introduced a diet of rice mixed with white kidney beans that had been roasted for about three minutes and ground into powder.
Japanese electronics giant Sony and telecoms operator KDDI will jointly develop cellphones with music player features as competition heats up in the sector. Sony and KDDI, Japan’s number-two telecoms operator, hope for a summer launch for the Walkman phones, which will include flash memory capable of storing about 500 songs.
North Korea appears to be preparing to fire a long-range ballistic missile, Japanese media reports said on Friday. Satellite photographs showed activity near a missile test site in north-eastern North Korea last week that indicated a launch of a Taepodong ballistic missile could be imminent, the reports said, citing unnamed sources.
Japanese police said on Tuesday they found the bodies of 100 cats, some badly decomposed, in the apartment of a woman who found it hard to part with her pets even after they died. The woman, who had adopted sick and stray cats for years, kept the bodies in containers.
If the forecasts are to be believed, Japan’s players in next month’s World Cup are small fish in a big pond. An aquarium in Yokohama is organising a piscine World Cup, in which fish the colours of national teams fight for a ball packed with bait in a tank holding two goal posts.
Japanese automobile giant Toyota Motor Corporation said on Tuesday it would recall more than 210 000 Land Cruiser Prado sports utility vehicles worldwide, owing to a problem with their rear-axle shafts. The parts, which could develop cracks because of insufficient tenacity, would be replaced with fortified shafts, the top Japanese motor company said in a statement.
Japan’s top mobile operator, NTT DoCoMo, said on Thursday it will start a next-generation service letting cellphone users download music videos, aiming to outdo rivals’ success with online music. The new service, which will start as soon as June, uses a high-speed data transmission technology to allow downloads at 10 times the speed of DoCoMo’s third generation handsets.
Japan will have to adjust its eating habits with the implementation of a 50% price increase on disposable chopsticks imposed by Chinese suppliers before exports cease altogether, a media report said on Tuesday. In March, China’s government imposed a ban on the disposable eating utensils as a measure to protect forests.
Movie fans bored with hi-tech sound effects and graphics will soon be able to experience cinematic smells after a Japanese film distributor announced it is showing the world’s first fragrant films. The system will offer six kinds of aroma depending on the scenes being shown.
Sony shares rose on Thursday following a newspaper report that the Japanese electronics giant is set to beat its own profit forecast thanks to strong sales of flat-panel televisions. Sony could exceed its operating profit forecast of ¥100-billion ($844-million) by 10 to 20% in the year to March, the <i>Nihon Keizai Shimbun</i> said.
Japanese steelmaker Kobe Steel said on Wednesday it has co-developed a way of producing high-grade steel from low-cost materials, a technique that it hopes to sell to other companies. Kobe Steel has built an experimental plant in the United States state of Minnesota with two of its US partners, electric furnace steelmaker Steel Dynamics and iron-ore producer Cleveland-Cliffs.
The dollar extended losses in Asian trade on Wednesday following Iran’s announcement that it had joined the nuclear states, with the market cautious also ahead of United States trade data, dealers said. The dollar fell to ¥118,03 in Tokyo morning trade from ¥118,21 in New York late on Tuesday.
Nintendo said on Wednesday it would launch its "brain-training" software, a megahit in Japan, in the United States and Europe in hopes of winning customers who do not like video games but worry about aging. The software is billed as checking the ages of players’ brains by quizzing them on maths, reading and other simple tasks.
The race to set the industry standard for high-definition DVDs swept into Japan’s stores Friday as Toshiba put on sale its first next-generation player. Supporters of the HD DVD format pushed by Toshiba and NEC are vying with the rival Blu-ray format, led by Panasonic and Sony, in a replay of the VHS-Betamax battle between two types of video cassette tapes in the late 1970s.
A Japanese burglar who thought he was lucky to find an unlocked door on Friday was shocked to be arrested by 20 massive sumo wrestlers who were staying at the building. Konoshin Kawabata (48) was rummaging inside a room in Osaka in the early hours when he was suddenly confronted by wrestler Dewanosato, who stands 180cm tall and weighs 131kg.
Six-year-old Shino Katagiri does not start primary school until April, but her mother is already putting her into classes — on how to defend herself against violent attackers. As an adult self-defence instructor plays the bad guy, the terrified little girl huddles into a chair and refuses to take part in the lesson her mother has brought her to.
Sony’s painful restructuring drive is progressing well but reform efforts are still at an early stage, the group’s president said in an interview published on Wednesday. "I think we’ve made sizable progress in regaining confidence and improving earnings but in my mind, our reform is still in its early stages," said Ryoji Chubachi.
German media giant Bertelsmann is making preparations to sell its music company holdings including a 50% stake in Sony BMG, the world’s second-largest music group, a report said on Monday. The <i>Financial Times</i> cited unnamed people briefed on the plans as saying the company has arranged for investment banks to prepare the disposals.
A strong earthquake killed one person and injured at least 160 in central Japan on Sunday, demolishing houses, buckling roads, triggering landslides and cutting off water supplies. More than 1 300 people evacuated to shelters after 44 houses collapsed and about 200 others, mostly wooden with heavy tile roofs, were seriously damaged by the 6,9 magnitude earthquake.