There are three big reasons why the crisis in Japan’s public finances will eventually come to a head. The first concerns government bonds. The state has for years relied on domestic savers to buy them. But as Japan’s people age and run down their savings, they will have less money to invest in government bonds. An IMF paper calculates that even if the savings rate remains close to where it is now, gross debt may exceed gross household assets by 2015. Japan might then have to rely on foreigners to finance its debt, and they will want much higher returns. That will, at the very least, provide an acute reality check. Goldman Sachs says some foreign investors are already positioning themselves for a “meltdown”.

Americans don't have the guts for sushi. At least that's the implication of a new study, which finds that Japanese people harbor enzymes in their intestinal bacteria that help them digest seaweed--enzymes that North Americans lack. What's more, Japanese may have first acquired these enzymes by eating bacteria that thrive on seaweed in the open ocean.

Until now, mobile phone motion sensors were capable of detecting only repetitive movements such as walking or running.

The KDDI system, is able to detect more complex behaviour by using analytical software - held on a server back at base - to match patterns of common movements.

For example, the KDDI mobile phone strapped to a cleaning worker's waist can tell the difference between actions performed such as scrubbing, sweeping, walking an even emptying a rubbish bin. The aim of the new system, according to KDDI, is to enable employees to work more efficiently and managers to easily evaluate their employees' performance while away from the office.

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"This is treating people like machines, like so many cattle to be monitored and watched over," Kazuo Hizumi, a leading human rights lawyer, told BBC News.

Våra tjänster är till för företag som är på väg att starta upp affärer med företag i Japan, eller som redan har affärskontakter i bruk.

Vi skriver översättningar av brev, e-post osv., eller fördjupar samarbetet för att lansera produkter på mässor i Japan och vår japanska webbplats. De företagen söker japanska importörer.

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Vår insikt och kunskap om Japan är till din hjälp om du tidigare inte gjort affärer med japanska företag.

Många av frågorna du funderar över har vi säkert svaret på, inte minst om du ska börja exportera till Japan.

In the beginning, there will only be two to three 3D programmings available monthly. Whether those will be free or paid content are still under consideration.

Shortly after hearing of a simple two-way Spanish-to-English translator for the iPhone, Toshiba has announced that it has developed a new translation system that requires no server-side interaction.

The app is designed to be ran completely on one's mobile phone, which will eliminate costly data roaming fees that are generally incurred using other systems that require an Internet connection to retrieve translations. The system is trilingual in nature, and in essence, it's a smashed version of a PC app that already exists. It enables users to translate freely between Japanese, Chinese and English. Initially, the software employs speech recognition to determine the language and what has been said, and then it uses either machine translation or rule-based machine translation to break the phrases down and convert them into another language.

For students learning Japanese (such as myself), the key attraction of the Zaurus (particularly the SL-C3200 model) is that it has Japanese handwriting recognition (through the stylus and touchscreen), and built-in Japanese dictionaries (広辞苑 is widely regarded as the authoritative 国語 dictionary, and Genius is a decent Japanese-English and English-Japanese dictionary). The additional language aids such as e-book reader, English-Japanese text translation (offering comparable quality to Altavista or Google web translation services) and English lessons are also useful to students learning Japanese (even though they are intended for students learning English). Additional software such as the Japanese atlas and rail/plane timetables are useful for those intending to visit Japan. And all this in a tiny little package that can be taken anywhere (it easily fits into a medium size handbag).

Good Lord, I've seen many Hello Kitty PCs but I believe the new MiNEW A10 is the most beautiful mode ever (skin).

The talks between the Recording Industry Association of Japan, mobile phone companies and music download sites aim to agree on new anti-piracy measures by the end of the year, according to several participants. A system could be in place by 2011.

Giant Torayan, a huge aluminum robot, looks down on a puny human at the lobby of the Osaka City Hall. The robot, a statuesque 7.2 meters tall, responds only to instructions from children, according to its creator, Osaka native Kenji Yanobe. When feeling chipper, the robot can sing and make simple dance movements. But do not anger Giant Torayan: It spews fire when miffed. The robot's job is to promote Aqua Metropolis Osaka 2009, an event highlighting the city's water-related attractions that starts Saturday.