The headset that's appeared today, made by HTC, won't necessarily be available to everyone in the world. In fact it's slated - for now - to be available only inside Japan. This headset was designed to fit one smartphone in the world - the HTC U11 - and will be able to roll with 6DOF (6 degrees of freedom) which is intense for a phone-based VR headset, if not entirely unique to this one.
There's a new Dragon Quest game coming out this summer in Japan, number 11 to be specific, and as one of the country's single most popular game series, it's getting not one but two special edition hardware treatments. The Square Enix-developed RPG is coming to both the PlayStation 4 and the Nintendo 3DS handheld, so each system will be getting a Dragon Quest XI-themed design.
The Nintendo Switch seems to be off to a strong start in Japan, selling a half million units in its first weeks of availability. This, notably, means that the Switch is selling faster in Japan than the PS4 did during its own launch. Obviously, it's too early to call, but with the PlayStation 4 being the best-selling home console this generation, it's definitely an encouraging sign.
Japan is a country known and notorious for its electronics so it probably wouldn’t come as a shock if it has an overabundance of unused gadgets and trinkets. Most of those end up on the trash heap or, worse, collecting dust somewhere in some forgotten box or corner. The Japanese government and the organizers of the 2020 Olympics have a better idea. Why not give those unused electronic devices to them and they will turn one man’s junk into the ultimate treasure: an Olympic medal.
Google has made it easier than ever to read Japanese: all you need is a phone. Using the Google Translate app’s camera feature, users can point their phone at a bit of Japanese text and see it on their screen in real-time, only with English where the Japanese text previously existed. In that way, it functions essentially as an augmented reality translation app, marking another step toward breaking down the language barrier.
In Japan the mayor of a city called Beppu located on the island of Kyushu, an area known for an abundance of hot springs, came up with an idea to get younger folks interested in visiting his town and to promote the hot springs in his city. The mayor and his team made a video that was posted to YouTube that shows what he called a "spamusement park", note that is SPAmusement not SPAMusement. No potted meats with odd gelatinous coatings at this park.
Space World theme park has shut down its first-ever 5,000-fish frozen in ice attraction, apologizing for breaking Japan's weird boundary. While strange, odd, or otherwise disgusting attractions aren't at all unheard of in Japan over the past several decades, it would seem that partially-protruding fish heads in ice aren't up to code. Space World's ice skating rink has been temporarily closed to remove the fish.
A new Star Wars movie is coming out soon, so that means lots of tie-in merchandise. And few countries love big-name brands and media properties more than Japan. Put the two together and it means Japan is getting exclusive Star Wars-themed smartphones in celebration of the release of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
Japan has announced plans to build the world's fastest supercomputer, doing so to help some industries in the nation perform research vital to growth and expansion. According to the nation’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, this supercomputer will cost the equivalent of about $173 million USD; sources go on to claim that it’ll be able to perform 130 quadrillion calculations every second with the project set to start as early as 2017.
At this rate, people will begin to wonder why Japan is getting some of the nicer stuff. It’s not like they’re subjected to more water than the rest of the world. And yet, that market is exclusively getting at least two waterproof models of high-end smartphones. Hot on the heels of KDDI’s LG V34, NTT DoCoMo has put up the product page for the Sony Xperia X Compact, which is practically the same elsewhere, except for its IP68 rating. And as if to add insult to injury, it also comes in pink!
Amazon Kindle devices will have a manga update in the next few weeks that allows swift reading. Amazon has heard the cry of manga fans everywhere, bringing faster page turns to the platform. This update will work for all titles - everything from Black Butler to Vampire Knight. Each of the digital editions of these titles will be able to push through your mind at high speed, at last.
After years of waiting, streaming music listeners in Japan finally have the option to check out Spotify. The service arrives in the country, said to be the world's second largest music market, this week, albeit as an invite-only beta for the time being. It's likely that the hold up for Spotify's Japanese debut was due to difficulties in reaching deals with local music labels — streaming music hasn't yet caught on like it has with the rest of the world — but the service is using the launch to show off its new lyrics features.
