JAPAN RETAIL NEWS - Inside consuming Japan: Japan retail, Japan market, Japan economy, Japan trends, Japanese people, Japan brands, Japan tech
 
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Japan has decided to abandon its plan to introduce an environment tax in the forthcoming fiscal year starting in April, taking into account strong opposition from the business community and ruling party lawmakers who are preparing for an upper house election next summer, government sources said on Monday.
 
 
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Anyone who’s had their laptop or cellphone run out of juice at a crucial moment can attest to the limitations that present power storage methods have on technology, but a product from Aqua Power Systems Japan may indicate an amazing new advancement: the water-powered battery.
 
 
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Imagine a car that can be refuelled in minutes but emits only water. Sounds like science fiction? In fact it already exists -- Hollywood star Jamie Lee Curtis has one. So does Honda president Takanobu Ito. Yet while some see them as the ultimate environmentally-friendly automobiles, the high production cost means that affordable hydrogen-powered fuel-cell cars are still more of a dream than reality.
 
 

Toyota Motor Corp's Prius hybrid was Japan's best-selling car in June while Honda Motor Co's rival Insight ranked fourth, helping the two hybrid leaders dominate the list of top-selling models. Sales of the Prius, which was remodelled in mid-May, jumped 258 percent to 22,292 units from the year-earlier month, data from the Japan Automobile Dealers Association showed.

 
 
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Mitsubishi Motors Corp. took the wraps off its new i-MiEV electric vehicle Friday, staking its fate on the zero-emission car as its best hope for a "green technology" future.
The egg-shaped, four-seat hatchback is the latest addition to a cadre of environment-friendly cars that have surfaced sinc Honda Motor Co.'s Insight hybrid and Toyota Motor Corp.'s remodeled Prius hybrid heated up the market for gasoline-electric cars.
 
 
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At stations in the center of town, many people come and go. Can't this enormous amount of transfer energy be used to generate electricity? This simply idea led Japanese researchers to  actually start testing the amount of energy that can be generated by sound waves and vibration on the floor. The East Japan Railway Company thus aims to develop more environmentally friendly train stations as part of the electricity used by customers now gets produced by customers.