 It's not TV so it's Nottv. The smartphone broadcaster aims to air shows with live commenting and send magazines and games to handsets. A subsidiary of NTT DoCoMo Inc. on Sunday 1st April began offering the first TV channels aimed exclusively at users of smartphone and tablet computers. Mmbi inc.'s Nottv service offers access to three channels of programming for ¥420 a month in the Tokyo and Osaka metropolitan areas and other locations.
 Non-traditional methods of controlling games are all the rage in Japan these days. Sega made headlines last year with "Toirettsu" or "Toylet," a game that drunken male patrons can play in the men’s room, since it's entirely controlled via one's urine stream. Meanwhile, a just-unveiled project by researchers at The University of Electro-Communications near Tokyo will soon have players using their tongues on the Kinect.
Interactive Poster Kisses You Back! 04/02/2012
 If you've ever been to Tokyo or any other large Japanese city, you'll have noticed the huge variety of billboards plastering the urban landscape, often featuring the month's most popular idol. Now researchers at Keio University are working on a system that will allow passers-by to interact with said posters via an ultrasound sensor setup.
Waterproof Japanese Phones coming to Europe 03/07/2012
 Japanese women are so fond of their phones, they even use them in the shower, say manufacturers. This makes waterproofing a must -- also good against rainstorms and accidents while texting on the toilet. Panasonic and Fujitsu are touting their waterproof and dust-proof phones as they seek to charm the overseas market at the world's biggest mobile phone show in Barcelona this week.
 As Japan continues to rebuild after last year's devastating earthquake and tsunami, one company has developed an ingenious new method to protect homes from the shaking—let them ride it out on a cushion of air. The technology is already being implemented all across Japan – at 88 sites, to be exact (based on company data as of 06/2011). Air Danshin Systems Inc. was originally established in 2005 to market and sell the technology, which was invented by a man named Youichi Sakamoto.
 Meet the SpeechJammer, a disturbing piece of gadgetry that can remotely stop a person from talking. A pair of Japanese researchers have create a solution to a problem we didn’t even know existed: People talking too loudly, for too long, or out of turn. Their answer — a “gun” that silences the person speaking.
 Three Japanese semiconductor manufacturers including Panasonic and Fujitsu are in talks to merge their operations to create a national-champion chipmaker that would be backed by the government, according to people familiar with the matter. The discussions, which are still preliminary, could result in the second state-sponsored consolidation in Japan’s struggling electronics sector in recent months.
 Toshiba kicked off CEATEC 2011 with a highly entertaining press conference where it officially announced to Japan the Toshiba Regza AT700 - "the world's thinnest and lightest tablet". The 10.1-inch tab weighs just 558g and is 7.7mm thin. It has a touch display and is powered by the Android 3.2 Honeycomb operating system.
 Major electronic IT manufacturers including Hitachi, Ltd., Fujitsu Ltd. and NEC Corp., plan to jointly develop next-generation semiconductors that will operate with one-tenth of the power consumed by present-day devices, it has been learned. Next-generation semiconductors will allow the transfer of greater amounts of data while at the same time enable a reduction in the size of IT-equipment and their power use.
 Last winter, enterprising South Koreans reportedly found a low-tech answer to a first world problem: To avoid operating cell-phone touchscreens without gloves in freezing weather, they used mini sausages as finger surrogates. Whether or not you choose to believe that people were actually using the so-called meat stylus, it did make the news in Japan. A year later Japanese retailers obviously did read the hand signals for help. Special gloves with conductive fingertips that let people to keep their digits warm and still operate phone and tablet touchscreens are the new hit!
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