Hospitals need robots for surgery, for diagnosis, for moral raising therapy and for lifting patients from one place to another of course. At least the robot engineers think so, and thus researchers from Japan’s Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (RIKEN) and Tokai Rubber Industries, Ltd. have developed the RIBA - “Robot for Interactive Body Assistance,” which would help lift patients up to 61kg from out of their beds and wheelchairs.

Tokyo - a city on the edge of Asia, is increasingly an international metropolis. It was here that, in the spring of 1992, the first full - scale complex of interior design showrooms of its kinds in Japan, came into being - the TOKYO DESIGN CENTER. It functions as a meeting place for designers, manufacturers and users to enable people to incorporate design into their own lives as fully as possible. Here they can select the finest in contract and residential furniture, carpets, floor coverings, fabrics, wall coverings, lighting and accessories from Europe, America and Asia.

For a few years already several websites such as online stores or beauty communities offer a service to try out clothes or a new hair style. Upload your photo and simply drag the favoured  fashion items onto it. Unfortunately the results of those services were never really s pleasing, as picture quality has been generally low. Japanese cosmetics brand Shiseido now developed a real-time Make-up simulator which captures your face on screen while your apply the latest products on - all using high-tech made in Japan.

The Japanese economy grew an annualized real 3.7 percent in the three months through June, the first growth in five quarters, helped by consumer and government spending, though business investment remains sluggish, the government said Monday. The expansion, as measured by gross domestic product, corresponds to a 0.9 percent rise from the previous quarter, the Cabinet Office said in a preliminary report. The results compare with the average market forecast of an annualized 3.6 percent increase and a 0.9 percent quarterly gain in a Kyodo News survey.

Today anyone with a smartphone can scan and read QR codes with the click of a camera and thus access information, commercial retail links or even pictures. Unfortunately those codes are up to now not widely known or used throughout the world and are only very famous in Japan. But this is more and more beginning to change when people all over the world adjust their mobiles to the newest technical standards.

In the field of displays, LCD, Plasma, and Organic EL are well-known types of display. They are usually used for showing dynamic images and photographs. But now Bridgestone Corp. has developed a display for displaying static images for reading. Apart from when rewriting the displays, Electronic Paper requires no electrical power to maintain the image. This leads to energy-savings and it will be useful in reducing the strain on the environment as it gets used as a substitute for paper for paper price tags in retail stores in Japan.

Who needs humans? At a ramen noodle shop in Nagoya, Japan, a pair of robotic arms serve up 80 bowls of noodles a day to their hungry customers. They never get tired and they don't need tips.

Supermarket cashiers gathered in the western city of Kobe recently to vie for the title of Japan's top check-out staff. Hosted by Japan's Supermarket Association, the battle royale graded accuracy and deportment, drawing contestants from 43 supermarkets across the country in a test of the best and right-est.