tokyo

Twitter has taken a deeper look into how quickly its users change the terms or phrases they tweet on a given topic, or their churn rate, and released some of this data today.

For example, when Steve Jobs passed away, people began rapidly including "Steve Jobs" in their tweets, but a short while later "Apple" began trending, then "Pixar," and finally "Stay foolish."

"Looking at terms and phrases in Tweets and in real-time search queries, we see that the most frequent terms in one hour or day tend to be very … Read more

Subways in Tokyo are crowded enough, and they're plastered with ads on the walls and ads hanging from the ceiling. Sometimes, entire carriages are wrapped in ads outside. Straps are mini-billboards too, but now they're interactive.

In an experiment that's been going on for a few weeks, printing company Shunkosha has been deploying its strap covers on parts of the Tokyo subway to prove the effectiveness of Strappy.

Strappy is a boxy little plastic covering that sits over the strap. Many similar strap covers already exist on Tokyo trains, but they're for old-fashioned analog ads, and sometimes QR ads. … Read more

For centuries, the people of Tokyo have been flocking to the Sumida River to see fireworks displays. This past weekend, though, they got a spectacle of a different sort as thousands of electric "fireflies" wafted downstream.

The Tokyo Hotaru Festival 2012 is a modern twist on the age-old Japanese love of watching fireflies along waterways. Some 100,000 blue LED light bulbs floated down the Sumida in imitation of the insects, long celebrated in haiku and other verse.

Measuring just over 3 inches across, the LED bulbs were charged with solar-generated electricity and later reclaimed in nets downstream. … Read more

Can wind energy really power modern cargo ships? We've seen the idea of hybrid freighters before, but this concept from the University of Tokyo has a remarkable sail system.

A model of the UT Wind Challenger was recently shown off at the Sea Japan trade show in Tokyo. It would have giant telescoping sails that rise above the deck when wind conditions are good.

As seen in the vid below, University of Tokyo professor Kiyoshi Uzawa and collaborators believe this hybrid system could cut fuel consumption by cargo ships by about 30 percent. … Read more

A Foxconn recruiting office is telling potential hires that the iPhone 5 is expected to go on sale in June, according to a Japanese broadcaster.

In a conversation recorded here by TV Tokyo and aired April 2, a Foxconn recruiter says the company needs to hire about 18,000 people to manufacture the iPhone 5.

"Because it seems it will go on sale in June," the recruiter says in response to a question about the iPhone 5, according to a Japanese translation of the original Chinese. (That conversation starts around the 7:10 mark.)

This wouldn't be … Read more

A Japanese man discovered that if he typed his name into Google search, more than 10,000 different suggestions popped up in the autocomplete feature allegedly relating his name to criminal acts. After Google reportedly refused his request to delete some of these words, the man decided to seek a court injunction against the Web giant in Japan.

The Tokyo District Court approved his petition last week, which demanded Google remove certain terms from autocomplete, according to a Kyodo News story published on the Japan Times Web site.

Apparently, the man (whose name was not made public) figured out the … Read more

The new iPad made its debut in Tokyo's Ginza district to lines exceeding 500 people, according to Japan's Nikkei news service.

The Apple store in Ginza had about 450 people waiting while a nearby Softbank outlet had about 70 people in line, said Nikkei.

One 20-something male buyer in Ginza said he was looking forward to watching movies on the iPad's new high-resolution screen. And a teenage male said he wanted to use it for both study and games.

Lines began forming two days before sales, according to a ZDNet report.

(See link to Nikkei photos of long lines in Ginza.) … Read more

Japan marked the first anniversary of the March 11, 2011, earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disasters this week, and over the past year Japanese companies have been working on technology for use in similar emergencies.

One thing that struck me when I was in Tokyo after the quake was the darkened streets and vending machines, which had been dimmed amid electricity shortages. Up north in the tsunami-hit areas of Tohoku, I saw many vending machines that weren't working because entire neighborhoods had no power.

Vending machine maker Sanden, which has some 30 percent of the global market, has been showing off a hand-cranked vending machine for emergencies when the power's out and solar generation isn't available or feasible. … Read more

TOKYO--Nearly a year after the magnitude-9.0 quake that pummeled Japan, construction of the world's tallest tower, the Tokyo Sky Tree, is now complete.

Builder Obayashi, which recently announced plans for a space elevator to start services by 2050, declared the Sky Tree complete ahead of a ceremony Friday. While the world's tallest man-made structure remains the Burj Khalifa in Dubai at 829 meters (2,720 feet), the Sky Tree tops the list of the tallest free-standing towers at 634 meters (2,080 feet).

It's 34 meters taller than the Canton Tower in Guangzhou, China, and nearly twice the height of its predecessor, Tokyo Tower (333 meters). Operated by Tobu Railways and a consortium of media companies, the Sky Tree will serve as a digital terrestrial broadcasting center for Tokyo and the surrounding Kanto region. … Read more