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Over the last few years, residents of busy metropolises like London and Hong Kong have grown used to the convenience – not to mention lower prices in London’s case – of transport networks that accept electronic payments. Handy pieces of plastic, like the Oyster Card, with chips onboard are clearly a part of life for many people, but the same RFID technology has a far greater reach in Japan, where it has taken the next step and migrated to mobile phones as well.

A seemingly insignificant press release from a Japanese company we’ve never even heard of has suddenly set tongues wagging about everyone’s favorite rumor – the fabled 3G iPhone.

So, there we were on a jetfoil in Tokyo Bay the other day, cruising back from a DWT jaunt to Kozu-shima when we spotted this rather attractive monolith in the ocean just to the southeast of Haneda airport.

It’s easy to believe the tales of internet censorship we hear regularly from China, but not so its ostensibly democratic neighbor in Japan. That perception may change of Japanese regulations shake up the online world as proposed.

Even though we’ve heard of some fantastic customer service for Japanese early adopters of the failed HD DVD format, it seems not everyone’s happy with the brave face being put on by Toshiba.

The impending hay fever season here is kinda uncomfortable in a ‘contents of your sinuses pouring out of your nose’ way, so it’s a joy to report that the geniuses at Bio International Japan have come up with a high-tech way to keep all that runny junk up there where it belongs.

Amid the rush to wring the last few pennies out of HD DVD’s rancid and yellowing corpse, at least one retailer has had the decency to front up and look after its unfortunate customers.

Whatever your feelings on the MacBook Air – underpowered fancy Dan or a gorgeous lust bauble – it’s an undeniably superb feat of engineering. Or is it? A team of Japanese engineers has other ideas.

Big tech companies like NTT DoCoMo come up with dozens of unusual applications for their gear every year, but most tend to end up consigned to glossy brochures that describe some anodyne ‘perfect’ future. One bizzaro contraption that is apparently out in the wild is Big D’s FOMA-based Videophone Alcohol Check System - as the above photo shows, it’s in use on at least one truck round these parts.

Splendid Engrish seen not in Shinjuku ni-chome, but in the childcare room at Diamond City shopping mall.

OK, what have lukewarm cup noodles, dead squid, drilled watermelons, piping hotdog buns and creepy rubber dolls all got in common with the wonderfully named ‘Tenga New Adult Concept’?

The latest research on the mobile phone habits of Japanese children may be music to the ears of phone providers, but the depth to which the gadgets have penetrated the lives of the young there is bound to set alarm bells ringing elsewhere.

To the surprise of no one, the just-revealed sales figures for games hardware and software in Japan last year underline what a massive 12 months it was for the industry as a whole and Nintendo in particular.

We saw recently how Japanese sales figures for high-definition video recorders make worrying reading for the backers of HD DVD, so it’s no surprise that the latest data on the market for players and recorders as a whole shows more of the same.

According to Japanese business paper the Nikkei, Toshiba and Matsushita’s much-vaunted plans to join Sony in the OLED TV market have been shelved after problems moving from the research lab to mass production.

It’s hard to know what to make of the latest statistics on the battle for supremacy between Blu-ray and HD DVD because of the fact that they’re from Japan, home of so many of Blu-ray’s biggest backers. Nevertheless, the degree to which HD DVD has fallen behind in Japan in sales of the crucial high-end HD TV recorders is stark.

The latest piece of disaster recovery equipment to come out of Japan is an ingenious feat of engineering featuring one of the most unusual applications of solar technology that we’ve seen.

Sony’s a strange company - on the one hand it appears every inch the industry giant striving to return to its former glory yet, on the other, it produces really bizarre products like its latest piece of software that uses Wi-Fi to locate noodle restaurants.

Nothing to do with gadgets really - unless you count the bidet, deodorizer auto-open and drier functions - but ain’t these some purty potties?

Uber nerdy Nissan fans in Japan are probably in moistest ecstasy right now after NEC announced that it is to sell a special edition laptop there done up to match the local equivalent of the car company’s Micra model.