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In spite of general ill-informed nay-saying about the hardware’s prospects in Japan, the Tokyo-specific iPhone apps keep rolling in thick, fast and creamy, with the latest being a gem from Enfour and Gmap.

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.

It would be easy to think that we get off on teasing our readers in the West by featuring Japanese products you’ll never get your hands on, but that would be a mistake – we just get a kick out of sharing the latest cutting-edge gadgetry, whatever its provenance.

Recidivist lawbreakers and people who need to be told what to do will probably benefit most from the latest Japanese car-navigation system from Nissan, which warns drivers of the dangers of drink-driving whether they’re Methodist ministers or hotel-chain heiresses.

Confirming the promise we saw in Sony’s GPS-shunning PlaceEngine application recently, comes the news that Japanese mapping giant Edia will use it in its next round of navigation software.

The largest city in western Japan has just seen the start of an unusual security trial that uses IC tags, GPS and drinks vending machines to make the streets a little safer.

Here in Japan, Softbank Mobile - the brand Vodafone Japan transformed into last year - is about to launch a service that will surely appeal to the nation’s legendary drunken Friday-night salarymen who seem to have a habit of leaving their phones anywhere but their pockets.

The tense security climate that airlines worldwide currently operate in is now bringing an unexpected technical challenge for both passengers and staff, as Japanese carriers have been finding out recently.

We all know Sony for its games hardware, TVs, cameras and other audio-visual products, but it’s not such common knowledge that the company has a bleeding-edge research laboratory dedicated to exploring the technology of tomorrow just for the heck of it.

Among the oddest things we’ve seen in our tech travels round Japan is the internet umbrella built by two Tokyo students, Takashi Matsumoto and Sho Hashimoto. The device, which is currently hard to avoid in the Japanese media, combines several existing technologies to create a Blade Runner-style vision of a connected future.

Not long after looking down and out for the count in its battle for handheld supremacy, Sony’s PlayStation Portable continues to get better by gaining useful hardware and software. Last month we saw a GPS golf caddy for the PSP – this time it’s a high-spec update to a GPS navigator application for the device.

Clarion Japan’s newest in-car satellite navigation system may just be the most advanced driver aid seen since the last episode of 24 and its host of BS technologies. The MAX9700DT is both a full entertainment system and a GPS unit, but costs more than many second-hand cars.

Nissan, which is apparently on a mission to push cars into a new era in Japan, this week announced the latest stage in ongoing research into using technology to reduce traffic accidents, particularly those involving pedestrians.