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Most of us long-time Japan hands probably catch a few zeds on any train ride over about ten minutes, but what about that age-old problem of knowing where to get off? Solo iPhone programmer (by night, financial recruiter by day) Warwick Pearmund has a techy solution in the shape of his new GPS-based Wake Me Shake Train Alarm app.

Panasonic has a long history of supplying high-tech medical devices to institutions throughout its home country of Japan. Combine that expertise with its emerging robotics know-how and this is what you get – the world’s first robot bed that lifts the occupant up when needed and transforms itself into a wheelchair that can move off on its own.

Anyone traveling in Tokyo knows how confusing the subway can be even if you can read Japanese, which is why we’re eternally grateful for Presselite’s new Tokyo Metro iPhone or iPod touch app. Best of all, we’ve got ten copies to give away.

Check the bicycle brakes, the lights, don’t use your cellphone, learn the rules of the road. Ads from a bicycle industry association offers tips on riding safely on approved bicycles. High tech brake-accuracy testing is depicted in the TV commercials. But one safety feature that prevents injury…

Bike fans might be interested to hear that the world’s first ever production motorcycle with electronic ABS breaking is about to hit the streets. The streets of Japan, that is.

If you’ve ever wanted access to a satellite for your own nefarious ends, then the latest collaborative space project out of Japan might just suit you down to the ground.

The marvelously named Pacific-Rim Symposium on Image and Video Technology, which kicked off this morning here in Tokyo, is home to many wondrous devices, but few as likely to alter our lives as a piece of software from Toshiba.

The macaque monkey who’s been eluding police capture since August this year could use some holiday cheer. It’s cold in Tokyo now, much different from that hot summer morning when the cute wild ape jumped the wickets and…

Kids carrying an RFID contactless transit smartcard can also use it to automatically notify parents of their whereabouts.

Vehicle engine-idling systems are beginning to appear in the auto industry aftermarket equipment sector in Japan as environmental issues move to center-stage.

A thin mat that creates electricity from footsteps has been installed at Tokyo’s Shibuya train station to harness the kinetic energy they expend as they pass through ticket gates twice a day.

Generally speaking, taking your laptop on a flight is a hassle, particularly if you’re in cattle class. Not only do you have to specially screen it through the x-ray machine, but all it does is take up space in the overhead compartment while you sit idly in your seat, wishing you could get some work done or at least watch the movies you picked.

When it comes to safely storing hydrogen for car fuel cells, Buckytubes may be the future, but the here and now appears to be carbon fibers that can contain a lot more of the pressurized gas.

Female attendants on JR Tokai line trains are being issued personal protection cayenne pepper spray devices.

Train enthusiasts will enjoy strapping on this Yamanote line watch and frequently checking the replica station-sign Organic Light Emitting Diode display. The watch is available in four versions…

When it comes to huge commercial ships, the laws of physics not only keep their vast bulks afloat, but also provide a bit of a problem in that they allow the ocean to drag on a ship’s hull and slow it down.

A signature on a piece of paper in Japan this week means that the country can now start work on commercializing a new generation of high-tech trains that make the current bullet trains look like pedal-bikes.

Picture. Thousand words. Etc…

The principle behind noise-cancelling headphones is as elegant as it is simple – sample the noise to be cancelled out and use small speakers to create an equal, but opposite, sound that effectively erases the problem.

Come the end of next month, one of the last refuges of escape from the digital onslaught of the modern world will be cruelly ripped from us, when Panasonic’s new, fully connected car navigation system goes on sale.

Alternative fuel is all very well, but it’s pretty damn hopeless, regardless of good intentions, when all you can get on Main Street is regular gasoline by the liter.

Now that it’s all grown up and mature, electronic paper is stating to get out a bit more and enjoy life – its latest sortie sees it appearing on train station ticket gates as a variety of advertising posters.

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.

If you happen to stop over at Kita Kyushu airport in the southwest of Japan this month, don’t be surprised if the porter offering to carry your bags is a four-foot green chap with an oddly metallic voice.

People with stiff necks and particularly short drivers are likely to rejoice when they see the latest car-safety innovation from Panasonic Japan – a rear-view camera and monitor rig.

We’d have thought that most people who watch movies and TV shows on their iPods have probably moved on from carrying about portable DVD players as well, but apparently - judging by its latest product - Polaroid Japan missed that meeting.

Those clever Japanese scientists have been at it again, working hard to find answers to problems we never knew existed. This time, they’ve come up with a way to convert dirty old normal cars into clean, green electric vehicles.

That fine organ the Mainichi Daily News has word on a cellphone Java application intended to help women discretely ward off the wandering hands (and, presumably, other parts) of the gropers that plague Japan’s trains.

Next time you leave the house to drive to the corner shop just be sure to bring along the one thing Hitachi reckons you’ll be using instead of a key to start the car - your index finger.

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.

Those funky little RFID chips embedded in almost all new Japanese phones just learned another trick to add to a growing repertoire that already includes e-cash, train and bus tickets and e-credit cards, with the introduction of a handy new technology from Mitsubishi.

Toyota Japan has word of a major breakthrough for one of its hydrogen-powered research cars that is sure to get plenty of column inches there.

We’re really hoping that if Panasonic is planning to market its new Oxyride electric car at Christmastime it manages to include a few packs of batteries in the box to keep the kids happy past lunchtime.

As we’ve seen before, Nissan Japan is actively developing and employing technologies to increase the safety of their vehicles, with a particular emphasis on combating drunk driving and minimizing the impact of accidents.

It’s not always obvious because we don’t directly interface with it, but even the cars we drive have their own software these days, which is why a group of Japanese companies are putting their heads together to create the equivalent of Windows to dominate the automotive arena.

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.

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.

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.

Two of Japan’s largest companies are joining forces to help clean up a little of the pollution that Tokyo is famous for by improving the viability of electric cars.