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This week’s Digital Content Expo at Miraikan is one of the less corporate tech shows on the Tokyo calendar, so it’s no surprise to see some pretty kooky engineering like the Funbrella from a grad-student team at Osaka University.

After a massive Twitter-only clearance sale last week, the doors are open to everyone and prices have been slashed, so get moving!

Wow - we’re really getting into the hard tech news now, eh? Completely ignoring the 18 insanely dull new phones DoCoMo just announced, I bring you our famous Pikarin-kun logo done up in finest colored glass beads instead.

What seems to be a transcript of police questioning of Tsuyoshi Kusanagi has been published on a blog. Kusanagi of the singing group SMAP, and star of dozens of TV commercials and the weekly SMAP SMAP TV program, was arrested April 23 at 3 a.m. The singer/actor had been prancing naked and…

Masaki Sumitani, the leather-clad performer known as Hard Gay, who was ubiquitous on TV a few years ago then dropped off the flat screens, has been hosting his own sex-talk TV show for the past year. Broadcast after midnight, pinup model Linying of Joytoy joins HG in candid sex conversations with…

In the spirit of the amazing Kowa anti-pee pills, we bring news of another product helping Japan move toward ending the need for people to urinate entirely.

So, NEC – you’re saying you don’t need us anymore? I’m hurt and know it’s no April Fool, so will just have to learn to live with it…

The world and his dog know how space-age Japanese toilets can be (well, not this one), so it’s no great surprise to see the latest model add a little something extra to the mix in the shape of personalised RSS feeds from the throne.

Teachers at a high school in Japan want school girls to pull down their skirts. The group of teacher-guidance counselors commissioned, published, put up, and distributed three posters advising girls to lower the hemlines of their school-uniform skirts. News outlets reported on the ‘Proper dress all at once together campaign’…

Battlestar Galactica fans on a budget might get a kick out of this Japanese Mama Chari (or ‘Mom’s bike’) named for their favorite pseudo swearword.

If actual karaoke in the nasty ole world beyond your bedroom is a bit too scary, then how about doing it in front of a computer with any Tom, Dick or Taro looking in? Best of all, you can even do it in Japanese.

The infamous wild monkey of Tokyo continues to elude captors. The macaque monkey that stormed Shibuya train station in August 2008 is apparently living in an internet cafe. Frustrated authorities have requested assistance from experts in primatology and the government’s spy agency.  An expert…

I work for a UK firm on occasion and so am frequently exposed to the very British style of press releases emanating from those fair isles, which is nice (I’m being kind here).

Bandai’s latest feeble attempt to revive its gaming fortunes at least has a little more humor than the cheap tat it usually peddles.

That crazy little monkey that’s been taunting Tokyo police since August 2008 has moved into a new home. It seems the wacky macaque monkey – dubbed Makawaii – spends its nights at an internet café. The impish ape first showed up – alone – at Shibuya train station in Tokyo in August, 2008. The critter dodged…

Japan’s Crown Princess Masako made a rare appearance on Jan. 2 when she joined other members of Japan’s royal family for their annual public New Year’s welcoming at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. Masako has been suffering from stress-related symptoms and mental…

You’ll never forget that cute little Shibuya-train-station-marauding macaque monkey that made world headlines last summer. But do you remember the secret closet lady or the naked guy in the moat? How about the government employee addicted to porn?

We know it’s the season for colds and flu to stop the spread of goodwill to all men, but I was more than a little shocked by the lengths one tech company is going to in order to halt the march of the germs.

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…

This isn’t entirely new, but it’s worth bringing you a snippet on Sega Toys’ Pekoppa – a tiny pot plant that apparently nods in agreement when anyone talks to it.

You know that new camera from Takara Tomy that features a little Zink printer that pops 2x3in photos out one end?

Strong language warning! Don’t read on if harsh words about innocent software offend you. No, seriously – he’s a potty mouth.

Now that it’s winter, police continue to use their resources investigating reports of loose monkeys in the city, with sightings regularly reported on Japan TV news programs.

Hey kids, see this sweet candy? You probably want some, right? Here you go…no, can’t have it! Put it back behind the counter. It’s dangerous. And don’t let grandma buy it either.

During the week, this man sits at a desk in a company in Tokyo. On weekends he wrestles. But he is not a-pro wrestler. Not a semi-pro wrestler. No, there is a new category – according to this man - that is ….

In honor of the much-televised locker-room celebrations sports teams worldwide love so much, Bandai has found a way to turn spraying carbonated beverages from a filthy pastime into the very embodiment of cleanliness.

Can you guess what these little plastic eggs are for?

It’s exactly three months since a wild monkey decided to make his home in central Tokyo, so to mark the almost-anniversary our pals at Lets Japan have put together a scarily detailed dossier on the simian’s schedule over that period.

After ten years of litigation, the Japan supreme court ruled in favor of a man who challenged an allegation that he fondled a woman on a Tokyo train. The man fought the police charges in 1999…

Take a look at that photo - yes, your eyes are not playing tricks on you; and no, you don’t need to do one of those cartoon double-takes on the whiskey bottle in your hand before throwing it over your shoulder. It really is a portable wooden room that is designed to be set up inside another room.

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

How many monkeys are there in Tokyo? According to a TV station on monkey-watch, there may be more than the original one mad-monkey of last summer. The tale of the monkey in the city began Aug. 20, 2008 ….

What could make a better gift for the office party this holiday season than a set of brand new humping dogs? Especially at our new wallet-friendly price!

See that ugly piece of gray plastic in the photo above? Well, that could just be your key to total computing happiness, according to Digital Cowboy.

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.

They say any fool can be a blogger and, judging by the standard of my usual garbage, who’s to argue? Still, I bet no one ever guessed Japan’s latest online star would be a humble pot plant.

If you’ve got little to do this weekend and are interested in incredible tedium, then you could always download what its maker claims is the world’s longest cellphone ringtone.

Vegans should probably look away now – researchers at a Japanese agricultural institute are so concerned about global warming putting livestock off their food they’re testing ways to make them eat better.

Although it was announced in the US a while back, it’s only this fall that other territories will get their hands on Chumby, the so-called alarm clock of the future.

Thanko, everyone’s favourite purveyor of all things wackily Japanese, has come up with a product that is either as daft as usual or very canny – I really can’t decide.