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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.

Like many Far-Eastern technologies, Japan’s QR Code gets attention in the West more for being exotic than for any real benefit it brings, so we fully expect the latest all-singing version of the 2D barcode to follow suit.

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.

The myth that Japanese mobile phones are the best in the world is typically perpetuated by overseas observers obsessed with the cutting-edge services on offer there and confusing those with what are typically very dull handsets.

RFID and holograms are two of our favorite technologies, so it’s a joy to see them form a double act and get together in one pretty little security device. The result is the world’s first hologram-toting IC tag, which arrives in Japan next month courtesy of Hitachi and the printing experts at Toppan.

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.

Regular readers will have noticed a fair sprinkling of the odd term ‘1-seg’ in news items over the last year or so, with all referring to Japanese products in some way. From Sony’s PSP and video Walkman to car sat-nav systems and mobile phones, this strangely named digital TV standard is popping up everywhere in the Far East, but what exactly is it?

We’ve already digested everything there is to know about Android, the Google-led open operating system for mobile phones and a little about LiMo, the other open-source challenger, but we’ll bet you didn’t know there are two spanking new LiMo phones on the market.

After years of waiting, DoCoMo has finally made good on its promise to deliver an office security system based on the RFID chips in its cellphones.

Hey ladies – are our normal, well-specced phones too much for your pretty little heads? Thought so – you should try our new handsets made just for you. They’re rubbish, but y’know – they’re sparkly.

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.

Anyone remember the days before Bluetooth and Wi-Fi when we actually used those little dark plastic infrared windows on our phones and other gadgets? If you do you’ll also recall that IR transfers were horribly slow and prone to failure, so it’s intriguing to hear that a Japanese firm has upgraded the invisible light technology to make it fit for the modern wireless age.

The Open Handset Alliance‘s Android may not exactly be the platform we all anticipated, but the flood of developers we’ve already seen working on it suggests it won’t be long before some half-decent hardware running the open-source Google-spawn emerges.

We’ve seen a few bone-conduction devices before, including a cellphone, a sports headband and an industrial safety helmet, but this is definitely the first we’ve come across that sends the good vibes by Bluetooth.

Next time you throw an old cellphone away, spare a thought for the engineers at Hokuto System in Japan, who have recycled their old handsets to make fully functional computers.

A story like this just cries out for a headline about Mickey Mouse phone companies, but we won’t go down that road – instead we’ll point out that Disney’s new cellphone venture is bound to go down a treat when it launches in Japan next year.

After Monday’s announcement by Google and the Open Handset Alliance (OHA) of their Linux-based Android platform for mobile phones there are more questions than answers about exactly what it means for the end user.

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.

I don’t know if I’m noticing it because I work in the field, but the last year or so seems to have seen an inordinate amount of coverage by the Western media of Japanese cellphones like the new 905i series from DoCoMo that was unveiled here in Tokyo yesterday.

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.