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Technology

Cool Tech That's Only Available In Japan? 20

Posted by Cliff from the I-think-I'm-turning-japanese-I-really-think-so dept.
Ted Cabeen asks: "So a friend of mine is going to Japan soon, and has offered to bring me something back if I want anything. Therefore I ask you, what cool electronics are available in Japan that we can't get in the United States, yet?" Aside from the next Playstation, what other cool technology can you find in Japan that might be usable to a person who can't read kanji?
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Cool Tech that's Only Available in Japan? More

Cool Tech that's Only Available in Japan?

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  • Uhh... I'm not sure I would want to be using a laser to write to a zip disk... :)
  • No, it's not exactly a joke...although pricing plans vary.

    You (generally) pay for the time you spend on the phone, regardless of wether or not you placed the call or are recieving the call.
  • Fuzzy logic toilets. Think about that one!
  • Yes, you have to pay for incoming calls, but the person calling you doesn't pay a thing. In the UK if I remember correctly, "mobiles" are in their own area codes and are charged a higher rate than local calls, so the person calling the cell phone is in effect paying for that air time.

    Calling party paying for air time in the US is a bit more difficult due to the nature of all of the different telcos, regional area codes, and the fact that local landline calls here are for the most part untimed and uncharged.

  • Holy shit! "free 300 off-peak hours"?? Now that's a good cellular plan! :)
  • You are joking, you have to pay for incomming calls, would someone please reply to this and tell me it is a joke, because I don't believe it. I knew that compaired to Britain cell service in the US sucks, but I didn't think it was that bad!

    Ah well, I hope it gets better for you all one day :)
  • The current is 100 volt, instead of 110. That doesn't make much difference except when you try to use a U.S. hair dryer on Japanese current - it doesn't have enough juice.

    The cycle is 50Hz in North-east Japan (Nagoya and up, I think), and 60Hz in South-west Japan (Nagoya and down - I'm not sure which side of the line Nagoya lies on). So, pretty much all Japanese consumer electronics come with auto switching between 50 and 60 cycles. This is important for anything with a timer in it.

  • Hentai Robots.

    (those will never be available in the states. pick me one up too, please.)

  • The King of the World laughs at your schemes with his free 300 off-peak hours.

    A ha ha!

  • Well, as the King of the World I regularly travel to Japan and I know the answer to your question, peasant.

    Your example of button configuration doesn't fit the idea of a testing ground as they don't sample the local market much, don't do surveys, don't track habits or use of products. They do heavy R&D but don't let much out the door much like most places. There is lots of high-tech-wank about, but that's only as it's made there.

    When it's testing market they want they tend to go for Australia, New Zealand. NZ especially due to the variety of cultures*1 and terrain. They've been testing some uber-neato highspeed internet/cellphone things in Wellington, NZ - but they had problems with hills. Somewhat like the digital TV standards having problems if you don't have line-of-sight with the receiver.

    It's not really my thing but when I was in Japan recently I was looking at some digital audio toys. They ran QNX with a 10gig drive, small 5" LCD, and they have ogg [vorbis.com]/mp3/real/wav/aiff/asf/mpeg already and it's make a refreshing change from being stuck with a lousy and lossy format.

  • like for snes and N64 that burn cartridges to zip disks
  • I found a site that made refrence to E-BAY, (no this is not a trool, run a search for it on E-BAY)
    That someone was selling a HelloKitty Vibrator that they manufacture in Japan. I also know they have vending machines that dispense school-girl panties (this is true, I saw a picture of one).
    Not that you would want this guy to bring any of this home for you, (I could just imagine him trying to talk his way through security when he is going through the metal detector, and when he empties his pockets into the tray, out come panties).

    Anyway, I do know they have remote controlls for tv's and such that can operate on brain waves, that would be nice
  • You are joking, you have to pay for incomming calls, would someone please reply to this and tell me it is a joke

    Yes, it sounds stupid, but just believe it. It's probably because of historical reasons, and it's too late to do anything about it now.

    Actually, the fact that the recipient pays for the call is one major reason why the US is lagging after Europe and Japan in wireless technology. People don't like to keep their phones switched on, because they'll have to pay if someone calls. So they keep the phones switched off or simply don't answer calls. There's no chance to build up a mobile communications culture like the ones that are forming in Europe right now.

    --Bud

  • The Toshiba Libretto ff1100V is only available in Japan. Sure, you can get one from an importer like JPD, but they'll slap a 200% markup on for you. I'm trying to get one into the UK at the moment at a sensible price...
  • I have also heard stoies about what you can find in Japan- apparently the Japanese manufacturers use their home market as a testing ground for products before they export, down to little things like figuring out which button configuration is best on walkmans by trying out a bunch of otherwise identical models- but the big question is this- I've also heard that the Japanese companies charge much more for their products in their home market. Is this true?
  • Japan has all the latest MiniDisc recorders/players about 6mo-1year ahead of the US. All the buttons are in English, and instructions are usually in some english with diagrams easy enough to understand. Check out MiniDisco [minidisco.com] who imports Japan's latest models to the US for an idea of what to get, you'd prolly save by having your friend pick one up while he's there though. That, and schoolgirl uniforms/porn, if you're into that sort of thing.
  • Yes, you *can* get them in the US.

    One I know of is the Fujitsu S Series [fujitsu-pc.com]. It does one better than an integrated CD-ROM drive, though. It has a modular bay that can house anything from a DVD-ROM drive to a digital camera! It's pretty impressive.

    I'm pretty sure there are other ultralights that have internal cd-roms now, too...

    You can get advanced Japanese laptops in the US, though. Check out Dynamism.com [dynamism.com], even if only to drool a little.

    And, going back to the original topic, a friend of mine has a discman (not sony, though) that she said is one of the low-end models, which was amazingly small (I mean, there's only so small something can get and still hold a CD), had one of those cool remotes on the headphone cord, and even had optical digital-audio output! So if that's low-end in Japan, well...
  • http://www.megatokyo.com/
    --
    Peace,
    Lord Omlette
    ICQ# 77863057
  • no, really! i have a friend!

    the point is, i have a friend who lives in japan, and he comes home about once a year, and you should see the shit that he brings back! he has this cellphone, it's smaller than the motorola startac, does email, and doesn't cost a thing to recieve calls (that's the way they seem to do it over there, only charging for outgoing). kanji usually isn't a problem with electronics, and alot of times, they'll actually use english, as it's alot easier to read on cheap consumer electronic screens. sometimes, alot of times even, if they use katakana, the syllables will sound out english words (so the word "start" would be written "St-ar-tu") and, all of his japanese electronic toys work on american power because the difference doesn't seem to effect them, or they have autoswitching (i'm betting on not too much of a difference) he brought home a japanese drum machine (we both are into doing electronic music) and the whole thing was in english.

  • Send him to Akihabara (Score:3)

    by kazzuya ( 135293 ) on Friday October 06, 2000 @10:54PM (#724343) Homepage
    Cybercity Akihabara !
    The most useful thing you can find in Japan are ultrathin laptops like those you find here but with internal CD-ROM (why not in USA ??!). I've heard the VAIO notebook with Crusoe is already out, there. Cellphones are ages ahead but they are kind of fragile (cause they aren't made to last) and most of all useless in USA 8)
    You can also find lots of weird software: games where you have to seduce chicks, software where you can build your own schoolgirl in 3D, Doraemon figure keyboard cleaner. Also very nice PDAs (if you really need a good Japanese writing recognition) such as Taurus.
    Japanese game magazines (such as Famitsu) are also lots of fun.

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