News In Fact

With the invention of the Benki RC Japanese-style toilet, the traditional squat toilet that Japan is known for has made a comeback — but with a weird twist! The conventional embedded toilet bowl that Japanese have used for ages is gradually becoming ancient history. Many these days are switching to modern toilets, which are taller and seemingly easier to use. But just when we thought that the squat toilet would be gone soon, here comes this new receptacle for human waste products -– a battery-operated toilet with remote control! Many are probably uncertain about the benefits of this product. But it takes only an open mind to recognize why its makers came up with the idea. At one point in your life, you’ve probably been too lazy to go to the toilet, right? Now you can make the toilet come to you. On a lighter note, this can also make for a great instrument to piss off housemates, or serve as a unique gift that is sure to make friends laugh. Many such invention

The most recent advancement in robotics includes two automatons designed to openly tell you that it is time to change your socks or brush your teeth. Japanese researchers have invented a female humanoid as well as a dog robot that have the ability to sniff your breath and feet and use snarky comments together with exaggerated reactions to push you to do something about your breath as well as foot odor. Kaori-chan, the female robot, has brown hair and blue eyes. When you breathe in her face, she has the ability to analyze and quantify the components of your breath, and rate the smell on a scale of one to four. However, she will make harsher comments based on how stinky your breath is, ranging from “Yuck! You have bad breath!” to “Emergency! There’s an emergency taking place! That is beyond the limit of patience!” The dog robot, Shuntaro-kun, has the ability to evaluate foot odor. It doesn’t speak, but with “Symphony No. 5” as the background music, this dog sniffs

You don’t want to get on Samurai Monkey’s bad side. An interview with Lenscratch revealed that Watanabe initially got involved with the artform after visiting a zoo and noticing the monkeys’ wide range of emotions and facial expressions. After being granted permission from the Suo Sarumawashi Association to photograph them, he dressed them up and went to town. Throughout their career, the monkeys will work one on one with a trainer before retiring several years later. This 1,000-year-old tradition is historically tied to religious rituals wherein trained monkeys would protect the horses of warriors through stunts, dancing, and comedic skits.   These trained macaque monkeys eventually became mere entertainment for the imperial court and festivals. Due to the rising urbanization of Japan, this practice almost went extinct before being revived by a group of dedicated sarumawashi practitioners.

There’s a glimmer of excitement for aging men in Japan! A local middle-aged man rental service is something new to behold. It’s limited, however, because to date only two men are available for rent. But take heed because these two aren’t your ordinary gentlemen. They are Mikio Sendou, 65, former Japanese pro ballplayer, who was also a 1978 All-Star, and Takanobu Nishimoto, 46, a fashion producer. Ossan Rental, the company behind the concept, puts the per-hour rental rate at 1,000 yen, or close to $10. But contrary to what many expect, there is no sex trade. NariNari, a Japanese website, corrects this notion and explains that an “ossan” — the name itself is a moderately impolite word referring to Japan’s middle-aged men — offers only rather mundane services such as going out for a good dose of conversation, joining you for lunch, helping you out in searching for a new apartment, and other everyday activities. Tired of shopping? You can even hire an ossa

The National Institute of Informatics (NII) teamed up with the country’s top technological companies to develop a robot with the purpose of passing the University of Tokyo’s (Todai) entrance examination, which is highly regarded as one of Japan’s most difficult academic assessments. Their main goal is to have their “artificial brain” pass the 2016 entrance exam with flying colors, and by 2021, exceed the required scores for admission. A recent trial reported the robot to have scored four out of 10 after taking the university’s entrance examination for mathematics. The project is a government-approved collaboration between NII and technology companies that include Fujitsu for the math test and IBM for history. And with commercial production of the artificial intelligence (AI) robot in mind, scientists use laptops instead of a single  supercomputer  to develop the project. The organizations behind the project use AI technologies to develop language skills, reading a