The ministry of tourism in Japan hopes that due to the popularity of this too-cute feline, tourists from neighboring countries will flock to Japan and spent some cash. As well informed readers of Japanite! already know the country offer tourist attractions like maid cafes and robot wars.

The mega cat is apparently 34 years old, and was invented by Sanrio, a toy company. since then, the kitty has appeared on 50,000 products in 60 countries.

This isn’t the first time that Japanese expect their drawn figures to bring them tourists. Just a month ago the Japanese foreign minister appointed Doraemon, the anime cat, as an “anime ambassador”.

We wish good luck to the cute cat, but still thinks that Nahoko Shimada, the McDonalds porn start might have been a better in attracting the sophisticated tourists.

More: [DailyNews]

It’s maybe safer to drive in Japan in the next few years. Japanese car maker Honda, is set to release a GPS navigation system that will warn drivers from crime zones. GPS systems can already warn the driver from traffic jams and speeding cameras, but this new GPS system will let the drivers avoid dangerous crime areas.

The GPS system will pull crime data from the police computers, and show it to the driver in real time. The data at this time will include only the reports on cars being stolen or damaged.

The information will be offered to members of Honda’s “Internavi Premium club”. Membership at the club allows you to get real time information on your GPS system such as points of interest along the road, weather and traffic conditions.

There is no plan to get the new GPS system into the US. Car owners shouldn’t get upset about it. This pricey GPS navigation systems are an easy target for thieves. Some reports were also on thieves that steel your car and then press the “Home” button in the GPS system. With the help of modern technology, the thieves get to your house easily and take everything else.

We just wonder if the new GPS systems will warn from robot wars in the neighborhood.

Source: [Yahoo News] & [GPS Business News]

So that’s we are not surprised to see a real battle that was held in Japan between two robot teams. Each of the robots was given a laser gun (don’t worry it was a non-lethal laser) and the teams were programmed to exterminate the over team.

The robots were fighting in Blazer tournament which was held in Fukuoka City, Japan. The robots are actually models built by hobbyists, so no actual robots were harmed in the process if you worried to well-being of the SkyNet messengers. The tournament was held on the surface of a model city and a smoke generator was even used, to get that nice futuristic and frightening effect.

You also get the video:

More information and images (translated): Robot Watch