The Japanese toilet Institute – Yes, it is really exist – has started a new campaign for Japanese on how to use the toilets. The campaign is called “Let’s love the toilet”.

Well, what’s there not to love? as we all know that Japanese people are crazy about their toilet’s. They have robots to clean it for them, and they spent so much time there, that they offering some golf games while you are thinking on your boss.

The campaign aim is to educate the people on how to leave the toilet for the next person (how can I know if it’s a boy or a girl?? oh, the dilemma!) , and how to save on toilet paper. It appears that according to a research done by this prestigious institute, men use 132cm of toilet paper, while women use only 99cm. The institute is waiting to see if the campaign will end in a huge toilet paper savings. We just can’t wait.

[Asahi] via [DannyChoo], Toilet image [Flickr]

P.S.

If you want to kids to also learn about toilets in the Japanese way, just let them watch this:

The name for the tower will be “Tokyo Sky Tree”, or Tōkyō Sukai Tsurii ,and it will be finished in 2011. 610 meters of concrete and steel, in the heart of Tokyo. If you also want a tower like this in your back yard, you should prepare some money. The cost of the tower is estimated in 60 billion yen or 555 million dollars (if you still believe in the dollar).

For those of you that are concerned what will happen to the tower during earthquakes, you should know that in the bottom of the tower you will find a five tier concrete “pagodas” that are supposes to withstand very strong earthquakes.

The tower will have some restaurants in the top, and a TV station – Nothing crazy or weird. What brings us to believe that until the tower will be completed there will be more weird news about robots that will live in the upper floor. We expect no less from the Japanese.

In the mean time you can enjoy more images (click to enlarge):

And a view from the top of the Tokyo Sky Tree

Here is a video of the name unveiling ceremony:

A TV crew has managed to capture the longest recorded flight of a flying fish. The animal flow at about 20mph (30km/hour) for about 45 seconds. It seems that there are about 40 species  of fish known as flying fish around the globe. They are not actually flying, but gliding.

If you’re tired than hearing the robots playing jazz, why not get a quiet Japanese fish instead?

Source: [BBC]

We all know that Japanese loves robots and that the robots can do all kind of thing for them. They can be our best friends, decide what we watch on TV, or just be stupid and useless. But now they can also play for them in a concert.

Toyota showed a performance by introducing its line of robots in Aichi in Japan. The robots playing are the “DJ Robot” and the “Partner Robot” (standing). Partner robots are promised to be available to the general public in 2010, to help daily chores around the house and in hospitals.

The robots played some popular jazz songs like “Moonlight serenade” by Glenn Miller, “Stompin ‘at the Savoy” by Edgar Simpson, and “Take the ‘A’ Train” which is written by Billy Strayhorn from the Duke Ellington Orchestra.

In the mean time you can watch the complete video from the show after the break.

Well it’s certainly an advance from cleaning the toilet for us. But the robots seem just programmable and we would love to see a robot doing a free jam session. Next time you visit Tokyo, be sure to throw in spare change for that poor and lonely robot playing at the street corner.

More (Japanese translated): [Robot Impress]

After recycling used false teeth for gold, the new trend in Japan is “Urban Mining”- or getting precious metals out of used gadgets and electronic products.

The high rise in the price of precious metals, such as gold and silver, makes this new habit quite profitable. The gold can be sold to jewelers and the other metals can be used for new electronic products.

If you get a ton of ore from a gold mine, you only get 5 grams (0.18 ounces) of pure gold. If you have a ton of used cell phones well you are rich. You can get up to 150 grams (5.3 ounce) of gold.

But it seems that only 10-20 percent of the cell phones ever reach recycling, causing the recycling companies to import used electronics from Singapore and Indonesia. Maybe it’s time to recycle some useless robots instead?

Source: [Yahoo News]

A new robot is supposed to clean urinals. The engineers at Mertec Engineering, the company that brought us this life-changing invention, claim that the robot can save eight liters of water while cleaning urinals. And it does this in only 10 seconds. If you happen to be in Kobe airport, you can watch the invention in action.

The robot is called “DASUBEE” that after the letters DCBA, which are ACBC backwards. The origin for that name is the reverse process which help the robot clean the urinals. No points on copywriting here.

Anyway, If you want it to help you with your cleaning chores, you should prepare to cough up 1,000,000 Yen, which are like $9,600. Let us save you the calculation, you can buy lot’s of brushes and detergent with this kind of money. In the mean time you can relax with a bunch of robots killing each other or some useless robots.

More: [3yen]

Source (Japanese): [Robot Watch]

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

The annual Meiwa Electronics annual Stupid Robot Contest, is held every year and the competitors must obey the following rules: the robot must be mechanical, It must be completely useless and it must make people laugh. Loyal readers of Japanite knows already that this can be applied to a lot of Japanese inventions throughout the year, without even a contest.

One of the robots, Papa Robopucho (picture above) is playing flags game with himself and sometime just cries for help. another example is this one, that I hope is inventor knows what it’s doing:

Last year you could see maid robots inspired from maid cafes in Akihabara (inventors probably haven’t heard about the new mom cafes trend), and a child robot that did push-ups.

This is also from last year:

So, What robot will you suggest to the competition? Share with us in the comments.

More info and videos (japanese): [Robot Watch] and [Bacarobo]

and more on the contests in [Meiwa]

It’s only in Japan that one robot can fight another robot and it’s seems right for everyone.

Robo-One, was held in Korakuen stadium in Tokyo today and drew much attention as every year.

112 robots started the championship and fell along the fights. South Korean robot Teakwon-V, took home the championship belt and $10,000 in the lightweight category.

King Kaiser, took the first place in the heavyweight category. Don’t think it was so hard. The robot was operated by a 12-years old and a 9-years old, the two sons of the engineer who developed the robot.

Video From Reuters

More [Robo-One]

Japan has a long love affair with robots. It also has a long love affair with mobile phones. So it’s not surprise to find out that mobile phone provider, Softbank, is offering a RoboPhone.

The phone will have arms and legs and it can be folded into normal mobile phone. The Robophones will have faces according to the mood of the owner.

otherwise from that it’s just a regular phone. No word yet on the pricing of this weird combination.

from [Softbank] via [Japan Times]