
Sega's first Japan store signals ‘immersive entertainment' push
Japanese video game publishers are increasingly listening to investors demanding they leverage their treasure trove of intellectual property into tangible goods that avid fans are only too happy to snap up.
Nintendo jumped into the fray early, opening its flagship store in New York's Rockefeller Center in 2005, but the Kyoto-based gaming giant would not open a store in its home country until 2019 in Tokyo, 2022 in Osaka and 2023 in Kyoto. A new outlet in Fukuoka is expected to open this year.
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Yomiuri Shimbun
17 minutes ago
- Yomiuri Shimbun
2025 Expo Osaka: Digitally Re-Created Hiroshima Artifacts Displayed at Expo; Artists' Sculptures Link Past Tragedy to Vision for Future
Digitally crafted re-creations of items that belonged to victims of the Hiroshima atomic bombing are on display at the 2025 Osaka–Kansai Expo. A pocket watch 30 centimeters wide, 30 centimeters deep and 60 centimeters high, and a fountain pen 20 centimeters wide, 20 centimeters deep and 60 centimeters high, were created by New York–based artist Cannon Hersey, 48, and Tokyo-based artist Akira Fujimoto, 49. Hersey is the grandson of Pulitzer Prize-winning author John Hersey, whose 1946 book 'Hiroshima' revealed the devastation to the and Fujimoto believe that the Expo's vision of the future cannot be separated from the past, and they hope the installation will help keep memories of the bombing alive. Since 2019, the pair have produced artwork using 3-D data from artifacts held by the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. Pasona Group Inc. proposed a new commission last autumn for its pavilion at the Expo, and Hersey accepted, saying it would be meaningful to exhibit at an event visited by so many people. The artifacts were photographed at high resolution early this year, and 3D data were used in a Toyama Prefecture studio to craft the sculptures. Aluminum casts made from 3D-printed molds were hand-polished to reproduce fine details, and each piece was enlarged for easier pocket watch's hands are frozen at 8:15 a.m. — the moment the bomb was dropped — and its dial is melted inward. The fountain pen, discovered in Noboricho near the hypocenter, has a snapped nib, vividly conveying the force of the blast. Fujimoto chose the pocket watch because 'the atomic bombing can be said to have stopped the flow of time; by seeing the hands fixed at 8:15, people can sense the time that was lost.' Hersey selected the fountain pen as a symbol capable of influencing society. The artists visited the Pasona pavilion for the first time on Tuesday. Hersey remarked that without understanding the past, a better future cannot be created. 'Visitors from all over the world will come to the Expo,' said Yoshifumi Ishida, director of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. 'These highly precise works give people a meaningful opportunity to consider and empathize with the damage caused by the atomic bomb.' After the Expo ends in October, the sculptures will be exhibited in Hiroshima City. The Pasona pavilion — whose displays also include life-science innovations such as sheet-shaped cardiac muscle grown from iPS cells — accepts advance reservations, though visitors may also enter by lining up on-site.


Yomiuri Shimbun
an hour ago
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Akazawa, Japan's Chief Negotiator for Tariff Talks, Plans to Visit U.S. for 8th Round of Talks
Economic revitalization minister Ryosei Akazawa plans to visit the United States this week at the earliest for an eighth round for tariff negotiations, he said Saturday at a ministerial meeting. Akazawa told reporters in Osaka about the planned visit after showing U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent around the venue of the Osaka-Kansai Expo. Bessent is the chief U.S. negotiator for Japan's tariff talks. The Aug. 1 deadline of the U.S. imposing its 25% 'reciprocal tariff' on Japanese imports is approaching. 'While protecting Japan's national interests, I want to continue efforts of searching for a possible concession that both sides can agree on,' Akazawa said. If his visit to the United States is realized, it will be Akazawa's first since late June. On the day, Akazawa and Bessent visited the Japanese and U.S. pavilions at the Expo as the U.S. treasury secretary attended an official event for the United States' 'national day' at the Expo. The U.S. did not regard Bessent's visit to Japan as part of the tariff talks. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and Bessent met on Friday but exchanged only a few remarks about the tariff. 'We did not discuss tariff-related issues,' Akazawa added on Saturday.


The Mainichi
3 hours ago
- The Mainichi
Japan industry, academia team up to build hulking rescue robots
KYOTO (Kyodo) -- Japanese electronics maker Murata Manufacturing Co., Waseda University and two other companies teamed up to develop humanoid search and rescue robots as part of a wider effort to revive Japan's formerly world-leading robotics sector. The four entities, including Kyoto-based robot maker Tmsuk Co. and technology service company Sre Holdings Corp. in Tokyo, said in late June that they plan to develop a robot with all Japan-made components, such as sensors and precision instruments. The robot is designed to stand 3 meters tall, weigh 300 kilograms, walk at around 5 kilometers per hour and lift 100 kg or more. Given its demographic challenges, the companies believe disaster-prone Japan needs to develop such rescue robots. "We want to build a robot that is much stronger than a human and can move rubble," Tmsuk Chairman Yoichi Takamoto said at a press conference in late June. Japan was once a global leader in humanoid robotics, with Waseda University having developed the world's first full-scale bipedal robot, WABOT-1, in 1973. Honda Motor Co. led humanoid robotics technology with ASIMO, whose final model was released in 2011. Hoping to play catch-up with U.S. and Chinese manufacturers, the four partners aim to develop a pilot model by the end of 2026 and a mass-production version by March 2029, they said. "There are many technologies in Japan that we can be proud of," Tomotsugu Oba, a manager at Murata Manufacturing's Mobility Robotics Business Development Section, said at the press conference. Oba said the project is Japan's "first step toward the goal of returning to the global (stage)." There are no humanoid robots anywhere in the world that have been developed to replace humans in search and rescue operations, they said.