Electronics

Murata Manufacturing may not be a household name, but chances are its products are in your house and more than likely your pocket, too.

Japanese telecom company NTT is quickly expanding a nascent international alliance for post-5G network technology, with 65 potential partners lined up including Microsoft.

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, NASA, Stanford University and other institutions have agreed to join in developing a quantum computing system that can compete against the quantum machines that Google and IBM are working on.

As Japan’s construction firms are squeezed by the tightest labor market since the 1970s and a rapidly aging population, they are pouring investment into technology — and providing unexpected support to an economy reeling from the bitter U.S.-China trade war. The industry sees artificial intelligence and robots — which can scurry around building sites day and night, preparing equipment and moving materials for the next day’s construction — as a way to future-proof and close the labor gap.

The brains behind a successful bakery are no doubt the developers of pastries and other delectable goods, but this brain makes checking them out a piece of cake. BakeryScan, a bread image recognition system, is spreading among bakeries across Japan as the system instantly identifies various types of breads and calculates the bill for them at the register.

The advanced Toryu submarine built by Kawasaki Heavy Industries debuted to much fanfare in a launch ceremony Wednesday.

Sony, NTT, and Intel will form a partnership to work on 6G mobile network technology, which is expected to be introduced around 2030, the companies announced on Thursday.

Japanese electronics-maker Sony will invest in a new factory in Nagasaki Prefecture to produce semiconductor image sensors used in smartphone cameras, Nikkei has learned. The company aims to capitalize on growing demand for high-end cameras in the devices that will take advantage of ultra-fast 5G networks.

Corporate Japan’s growing need to rely on new technologies to cope with the shrinking workforce was on show at the recent CEATEC technology exhibition, with service industry companies turning out in greater numbers this year.

Panasonic will bring a Google vice president and robotics expert into its leadership team Thursday, drawing on her experience in the American technology behemoth's smart home business to enhance its own connected appliances.