Robotics

The Niigata municipal government Sunday showed Group of 20 and other officials devices for smart agriculture, such as an autonomous rice-planting machine and a drone.

Eight teams from Japan and overseas participated in an electric wheelchair race in Kawasaki on Sunday, competing along a challening course.

Japanese industrial robot maker Fanuc plans to spend 3.5 billion yen ($28.3 million) on a new plant it hopes will help it capture business opportunities related to 5G smartphones and self-driving cars.

The Group of Twenty Agriculture Ministers Meeting concluded Sunday with calls to feed a growing global population and promote sustainable agriculture through new technologies, such as artificial intelligence, robotics and drones, and to increase cooperation among farmers, nonfarm businesses and academia.

Toyota Motor's Silicon Valley-based venture capital arm has launched a second $100-million fund to invest in artificial intelligence and robotics technologies, the Japanese automaker said Thursday, in a bid to accelerate its investments in technology startups around the world.

Hitachi will buy U.S. robotic system integrator JR Automation Technologies for $1.42 billion, the company said Wednesday.

It can’t dribble, let alone slam dunk, but Toyota’s basketball robot hardly ever misses a free throw or a 3-pointer.

Companies including NTT Docomo Inc. and Mitsubishi Estate Co. have begun trial runs of a new high-tech scooter called Rodem, offering tourists the chance to cruise around Tokyo’s Marunouchi district for free.

Net outflows of money from stock funds in Japan have reached a more than two-year high, with once-popular tech-focused names suffering as retail investors refused to hold.

Acting on its aim to make the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics “the most innovative in history,” organizers on Friday unveiled robots that will be deployed to assist spectators and staff during the games.