Virus breaks the mold for telework in office-bound Japan

Yahoo - AFP, March 31, 2020

Japan's government has struggled to induce firms to offer teleworking, but the coronavirus
epidemic means many are now experimenting with working from home (AFP Photo/
CHARLY TRIBALLEAU)

The longstanding stereotype of Japan's office-bound "salaryman" is being tested as companies cautiously embrace working from home in a bid to stem the spread of the coronavirus.

Japan's government has for years been trying to encourage firms to implement "flexible working patterns", hoping that less demanding office hours will help women return to work after having children and men share more housework and childcare.

But uptake has been slow. A survey published last year found around 19 percent of companies offered a telework option, but just 8.5 percent of employees polled had tried it out.

Experts say part of the challenge is the social stigma attached to deviating from the "salaryman" stereotype of the suited-up office worker who proves his dedication by spending long hours at his desk.

Polls show "the Japanese still have this image that telework isn't real work because you're not physically in the office," said Haruka Kazama, an economist at the Mizuho research institute.

That's a view familiar to Yuki Sato, 35, currently experimenting with teleworking for the first time.

"The image of going to the office is very strong. You have to show that you work hard and long hours and that you help your colleagues," Sato told AFP.

"With telework, we can't show our goodwill and motivation," he added.

Yuki Sato has been working at home since February, and has more time to spend 

with his two daughters and wife (AFP Photo/Behrouz MEHRI)

'It's actually nice'

But the spread of the new coronavirus has forced employers and workers to give telework a try in Japan, and Sato for one has been pleasantly surprised.

"Unlike I'd expected, it's actually nice. Much easier than going to the office," said Sato, who has been working at home since February when the government began asking workers to telework to avoid spreading the new coronavirus.

He works for a Tokyo start-up, Phybbit, which offers services to counter digital fraud, and had never before tried working from home.

"This experience has completely changed my image of teleworking," he told AFP in the small office he has set up in the family home he shares with his wife and two children.

For a start, it saves him two hours of commuting a day, meaning he has more time with his daughters, whose schools are currently closed.

"I can also give them their bath in the evening, something I could never do during the week before because I was never home before 8pm."

Sato's wife Hitomi takes primary care of their daughters, six-year-old Yurina and four-year-old Hidano and said she has welcomed the helping hand at home.

"I'm glad that he's here, and the girls are happy to spend time with their dad," she said.

The Japanese government has renewed its push for teleworking and off-peak commuting in recent years, hoping to ease the burden on the notoriously congested Tokyo public transport system, particularly ahead of the Olympics.

But there hasn't been much enthusiasm.

Japan's government hopes telework can help mothers return to employment after

 having children and ease the burden on Tokyo's notoriously congested transport 

system (AFP Photo/CHARLY TRIBALLEAU)

'Mindsets are changing'

Kunihiko Higa, a professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology who specialises in flexible work options, attributes that to reluctant managers.

Many of them "consider teleworking only as a tool for workers," he told AFP.

"In other words, they don't understand that teleworking, if used in the right way, can be a management strategy tool."

The coronavirus outbreak appears to have achieved what government campaigns could not, forcing the hands of firms who may previously have been reluctant.

"The situation has put their backs against the wall. They've been forced to give their employees the choice to telework," said Kazama.

A poll carried out at the end of February by the Keidanren business association of nearly 400 major firms found nearly 70 percent had already begun implementing teleworking or were planning to because of the pandemic.

The switch hasn't been universal. Workers still cram onto commuter trains -- albeit in smaller numbers -- and Japan's parliament is hardly setting the tone, continuing to hold sessions and ministerial press conferences.

And there is no guarantee yet that companies will continue to allow teleworking when the crisis eases.

But experts said being forced to try teleworking was likely to leave a lasting impact in Japan, with companies beginning to see working from home as a feasible and even attractive option.

"I think mindsets are changing," said Kazama.

Robochef: Sony cooks up new AI unit for food revolution

Yahoo – AFP, November 20, 2019

Artificial intelligence and robotics will not replace chefs, Sony says (AFP Photo/
BEHROUZ MEHRI)

Cooking robots and tastier recipes: Japanese electronics giant Sony on Wednesday launched a new artificial intelligence unit they hope will change the way we cook and eat.

The new research arm, Sony AI, will operate in Japan, Europe and the United States and also focus on the traditional areas of gaming, imaging and sensor equipment, as well as "gastronomy".

The firm that produced the PlayStation franchise and the "Spider-man" movie series is the latest multinational tech company wanting a piece of the pie in the food business, where data are increasingly driving new dishes to pique the palate.

"AI and robotics will not replace chefs. We are aiming to offer new tools to expand their creativity with AI and robotics," Sony spokesman Shinichi Tobe told AFP.

"The field of food requires a study of molecular structures. By using AI and its analytical capacity, we can create new things," Tobe said.

"It involves taste, but also aroma. Through sensing technologies, we can perhaps create new dishes that will please the human sense of taste," he said.

The Tokyo-based gadget-and-entertainment conglomerate is not the only tech company tapping into this seam.

IBM earlier this year teamed up with seasoning maker McCormick to use artificial intelligence in flavour and food product development.

In the future, Sony foresees the creation of a robotic kitchen to help elderly people make meals at home, but without use of open flames.

It may also result in the creation of a restaurant where robots cook in front of guests.

"There might be ways of cooking that can only be done by robotics. It might be about temperature control. Maybe about precise timings of when or where to apply heat," Tobe said.

Shorter hours boost sales in overworked Japan: Microsoft

Yahoo – AFP, November 5, 2019

Microsoft Japan study finds four-day working weeks and other reforms
both boost sales and cut costs (AFP Photo/SAM YEH)

Tokyo (AFP) - In a country notorious for overwork, Microsoft Japan trialled a radical idea: working less. And it found that four-day weeks and other reforms both boosted sales and cut costs.

The Japanese unit of the US IT giant closed its offices every Friday in August, giving all 2,300 full-time workers special leave.

It also restricted meetings to a maximum of 30 minutes, and encouraged online chats as an alternative to face-to-face communications.

The number of participants at meetings was limited to a five, and workers were also encouraged to use online communication instead of emails, it said.

The results were positive, with sales per employee rising almost 40 percent in August from a year earlier, electricity consumption down by a quarter and paper usage being cut in half.

The firm said the trial showed "employees want to have a variety of ways of working" and that adopting the model more broadly could boost efficiency.

It plans to launch a similar programme this winter -- but won't offer special leave.

Instead, employees will be encouraged to use their existing holiday days, it said.

The programme comes as Japan's government pushes for more "flexible work styles," urging business to accept telecommuting, different part-time schedules and off-peak commuting.

The effort is part of an attempt to address the issue of "karoshi" -- death from overwork -- and to encourage overworked and overburdened couples to have children in a country that is struggling with a shrinking population.

Tokyo strikes gold, silver and bronze with e-waste Olympic medals

Yahoo – AFP, February 8, 2019

Tokyo's organising committee in 2017 launched a project to collect assorted
electronic waste -- including old smartphones and laptops -- from the public
to collect metal for the medals.

All medals for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics will be made from metal collected by recycling electronic waste, games organisers said on Friday.

Tokyo's organising committee in 2017 launched a project to collect assorted electronic waste -- including old smartphones and laptops -- from the public to collect metal for the medals.

Recycled metal has also been collected from local Japanese businesses and industry.

In a statement issued on Friday, organisers said the collection was expected to reach its goal and will end in late March.

By November last year, municipal authorities had already collected 47,488 tonnes of discarded devices, with the public handing in another five million used phones to a local network provider.

Organisers had set a target of 2,700 kgs (about 5,950 pounds) of bronze, 30.3 kgs (67 pounds) of gold and 4,100 kg (about 9,040 pounds) of silver.

They hit the target for bronze last June, and by October had more than 90 percent of the gold and 85 percent of the silver.

"It is estimated that the remaining amounts of metal required to manufacture all Olympic and Paralympic medals can be extracted from the devices already donated," the organisers said.

Recycled metals have been used in previous years to make Olympic medals, including in Rio where some 30 percent of the silver and bronze in medals came from recycled materials.

The designs for the Tokyo 2020 medals will be unveiled later this year.

‘Sony to shift European operations from Britain to the Netherlands’

DutchNews, January 21, 2019

Photo: DutchNews.nl

Sony is planning to merge its European business into its Dutch arm to soften the impact of a no-deal Brexit, Britain’s Telegraph newspaper said on Monday. 

The unit will be responsible for the Tokyo giant’s electronics business in Europe and the deal will be completed on March 29 2019, the paper says. It bases its claims on merger documents. 

According to the Dutch chamber of trade documents, Sony Europe BV was established in May last year and the merger documents with Sony Europe Limited were deposited with the chamber in November. The company’s statutory base is Hoofddorp, near Schiphol airport. 

Earlier, Japan’s Panasonic said it is moving its headquarters from London to the Netherlands. Big Japanese bank Mitsubishi UFG has also decided to make Amsterdam its new European base for investment banking.

Palmreaders? Japan team builds second skin message display

Yahoo – AFP, Hiroshi HIYAMA, February 18, 2018

Palmreading could take on a whole new meaning thanks to a new invention from
Japan: an ultra-thin display and monitor that can be stuck directly to the body (AFP
 Photo/TORU YAMANAKA)

Tokyo (AFP) - Palmreading could take on a whole new meaning thanks to a new invention from Japan: an ultra-thin display and monitor that can be stuck directly to the body.

The band-aid-like device is just one millimetre thick and can monitor important health data as well as send and receive messages, including emojis.

Takao Someya, the University of Tokyo professor who developed the device, envisions it as a boon for medical professionals with bed-ridden or far-flung patients, as well as family living far from their relatives.

"With this, even in home-care settings, you can achieve seamless sharing of medical data with your home doctors, who then would be able to communicate back to their patients," he told AFP.

Slapped onto the palm or back of a hand, it could flash reminders to patients to take their medicine, or even allow far-away grandchildren to communicate with their grandparents.

"Place displays on your skin, and you would feel as if it is part of your body. When you have messages sent to your hand, you would feel emotional closeness to the sender," Someya said.

"I think a grandfather who receives a message saying 'I love you' from his grandchild, they would feel the warmth, too."

A man holds an ultra-thin elastic display equipped with a light emitting diode, newly 

developed by Professor Takao Someya of Tokyo University (AFP Photo/
TORU YAMANAKA)

The invention could prove particularly useful in Japan, with its rapidly ageing population, replacing the need for in-person checks by offering continuous, non-invasive monitoring of the sick and frail, Someya told AFP.

The display consists of a 16-by-24 array of micro LEDs and stretchable wiring mounted on a rubber sheet.

It also incorporates a lightweight sensor composed of a breathable "nanomesh" electrode, and a wireless communication module.

"Because this device can stretch, we now can paste a display on things with complex shapes, like skin," Someya said.

It can be placed on the human body for a week without causing skin inflammation, and is light enough that users might eventually even forget they are wearing it.

Along with medical applications, Someya hopes the device could eventually lead to wearable displays for joggers to monitor heart rates or check running routes.

He imagines labourers using the displays to consult manuals on their arms while working.

The device will be showcased at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Texas over the weekend.

Someya created the device in partnership with Japanese printing giant Dai Nippon Printing, which hopes to put it on the market within three years.

"Electronic skin" -- an ultra-thin display and monitor that can be stuck directly to the body -- could revolutionise healthcare, its Japanese creator says https://t.co/llJK698yRw pic.twitter.com/oLA3HtltMg

— AFP news agency (@AFP) February 18, 2018

EU unveils supercomputer plan to rival China

Yahoo – AFP, January 11, 2018

China overtook the United States in numbers and performance for supercomputers in
a ranking last November, followed by Switzerland and Japan in third and fourth place

The EU unveiled plans Thursday to raise one billion euros to build superfast computers that catch up with China and others to boost Europe's economy, make medical advances and fight hacking.

China overtook the United States in numbers and performance for supercomputers in a ranking last November, followed by non-EU Switzerland and Japan in third and fourth place.

"It is a tough race and today the EU is lagging behind: we do not have any supercomputers in the world's top ten," said Andrus Ansip, the European Commisssion vice president for the digital single market.

The European Commission, the EU executive, said it would contribute around 486 million euros ($580 million) for a "High Performance Computing (EuroHPC) infrastructure", that would then be matched by EU nations.

"We want to give European researchers and companies world-leading supercomputer capacity by 2020," Ansip said in a statement.

Brussels says it will help develop artificial intelligence and applications to improve health, security and engineering, plus help forecast hurricane routes and simulate earthquakes.

European scientists and industry risk yielding secrets or sensitive information as they increasingly process data outside the EU to perform tasks in the absence of the best supercomputers, the commission said.

The EU unveils plans to raise one billion euros to build superfast computers that catch up with China and others to boost Europe's economy, make medical advances and fight hacking https://t.co/jDqhGcGtuF pic.twitter.com/qPxxsHJPai

— AFP news agency (@AFP) January 11, 2018

Viral Hit Sensation "Pen-Pinapple-Apple-Pen" Sets Guinness World Record

Jakarta Globe, November 03, 2016

A still from "Pen-Apple-Pineapple-Pen" Music Video by Pikotaro. (Photo
courtesy of Youtube)

Jakarta. Viral music video “Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen” by Japanese comedian Pikotaro has made it to Guinness World Records as the shortest song ever to hit the Billboard Hot 100.

The original music video, which features the 45-second hit sensation, was first released at the end of August earlier this year, and has been viewed more than 75 million times on Youtube. Piko Taro is the alter-ego of the Japanese comedian and DJ Daimaou Kosaka. In the video he dresses in animal-print shirt and trousers, which has now become his trademark, and happily dances to the catchy tunes of his song.

“PPAP” became a viral hit soon after Justin Bieber shared the video with his 89 million Twitter followers, saying it was “his favorite video on the internet.”

The previous record for shortest song to make it to the Billboard Hot 100 was held by US group the Womenfolk, with their 62 second single “Little Boxes.”

Following the success of “PPAP,” Piko-Taro released a longer version this past week. The 2 minutes and 41 seconds video has been viewed more than 11 million times.

Pikotaro is a pseudonym for Kazuhito Kosaka, who also goes by Daimaou Kosaka. He is the first Japanese musician to hit the Billboard chart since 1990. The Daily Mail reported that Piko-Taro announced a contract-signing with record labels such as Sony, CNR Music and Times Records for a worldwide distribution of “PPAP.”

On the trail of South Korea's high-tech peeping Toms

Yahoo – AFP, Jung Ha-Won, October 18, 2016

A member of Seoul's 'hidden camera-hunting' squad moves a hand-held detector
around the toilet seat of a women's bathroom stall in search of a 'secret camera'
(AFP Photo/Jung Yeon-Je)

Walking into an empty women's bathroom stall, Park Kwang-Mi waves a hand-held detector around the toilet seat, paper roll holder, doorknob and even the ventilation grill on the ceiling.

"It's my job to make sure there's no camera to film women while they relieve themselves," the 49-year-old said after similarly inspecting dozens of public toilet stalls at a museum in Seoul.

"It's weird that there are people who want to see something like that ... but this is necessary to help women feel safe," she told AFP.

A member of Seoul city's all-female "hidden camera-hunting" squad, Park is at the forefront of a battle against "molka", or "secret camera" porn.

South Korea takes pride in its tech prowess, from ultra-fast broadband to cutting-edge smartphones. Around 90 percent of its 50 million people possess smartphones -- the highest rate in the world.

But it's a culture that has also given rise to an army of tech-savvy peeping Toms in a still male-dominated country with a poor record on women's rights.

Many use special smartphone apps to film up women's skirts as they ride subway escalators or sit at desks, and spy cameras to gather footage from changing rooms and toilet stalls.

The images are then often shared to numerous molka speciality sites on the Internet.

Such practises have become so rampant that all manufacturers of smartphones sold in South Korea are required to ensure the cameras on their devices make a loud shutter sound when taking photos.

Many of South Korea's tech-savvy peeping Toms use spy cameras to

gather footage from changing rooms and toilet stalls (AFP Photo/Jung Yeon-Je)

'Molka' crimes

Molka crimes are daily news, and perpetrators cover a broad social range.

A pastor at a Seoul mega-church with 100,000 members was caught filming up a woman's skirt on an escalator. His smartphone was packed with similar images of other women.

A 31-year-old obstetrician was jailed for secretly filming female patients and nurses in a changing room and sharing some of the images on the Internet.

And the head coach of South Korea's national swimming team resigned last month after two male swimmers were found to have installed a hidden camera in the locker room of their women teammates.

According to police data, the number of molka crimes jumped more than six-fold from about 1,110 in 2010 to more than 6,600 in 2014.

While some offenders use smartphones, others employ spy-style gadgets, including ballpoint pens, glasses or wrist watches equipped with micro lenses, said Hyun Heung-Ho, a detective attached to Seoul police's metro squad.

The squad was established in 1987 to fight subway crime like pickpockets, but now its main focus is on tackling various kinds of sexual harassment, including molka crimes.

"It's tough because the technology they use advances so fast, like special apps to mute camera sound or to show something else on the display while the camera is rolling," Hyun told AFP.

The majority of men nabbed by the squad are in their 20s or 30s -- and include many college-educated, white-collar workers.

"They generally cry and beg to be let off, saying they were 'simply curious'," Hyun said.

High-tech gadgets

Convicted offenders face a fine of up to 10 million won ($9,100) or a maximum jail term of five years.

To help with their crackdown, police have offered cash rewards to those reporting molka crimes and the Seoul city council has hired dozens of women like Park to scour bathrooms and other spaces for hidden cameras.

Office worker Lee Hae-Kyung said she, like many of her friends, tried to avoid toilets in public spaces like subway stations.

"If I urgently need to use a public toilet, I always inspect the doorknob or the flush handle," the 38-year-old told AFP.

"It's scary because many molka are apparently filmed by normal people like office workers ... so who knows? An ordinary-looking guy standing next to you in the subway may be filming up your skirt," she said.

Whenever a man stands behind Lee on an escalator, she slightly turns her body to face him or look him in the eye -- a move detective Hyun says can act as a strong deterrent.

The main focus of Seoul's 'hidden camera-hunting' squad nowdays is on tackling

various kinds of sexual harassment, including 'molka' crimes (AFP Photo/Jung Yeon-Je)

Gender inequality

According to Lee Na-Young, a sociology professor at Hanyang University in Seoul, the only real solution is a societal one.

Lee said "upskirt videos" had been avidly consumed in South Korea and Japan for decades.

"Both are deeply conservative nations where open discussion of sex is quite taboo, people feel sexually oppressed and women are relentlessly objectified and discriminated against," she said.

South Korea -- Asia's fourth-largest economy -- has long been ranked bottom for women's rights among OECD member nations.

Average pay for South Korean women is 63.3 percent that of men -- the lowest in the OECD -- and women account for 11 percent of managerial positions and 2.1 percent of corporate boards -- far lower than the OECD average of 31 percent and 19 percent.

In this environment, some men view women as nothing more than sexual objects, Lee said, describing the molka trend as a "wrong marriage between fast-evolving technology and slow-evolving patriarchal culture."

"The molka problem won't be solved unless we deal with this bigger social problem through education at home and at school," she said.

New electronic waste recycling plant in Moerdijk

DutchNews, July 7, 2016

Moerdijk port area: Ossipz via
Wikimedia Commons

Mitsubishi Materials Corporation is building an electronic waste recycling centre in the port and industrial area of Moerdijk, North Brabant, reports the Financiele Dagblad.

The Japanese non-ferrous metals and cement manufacturer will inspect circuit boards and other waste electronic parts, transporting recyclable waste to Japan to be processed. 

About 50 new jobs will be created, according to the Brabant Development Agency. Construction has started and the centre should be operational in 2017.

Friendly robot Pepper makes European debut in France

Yahoo – AFP, 21 Oct 2015

'Pepper' the humanoid robot communicates with the audience during a demonstration

 at WSJDLive technology conference in Laguna Beach, California, on October 20, 

2015 (AFP Photo/Frederic J. Brown)

Laguna Beach (United States) (AFP) - A humanoid robot name Pepper designed as an upbeat companion made its European debut on Tuesday helping shoppers with wine, and more, in a major shop in France.

The test run involves seven robots stationed in different parts of a Claye-Souilly region Carrefour store, where they are programmed to do things such as suggest food recipes or wine choices, or assess customer satisfaction, Magali Cubier of Aldebaran Robotics told AFP.

"The main focus is to entertain people and to test how they react to seeing a robot in a shop," Cubier said, standing opposite a pair of Pepper robots giving hugs and high-fives to attendees at a WSJDLive technology conference on the Southern California coast.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls (L) meets Softbank's humanoid robot 'Pepper', 

at the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation in Tokyo, on 

October 5, 2015 (AFP Photo/Toshifumi Kitamura)

"It is the first time we are getting Pepper out of Japan, so we will see the reaction of users in France."

Aldebaran has sold 4,000 Pepper robots since they launched in Japan in June. The Paris-based company is about 98 percent owned by SoftBank Group in Japan.

Aldebaran sells one batch of 1,000 Pepper robots monthly, with an up-front price of $1,500 euros and then monthly subscription payments of about $200 euros for three years, according to Cubier.

Pepper was billed as a "new species" of robot capable of recognizing basic emotions such as happiness and sadness by looking at people's faces.

"Faces mean a lot to me; even more when they are smiling," a Pepper model said while describing its facial recognition capabilities during a demonstration.

"It is pretty clever because it keeps me from trying to interact with non-human things,. For example, those couches never talk back."

Japanese telecom giant Softbank's humanoid robot Pepper gestures alongside 

Tottori Prefecture Governor Shinji Hirai as they promote watermelon produce at a 

shop in Tokyo, in July 2015 (AFP Photo/Yoshikazu Tsuno)

Aldebaran in September began gathering research that showed people tended either use the robots as day-to-day home companions or took creative approaches of building in their own software applications for small business purposes.

Pepper was at WSJDLive as part of a quest for partners in the hope of expanding to the US market, according to Cubier.

"We see robots being more and more present in our daily life to help us; assist us; entertain us, live with us," she said.

Pepper's effort to spread to France and beyond comes with the challenge of adapting robots to different ways emotions are expressed in the world's diverse array of cultures and places.

For example, Pepper will shake hands with shoppers in France -- but not greet them with robotic pecks on cheeks, something Cubier promised to look into.

Residents follow Zora’s instructions during a physical therapy class.

(Regy van den Brand)

Related Article:

How a robot ended up teaching exercise classes in a Dutch retirement home

WikiLeaks dumps data from Sony hacking scandal

Yahoo – AFP, April 17, 2015

WikiLeaks published thousands of documents from last year's Sony hacking
scandal, calling them an insight into the inner workings of a "secretive" firm

New York (AFP) - WikiLeaks published thousands of documents on Thursday from last year's Sony hacking scandal, calling them an insight into the inner workings of a "secretive" firm.

The website said the searchable data dump includes 30,287 documents from the US-based Sony Pictures Entertainment and 173,132 emails to and from more than 2,200 company email addresses.

The same data was released online after hackers attacked Sony Pictures last November and threatened the company over the release of the comedy film "The Interview," which depicts a fictional CIA plot to kill North Korea's leader.

The threats saw Sony cancel the public debut of the movie and led to the resignation of chairperson Amy Pascal. The leaks showed that Pascal had swapped racially insensitive jokes about President Barack Obama over email.

Washington blamed North Korea for the hack.

"Now published in a fully searchable format The Sony Archives offer a rare insight into the inner workings of a large, secretive multinational corporation," WikiLeaks said in a statement.

It said the original release was not searchable and was removed before the public and journalists could scrutinize them.

Sony data was released online after hackers threatened the company over the release
of "The Interview," which depicts a fictional CIA plot to kill North Korea's leader

WikiLeaks described Sony as an influential corporation with ties to the White House, able to impact laws and policies, and with connections to the US military-industrial complex.

"It is newsworthy and at the center of a geo-political conflict," said WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who lives at Ecuador's embassy in London to avoid prosecution for alleged rape in Sweden.

"It belongs in the public domain. WikiLeaks will ensure it stays there," the Australian former hacker said.

Sony condemned the re-release of the data, saying the private information does not belong in the public domain and WikiLeaks is helping the hackers' efforts to harm employees.

"The cyber-attack on Sony Pictures was a malicious criminal act, and we strongly condemn the indexing of stolen employee and other private and privileged information on WikiLeaks," Sony said in a statement.

The data indicates company CEO, Michael Lynton, dined with Obama and Sony employees raised money for the Democratic Party and incumbent Democrat New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, WikiLeaks said.

Sony Pictures Entertainment is a multi-billion-dollar US subsidiary of the Tokyo-based Sony Corporation. It handles film and TV production, acquisition and distribution.

Related Article:

Ben Affleck suppressed slave-owning ancestry, hacked Sony emails claim

3D printed organs offer ultra-realistic practice models

Yahoo – AFP, Shingo Ito, 10 March 2015

Professor Toshiaki Morikawa (L) gives a lesson while using a 3D-printed 

lung at the Jikei University hospital in Tokyo (AFP Photo/Yoshikazu Tsuno)

An incision from the surgeon's scalpel sends liquid oozing over the surface of a the lung, but on this occasion it doesn't matter if something goes wrong -- the doctor can simply create another model with a 3D printer.

The ultra-realistic lung -- wet, soft, and complete with tumours and blood vessels -- is one of a range of organs being produced by a Japanese firm that will allow surgeons to hone their skills without hurting anyone.

"With the wet model, doctors can experience the softness of organs and see them bleed," said Tomohiro Kinoshita of creator Fasotec, a company based in Chiba, southeast of Tokyo.

"We aim to help doctors improve their skills with the models," he added.

Professor Toshiaki Morikawa holds a 

3D-printed lung at the Jikei University hospital

in Tokyo (AFP Photo/Yoshikazu Tsuno)

From guns to cars, prosthetics and works of art, 3D printing is predicted to transform our lives in the coming decades, researchers say, as dramatically as the Internet did before it.

The so-called Biotexture Wet Model, which will come onto the market for surgery training and medical equipment-testing in Japan in as early as April, is created by scanning a real organ in minute detail and creating molds on a 3D printer.

That shell is then injected with gel-type synthetic resin to give it a wet, lifelike feeling in the surgeon's hands.

Each one is designed to exactly mimic the texture and weight of a real organ so it can react to the surgical knife in exactly the same way.

'Close to living organ'

Maki Sugimoto, a medical doctor who has tried samples, said the wet models are almost "too realistic".

Seen without their context, he said, it would be easy to mistake them for the real thing.

"The touch is similar to that of the real liver," said Sugimoto, who is also a special instructor at Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine in Kobe, western Japan.

"I suppose that not only young, inexperienced doctors but also experienced doctors can perform a better operation if they can have a rehearsal first," he said.

Toshiaki Morikawa, a medical doctor at Jikei University Hospital in Tokyo, also said: "The current models are too simple and details of anatomy are not accurately reflected."

"But this is obviously superior as it's produced precisely and is very close to the living organ in quality," he said.

For Morikawa, the world of 3D printing, which works by building up layers of material, offers endless possibilities for medicine, including maybe one day functional organs for use in transplants.

"Considering future progress in life sciences, I think it is an urgent and significant theme that this outstanding technology should be modified for application to biology," he said.

Fasotec began pre-sales of wet model bladders and urethral tubes in October, with a price tag of 15,000 yen ($127).

The firm plans to expand sales overseas and has already received enquiries from other Asian countries, the company's Kinoshita said.