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Nearly 75% of store clerks in Japan feel stress from earphones on customers, according to survey

But earphones don’t stress people out; people do.

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The last of the Mohican-hairstyle-wearing people still lining up for iPhones

We stumble upon Butch, possibly the last remaining iPhone liner-upper in the wild, and see what makes him tick.

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Japanese telecom giant to make AI filter to soften angry customers voices at call centers【Video】

New system lets AI take a piece of someone’s mind and passes on the rest to a human.

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Fukuoka pro-baseball team sells beer cups made from bats used by players

Buy me some peanuts and cracked-bat-cups…♪

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Japanese companies banned from locking cellphone SIM starting this autumn

The change comes after multiple years of deliberation.

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Goodbye, Pepper? Softbank to immediately pause production of iconic robot

Have the curtains been drawn on what was once a promise of a high tech future?

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Dozens of Peppers and Spots join forces for a creepy robot 7th inning stretch spectacular

Take me out of this ball game♫

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We attend one of Japan’s most important press conferences this year, dressed as Vegeta【Photos】

We send Dragon Ball’s anime prince to listen to important businessmen talk about important business stuff.

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We attend the official release ceremony for the new iPhone 11 in Japan

And take 20+ photos of Japanese actress and model Suzu Hirose.

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Mr. Sato returns to the line, waits three nights for an iPhone 11

You can take Mr. Sato out of the line-up, but you can’t take the line-up out of Mr. Sato.

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Original SoftBank dog Kai-kun passes away at 16

Let’s take a moment to celebrate the life and times of a very good boy.

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Mr. Sato comes out of retirement to wait for the iPhone X three days in advance

Our grizzled line-waiting reporter dusts off his portable chargers for one last score.

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Mr. Sato retires from being the first person in Japan to buy iPhones, watches this guy instead

Meet Butch, an old friend of Mr. Sato’s who is carrying the torch in the noble pursuit of iPhone launch notoriety.

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Pepper, I think we need to talk about your attitude problem.

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Clever costume changes in SoftBank’s new Disney-themed, CG-free ad【Video】

Ninety seconds is all you need to reach the “happily ever after” ending of this super-cute video.
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Fans criticize Softbank’s anime character live-action phone ads as ‘disrespectful’

Last month, SoftBank‘s series of commercials depicting several classic anime characters all grown up premiered. The ads star Kyoko Koizumi (Tokyo Sonata, Hanging Garden) as Usagi Tsukino (Sailor Moon), the proprietess at Moon Ribar an atmospheric rooftop bar. She’s assisted by Maruko-chan (Chibi Maruko-chan, played by Suzu Hirose) and welcomes guests like Fist of the North Star‘s Kenshiro (famous Kabuki actor Ichikawa Ebizō XI), Obocchama-kun (played by Shinnosuke Mitsushima), Duke “Golgo 13” Tōgō (played by Fumiyo Kohinata), Joe Yabuki (Ashita no Joe, played by comedian Naoki Matayoshi) and Astro Boy himself, played by Masato Sakai (Honey and Clover).

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Robot Pepper rocks out with Asian Kung-Fu Generation

Two members of the Japanese rock band Asian Kung-Fu Generation (Bleach, Fullmetal Alchemist, Naruto) recorded a practice session recently with an unusual musical guest: Pepper, a robot who can detect and interpret human emotions. It can also provide beats, and did so for Gotch (who plays guitar and prefers a rock tempo) and Tamaki Roy (who raps and prefers a hip-hop beat).

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Pepper the robot is coming to America with an upgrade in snark!

SoftBank’s emotional robot Pepper could be considered a hit in Japan ,with the first wave of 1,000 bots selling out in a minute and another 1,000 ready to move at the end of this month. But is Pepper’s popularity peculiar to purely people in one part of the Pacific? Perhaps.

We may soon find out according to a report in MIT Technology Review. One of their writers visited Aldebaran Robotics, the company which made Pepper along with SoftBank, and learned that an American Pepper is already well into development and has been given a significant attitude adjustment of the smart-ass kind to better fit in there.

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SoftBank prohibits intercourse with its robot Pepper

With 1,000 units set to go on sale later this month, Japanese telecom giant SoftBank has high hopes for its domestic robot, Pepper. If the company wants to achieve its dream of a Pepper in every home, however, numerous ethical issues must be considered and overcome, one of which being the thorny matter of owners who attempt to treat their little robot like an altogether different kind of helping hand.

It seems that SoftBank is already trying to keep ahead of the curve, however, by clearly stating in its documentation for Pepper that sexual acts with the cheery robot are strictly prohibited.

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We talk to Pepper, SoftBank’s new emotional robot, kind of wish it would shut up for a second

On 5 June, Japanese telecom giant SoftBank announced that it will be selling a robot capable reading emotions and being a friendly companion to humans. The robot’s name is Pepper, and in addition to a chest-mounted tablet computer it comes loaded with an array of mics, cameras, and other sensors for sophisticated movement and interaction with people.

Frequently abandoned by his fellow humans, our beloved reporter Mr. Sato decided to go down to the SoftBank shop in Omotesando, Tokyo where a Pepper unit was on display. Although excited about his first chat with a robot, Mr. Sato would soon find that Pepper was actually kind of a jerk who totally dominated the conversation.

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