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Researchers in Japan have found coronavirus death rates among people aged 40 and older from the 7th wave of infections that hit the country this summer were less than half that when the 6th wave that had started early this year peaked.

The group at the Japanese Association of Public Health Center Directors compared death rates among the approximately 550,000 people aged 40 and older who contracted COVID between January and August in ten prefectures, including Osaka and Ibaraki.

The Japanese government has decided to step up measures against highly venomous fire ants by designating them as an invasive alien species that requires urgent action.

Government officials made the decision amid a rise in cases nationwide involving fire ants. They fear the species, indigenous to South America, are on the brink of becoming established in Japan.

The world is raving about the new Toyota GR Yaris, but had things gone a little differently, it would have been competing, in race guise, in the World Rally Championship.

Japan now has 16 reactors at nine nuclear power plants that have cleared government requirements adopted after the 2011 Fukushima accident.

The No.2 reactor at Tohoku Electric Power Company's Onagawa plant in Miyagi Prefecture, and the reactor at Japan Atomic Power Company's Tokai No.2 plant in Ibaraki Prefecture were affected by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Tokai No.2 has yet to win local consent to restart.

Given how small the AirPods are and the fact that they are completely wireless, it wouldn’t be surprising if they were easily lost or dropped. In fact, over in Japan, it was reported that over the course of three months, nearly one thousand earbuds were dropped onto train tracks, accounting for a quarter of all dropped items.

While the AirPods are small enough that they probably wouldn’t interfere with the trains, they are expensive and we imagine that people would love to be able to get their dropped AirPods back, which is why according to a report from Japan Times, Panasonic has apparently developed a special vacuum cleaner that has the ability to pick up these AirPods in a safe manner.

In the past few months, we’ve seen how various camera makes such as Fujifilm, Canon, and Olympus release software for computers that easily turns their cameras into webcams without the need for third-party software or capture cards. Sony was missing from that list, but not anymore.

Sony has since released the Imaging Edge Webcam software that will turn compatible Sony cameras into webcams quickly and easily. All you need to do is download the software from Sony’s website, connect it to your computers, and you’re good to go! For now, the software only supports Windows 10, and we’re not sure if there are plans to eventually support macOS as well, but we wouldn’t be surprised if the version of macOS were to arrive later.

The Japanese government plans to offer subsidies to universities and research institutes that allow their equipment to be used for PCR tests.

The education and science ministry says that as of early August, 71 university hospitals and 27 universities and research institutes across the country had equipment that would allow up to 4,400 PCR tests to be conducted per day.

An internal email trail reportedly supports former boss Carlos Ghosn's claim that Nissan orchestrated his ouster. The leaked emails have been corroborated by sources familiar with their contents, Bloomberg reports. 

Emails going back to February 2018, a year before his arrest, allegedly describe a deliberate and multi-pronged effort — a "methodical campaign," Bloomberg said — to remove Ghosn from the company and in so doing, put Nissan in position to negotiate a more favorable relationship with alliance partner Renault. 

Washing your hands in a perfunctory fashion won't pass go with a new artificial intelligence system, particularly at the time of a pandemic. 

Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd. said it has developed a technology to ensure that the proper hand-washing procedure recommended by the health ministry to help prevent novel coronavirus infections and other public hygiene problems is followed.

Kawasaki is working on a unique open-air three-wheeler with a rolling body that can lean into turns, according to a patent application published by the European Patent Office and discovered by Motorcycle.com. 

Like the three-wheeled Polaris Slingshot — which just got an update including a more powerful engine — it seats two people in a side-by-side layout, but it has some key differences. Most notable is the ability to tilt inward into the turning direction, which the applicant says makes it "possible to realize a favorable driving feeling similar to that of a motorcycle or the like." And that's the whole point: to counteract the centrifugal forces that normally push the driver away from the cornering side.

An extensively modified 1995 Acura Integra has been destroyed after being involved in a dangerous high-speed chase through Oregon, The Drive reports.

Ever wanted to play a PlayStation game from your Nintendo Switch? If you do, then you might be interested to learn that there is a small, small possibility that Sony’s PlayStation Remote Play could be arriving on the Switch. This was hinted at in a survey shared by Redditor YouRedditHereFirst.

According to the post, they received an email survey from Sony regarding the Remote Play feature. It asked participants about their thoughts of the feature arriving on non-Sony devices like the Xbox One or the Nintendo Switch, and it also asked them their thoughts on the feature for non-gaming devices like the Apple TV or Android TV.

WASHINGTON — Toyota said on Tuesday it will recall 3.4 million vehicles worldwide because of an electronic defect that can result in air bags not deploying in crashes. The recall, which includes 2.9 million U.S. vehicles, covers 2011-2019 Corolla, 2011-2013 Matrix, 2012-2018 Avalon and 2013-2018 Avalon Hybrid vehicles and is tied to a report of one fatal crash. The vehicles may have an electronic control unit that does not have adequate protection against electrical noise that can occur in crashes, which could lead to incomplete or non-deployment of the air bags. It could also impede the operation of seat-belt pretensioners. In April, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) expanded a probe into 12.3 million potentially defective air bags covering a number of automakers, including the vehicles Toyota is recalling. NHTSA said in April it had identified two frontal crash events, including one fatal crash "involving Toyota products where (electrical overstress) is suspected as the likely cause" of air bags not deploying. Both involved newer Corolla cars. NHTSA said the air bags under investigation were installed in more than 12 million vehicles from 2010 through 2019 sold by Toyota, Fiat Chrysler, Honda, Hyundai, Kia and Mitsubishi. They were equipped with an air bag control unit initially produced by TRW Automotive Holdings Corp, which is now owned by ZF Friedrichshafen. In total, NHTSA said as many as eight deaths could be tied to the issue. Hyundai, Kia and Fiat Chrysler previously issued recalls for more than 2.5 million vehicles with the TRW air bag control units in question that might not deploy in crashes. When it recalled nearly 2 million vehicles for air bag non-deployments in 2016, Fiat Chrysler said it had reports of three deaths and five injuries that might be related to the defect. Hyundai and Kia ultimately recalled more than 1 million vehicles for air bag non-deployment concerns in 2018. Hyundai and Kia in 2018 said they had reports of four deaths and six injuries in North America tied to the issue. Toyota dealers will install a noise filter between the air bag control module and its wire harness if needed. Toyota declined to say how many deaths or injuries have been tied to the defect. Toyota will notify vehicle owners of the recall by mid-March.