You think poverty does not fit the image of Japan? Wrong. Poverty in Japan can't be swept under the carpet anymore. It's getting more visible everyday. Of course, Japanese poverty is not that absolute like you find in South Asia or backwater rural China. Even in the most hopeless situation, no Japanese poor lacks some grains of rice in the rice cooker. Nevertheless, poverty is poverty. You can't deny it.

This is not Mumbai, nor Manilla. In the heart of Tokyo, on the banks of Sumida-gawa, homeless street grows ever longer.

Even our favorite Akihabara streets hide quite a few numbers of urban poverty cases, homeless people. Probably you saw some of them the last time you visited this fairy land of this world. A scruffy guy or two who were pulling a handcart laden to the brim with empty carton boxes collected from Akiba shops. These elderly people earn a small fee by recycling them, and live rough in the park or under the bridge.
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LED (light emitting diode) is working very hard all over the world. But nobody pays much attention to this quiet, cool and colorful light source. LEDs are, usually, so small and so reliable. They never break down and cause a spectacular crash. They work forever without any complaints. That's why even the most careful users tend to ignore the existence of these tiny lights.

LED started its life with red and green colors in 1960s. Then, in early 1990s, a bright Japanese engineer figured out to light a bright blue LED finally. Now, three brothers combined, red, green, and blue, can make any color. In 1996, the white LED appeared on the scene. Now, LEDs flatly refuse to be ignored any more.

Denryo's DL18E26A LED bulb. Lightness: 54Cd (equivalent to incandescent's 20W) Life: 50,000 hours Power: AC 90-120V, 2.5W Price: 4,935 yen (US$42), wow!

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GPS K-tai terminal is propagating rather quickly in Japan, and only in Japan. I don't know whether it is really that useful, but there are thousands of dedicated GPS partisans loudly proclaiming its utmost virtue. So are the Osaifu K-tai (mobile wallet) fans and one-seg digital terrestrial TV freaks. Yours truly does not own a mobile phone of any kind. Therefore, I refrain from giving any clever criticism.

GPS K-tai could be really useful, so thought Nissan the car manufacturer, along with NTT DoCoMo, the numero uno mobile operator in Japan. They joined hands to develop a concept that could actually give GPS K-tai customers some benefit. The scheme is a part of ITS, Intelligent Transport System. This ITS thing has been promoted by no-good Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. Its idea? Oh, forget it. No good.

Both pedestrian's and nearby car's location data go to the server. After thousands of calculations and processing, warning will be issued to the driver: "Slow down, dummy. Pedestrian ahead!

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The most active and troublesome micro creature in Japan is not dreaded bird-flu virus. Not multiple-drug resistant enterococci (MDRE). Not methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) either. It's just a little bit larger than those naughty viruses and cocci, nevertheless it's infection route does not need any physical contact. It's called FeliCa chip, developed by Sony, and has been incorporated in the billions of non-contact IC cards (both prepaid and postpaid) and, of course, in K-tai terminals. Yes, the heart of notorious Osaifu K-tai.

Anyway, the FeliCa IC chips have propagated so quickly and rampantly that, these days, per-capita infection would be numbered more than three in and around Tokyo Metropolitan area. Don't you think only one FeliCa would be enough? It should be.

PASMO IC card, anonymous version.	Suica card version. (Not an Osaifu K-tai, "Mobile Suica" )

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All over the affluent world, it would be a common sight. Twice a day, in the morning and afternoon, hundreds of vehicles driven by parent (usually by moms) jampack in front of the school gate, to deliver and fetch their kid(s). Neighbors hate this chaos. Police abhor this confusion. Even schools don't like this mad stampede. But, but, what can you do?

Odakyu Railway's Anshin Goopas is simple and neat. A schoolkid goes through the ticket gate of station, swiping his season passcard over non-contact sensor. Then an email is sent to his mom's K-tai immediately notifying her of kid's whereabouts. Now she knows for sure that her kid is on the train, not playing truant somewhere in a shady gaming joint!

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