The Kikou Maru is not a laboratory prototype. It is a working vessel of 4,800 deadweight tonnes and a 105-metre hull, and it has just completed a 20-nautical-mile crossing of Osaka Bay running exclusively on a hybrid propulsion chain built around hydrogen fuel cells, electric motors and lithium batteries. Operator Uyeno TransTec and the project’s … Read more
Honda has confirmed it will build a 300-metre stretch of Japanese expressway embedded with dynamic wireless power transfer (DWPT) hardware capable of feeding up to 150 kW into heavy commercial vehicles while they are moving. The demonstration project, developed with construction specialists Taisei and Taisei Rotec, is set to begin in the Japanese fiscal year … Read more
Japan has sold more adult diapers than baby diapers every single year since 2011, and the gap has only widened. What looked like a demographic curiosity fifteen years ago is now the clearest preview of a structural shift in global consumer markets: shrinking birth rates on one side, rapidly expanding elderly populations on the other. … Read more