Information & Communications Technology

Taking out a wallet loaded with cash, receipts and loyalty cards and searching for coins in front of a cashier is a familiar scene at stores in Japan.But the country wants more consumers to kick that habit and engage in cashless transactions using credit cards, debit cards and electronic money.

Electronic payments using smartphones are becoming increasingly common at tourist spots, shopping streets and other locations around Hyogo Prefecture.

So-called 4K and 8K ultrahigh-definition satellite television broadcasting in Japan fully started at 10 a.m. on Saturday while the penetration of TV sets supporting the services has remained slow.

Hiroshima has unveiled the Hiroshima Peace Tourism project, which includes an interactive map showing routes intended to help visitors view the city’s many memorial sites beyond just the Atomic Bomb Dome in the Peace Memorial Park, the main and only destination for about half of tourists.

A government bureau in Osaka is set to launch a service next year to that will allow foreign tourists to access disaster information via smartphones, ahead of the 2025 World Expo in the city.

A government panel of experts considering how to regulate major digital platform operators held a hearing on Wednesday in which U.S. digital giants gave their opinions on the panel’s interim report, which calls for stronger regulations.

Bitcoin suffered its biggest weekly loss for the year amid a string of regulatory setbacks, posing fresh challenges in broadening the appeal of cryptocurrencies. 

The price of bitcoin fell to $3,447 on Sunday, its lowest level since last September, according to CoinDesk, bringing the fall for the week to 30%, its biggest seven-day slide this year.  On Monday, it pared back some of the losses, trading at around $4,000 by afternoon trading in Tokyo, less than half the $8,400 achieved in July. 

Smartphone games from China and South Korea are growing in popularity in Japan, where developers are suffering from slowing earnings amid a dearth of hit titles.

Competitive video gaming has become a serious business in Asia, home to half the world's esports audience. Now, the boom is giving rise to unlikely partnerships and new industries, as companies jump into a global market expected to expand by 75% to $1.6 billion within the next three years.

The government needs to create tough regulations for information technology giants through measures such as forming a specialist monitoring team, according to an interim report released Monday by the government’s expert panel.