As the pandemic forces more companies to transact business online, hackers and other digital thieves are getting bolder, spurring Asia to embrace blockchain technology as a way to secure data.
Despite uncertainties from COVID-19, top Japanese corporations plan to invest 15.8% more in information technology in fiscal 2020 to keep up the wave of digitization across industries.
Japan fears two things will be on a simultaneous rise this summer: temperatures and the number of coronavirus cases. Fortunately, the country's inventive manufacturers have answers to both.
Nintendo posted its highest ever operating profit for the April-to-June quarter, logging a 427% rise to 144 billion yen ($1.3 billion), the Japanese gaming giant said on Thursday, as lockdowns and other social restrictions brought on by the coronavirus led to a surge in demand for its popular Switch console and game titles.
A virtual-reality jacket that replicates the sense of touch, a belt that predicts when a pregnant mother will go into labor, and even a vest that monitors the health of your precious pooch: these are just some of the products emerging in Japan's fast-growing market for smart clothing.
SMBC Nikko Securities, a top Japanese brokerage house, will allow clients to open an account without the need to provide hanko seals on their contracts at all its branches starting this month. All they will need is a Nikko sales representative to fill in a form on an iPad and take photos of their IDs using the tablet.
As the Japanese government moves forward with its promotion of smart cities, the ruling party seeks to turn this marriage of technology and infrastructure toward combating pandemics.
The Liberal Democratic Party envisions using data from antibody testing to publish information on how infections are distributed geographically. The condition of patients with mild or no symptoms could be monitored with wearable devices and made freely accessible to the public. Broader use of telemedicine is in the proposal as well.