Japan's Immigration Services Agency will phase in new permanent residency requirements starting October 1, including income above the national average (applied retroactively to applications since April), Japanese-language proficiency, and a pension fund equivalent to 30 years of payouts. The agency says the changes ensure foreigners can 'live independently' without becoming a burden. Long-term residents, including a Bangladeshi tech engineer and an American who has lived in Japan for 14 years, say they fear they may not qualify.
aljazeera.com
· 2026-09-26
A writer describes a personal hobby of exploring random locations on Google Street View, including comparing current and historical captures of the same spots. In one example, a Nissan 350Z appears parked on the same narrow Tokyo street in every Street View capture dating back to 2009, based on the writer's review of Google's archived imagery.
ahmedhossamdev.com
· 2026-09-22
Sonic the Hedgehog series boss Takashi Iizuka told Tokyo Game Show attendees that Sega executives once wanted to cancel the entire Sonic franchise, and that he had to fight internally to keep it alive. He credited the 2020 live-action film, whose character redesign followed fan backlash, with proving continued demand and enabling sequels; the franchise has since sold over 1.5 billion copies worldwide.
techspot.com
· 2026-09-22
Square Enix director Naoki Hamaguchi told Video Games Chronicle at Tokyo Game Show that Final Fantasy VII Revelation could require 200GB or more of storage, exceeding a single UHD Blu-ray's 93.1GB capacity and needing an additional download of 100GB or more. He noted splitting the game across two discs would force compromises on scope or visual fidelity, and confirmed two planned DLC packs covering Vincent and Sephiroth's backstories that could push total storage to 215-220GB.
tomshardware.com
· 2026-09-20
A CESA survey unveiled at Tokyo Game Show 2026 found that 85.8% of Japanese game developers now use generative AI tools in their workflows, up from 51% the previous year. Of those, 63% use AI daily while 22.8% use it occasionally, mainly for debugging, error correction, and automated testing rather than direct code generation.
techspot.com
· 2026-09-18
Waymo announced plans to bring its autonomous vehicles to Singapore, marking its expansion beyond the US and into a second Asian market after Tokyo. Jaguar I-PACE vehicles will arrive soon so specialists can manually drive and map Singapore's roads throughout 2027, adjusting Waymo's systems for local road layouts and weather before public rides begin via its app in 2028.
engadget.com
· 2026-09-18
Chinese high-purity quartz maker Jiangsu Pacific Quartz, which already supplies furnace tubes and wafer boats to Lam Research and Tokyo Electron, has had its quartz components certified by a Chinese DRAM producer believed to be CXMT for 300mm wafer production. The materials meet the 4N5–5N purity level needed for semiconductor process equipment, giving China a more domestic supply chain for chipmaking consumables.
tomshardware.com
· 2026-09-10
A new English edition of Seicho Matsumoto's classic Japanese mystery novel, translated by Jesse Kirkwood, has been published by Modern Library. The book follows police investigating what appears to be a double suicide by lovers on a Kyushu beach, a death later complicated by a single suspicious receipt. The essay accompanying the release traces the novel's roots in Japan's shinjū tradition of lovers' suicide and its use as a plot device.
millersbookreview.com
· 2026-09-03
Sony will air two consecutive livestreams on September 3 ahead of Tokyo Game Show, starting at 9AM ET. The first broadcast covers updates from PlayStation Studios and partners worldwide, closing with an extended look at Final Fantasy 7 Revelation, followed immediately by a Japan-focused stream spotlighting Asian developers.
engadget.com
· 2026-08-31
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