What Japan is telling
the market now

Magazine cover image of a compact glass-fronted tabletop hologram device glowing softly on a minimalist kitchen counter in a small Tokyo apartment at night, city lights blurred through the window, with Japan Market Pulse cover text overlaid.

Aug 9, 2026

The $2,000 Hologram Living Alone in Tokyo Apartments: Inside Gatebox

A Tokyo startup spent a decade selling a glass box with a projected anime character inside it — and once ran a…

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Split-composition magazine cover image contrasting an industrial humanoid robot on a cool blue factory assembly line with a small round pastel companion robot resting beside a person in a warm, lamp-lit Japanese apartment, with Japan Market Pulse cover text overlaid.

Aug 6, 2026

While Boston Dynamics Chases Parkour, Japan Is Building Robots That Just Sit There — And Making Millions

Boston Dynamics, Tesla, and Figure AI are spending billions on humanoids that replace a wage. Japan spent twenty years on machines with…

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Magazine-style cover photo of a warmly lit modern Japanese kitchen in the evening, with a small egg-shaped companion robot on the wooden counter beside a built-in refrigerator and a triangular robot vacuum working in the background, with Japan Market Pulse cover text overlaid.

Aug 4, 2026

Panasonic Has Sold 10,000 Robots That Can’t Do a Single Useful Thing: Inside Its Bet That Every Room Needs One

NICOBO cannot vacuum, cannot reliably answer a question, and occasionally passes gas. Panasonic says it has sold more than 10,000 of them.…

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Magazine-style cover photo of the interior of a Japanese convenience store at night, with softly lit shelves, a glowing chilled beverage case, and a self-checkout kiosk in the foreground with no cashier behind the counter, with Japan Market Pulse cover text overlaid.

Aug 3, 2026

Amazon Spent Eight Years Trying to Delete the Checkout Line. Japan’s Convenience Stores Quietly Did It Another Way.

Amazon announced in January it is closing Amazon Go after eight years and well over a billion dollars. Japan's convenience stores have…

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Magazine-style cover photo of the robot department inside a Japanese big-box electronics store, with robot vacuums on a low shelf in the foreground, a warmly lit companion-robot display island mid-ground, and colorful programming-robot kits in the background, with Japan Market Pulse cover text overlaid.

Aug 2, 2026

I Walked Japan’s Robot Department — Here’s What a Country That Loves Robots Actually Buys

Yodobashi Camera's robot floor hides three completely different retail businesses under one word: a commodity appliance aisle, a staffed boutique counter selling…

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Magazine-style cover photo of a white humanoid service robot with a chest-mounted tablet standing in the marble-floored lobby of a modern Japanese bank branch, with Japan Market Pulse cover text overlaid.

Aug 1, 2026

SoftBank Built 27,000 Robots Called Pepper — Then Quietly Stopped Making Them

Pepper greeted customers in Mizuho Bank lobbies, Hamazushi restaurants, and roughly 500 Japanese companies. Then production stopped, its French maker was liquidated,…

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