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Bandai Namco to spend $130m creating Gundam 'metaverse'

Mar 07 (Nikkei) - Japanese video game and toy company Bandai Namco Holdings is spending 15 billion yen ($130 million) to develop a "metaverse" featuring fearsome battle robots and other characters from its flagship Gundam franchise.

The move, announced in February, comes as businesses ranging from tech giants to automakers increasingly turn to virtual platforms to boost revenue, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic fired up demand for people to connect remotely.

The "Mobile Suit Gundam Metaverse" is set to incorporate games, videos, live music and other content, and will link with physical sites operated by the Bandai Namco group of companies such as gaming arcades and plastic model shops.

A concept video shows users' avatars enjoying concerts, communicating with each other via automatic translation and purchasing Gundam plastic models to be delivered to their real homes.

Since debuting as a television series in Japan over four decades, Gundam's tales of space-faring, sword-fighting robots have gone on to captivate new generations of fans worldwide. ...continue reading

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The Japanese government on April 21 revised the Three Principles on Transfer of Defense Equipment and related guidelines, in principle allowing the export of weapons with lethal capabilities. The move marks a major turning point in Japan's postwar security policy.

Footage released by the Nagano Prefectural Police mountain rescue unit captured the moment an earthquake struck during an operation to save two climbers who had fallen on a steep slope of Mount Shirouma in the Northern Alps.

Japan's weather agency and the Cabinet Office issued a 'Hokkaido-Sanriku Offshore Subsequent Earthquake Advisory' after an earthquake measuring upper 5 on Japan's seismic intensity scale struck off Sanriku.

JR East has launched a preview version of its new online Shinkansen booking platform, JRE GO, promising reservations in as little as one minute and easier handling of sudden schedule changes.

A bear that had remained in a residential area in central Sendai since early Sunday morning was euthanized last night in an emergency cull. No injuries were reported.

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A fire broke out at a four-story apartment building in Okinawa City in the early hours of April 19th, leaving one person dead, with authorities suspecting the victim may be a man in his 70s who served as chairman of a local crime group.

A 37-year-old father arrested over the alleged abandonment of his son's body in a forest in Kyoto Prefecture may have contacted associates to say the child had gone missing before the boy's school informed the family, investigators said.

A 20-year-old university student has been arrested on suspicion of breaking into an apartment in Osaka and stealing cash, with police believing he played a key role in recruiting minors for illegal work schemes.

The annual spring garden party, held at the Akasaka Imperial Gardens in Tokyo, has once again drawn attention to a pressing issue facing Japan's Imperial Household: how to maintain the number of family members as it continues to decline whenever female royals marry.

Japan is often viewed abroad as a country with an unusually visible sexual culture, shaped by adult videos, erotic manga and a wide range of related subcultures. (Japanese Comedian Meshida)

A bear that had remained in a residential area in central Sendai since early Sunday morning was euthanized last night in an emergency cull. No injuries were reported.

The family of a man granted a retrial over a robbery-murder case in Shiga Prefecture has called for revisions to Japan's retrial system, saying he was wrongfully arrested despite having an alibi.

A former elementary school teacher who managed an online group of educators involved in covert filming and image sharing has been sentenced to two years and six months in prison, in a case that has also raised concerns at universities training future teachers.