Transcript

Hello and welcome to today’s news from TotemoTech on March 19th, 2024. In today’s news, Luup, a mobile app, announced that it will be testing a new navigation feature. The feature aims to provide route guidance without the need to walk on sidewalks. The trial will initially be available in Tokyo starting from the last week of March through the iOS version of the app.

Moving on to entertainment news, the official Dragon Ball X account has launched a gift campaign featuring ‘Vegeta’s Battle Suit.’ The campaign offers a chance to win the battle suit worn by the character Vegeta in the manga series. The suit has been faithfully recreated and is wearable. One lucky winner will receive this unique prize, although please note that the boots are not included.

Now, let’s talk about coffee. New Innovations, the company behind the fully automated coffee stand ‘root C,’ has started offering the elusive ‘Kopi Luwak’ coffee. This coffee is made from beans collected from the excrement of civets, also known as ‘Javanese palm civets.’ The stand offers both hot and iced versions of this specialty coffee, with a price tag of 1200 yen.

In technology news, Microsoft has announced that the next version of Office, ‘Office 2024,’ will be available as a perpetual license. The individual edition will be called ‘Office 2024,’ while the business version will be known as ‘Office LTSC 2024.’ Although it is a perpetual license, Microsoft will provide support for a period of five years.

Shifting to e-commerce, the popular fashion shopping site ‘ZOZOTOWN’ will be increasing its shipping fees starting from April 1st. Along with the fee increase, the site has also made changes to its cancellation policy.

In a business partnership announcement, KDDI has revealed its plan to make ELYZA, an AI startup from the University of Tokyo, a subsidiary company. KDDI will acquire a majority stake in ELYZA’s shares by April 1st, aiming to provide AI-generated services in the near future.

And finally, we have an interview with an IT engineer who previously worked as a network engineer in the Estonian military and now works for Metaps Holdings in Japan. Marco Pop shares insights on the differences in work culture between Estonia and Japan.

That’s all for today’s news. Stay tuned for more updates from TotemoTech. Visit JapanDailyNews.com for the news, yen exchange rates, and a daily Japanese proverb.

Keywords - japan, tech, news