A Japanese startup said Tuesday it aims to use artificial intelligence to help translate manga comics into English five times faster and 90% cheaper than at present. Manga series such as "One Piece" and "Dragon Ball" are a huge success story for Japan, with the market projected to be worth 42.2 billion by 2030, according to the startup, Orange. But it said only about 2% of Japan's annual output of 700,000 manga volumes are released in English, "partly due to the difficult and lengthy translation process and the limited number of translators." But with its technology, Orange aims to produce 500 English-language manga per month, five times more than the industry's current capacity, and 50,000 volumes in five years. Other languages will come later.

If you've ever led a team at work before, you know how hard it can be to keep people motivated. But one Japanese startup is using technology to make that easier than ever. The Tokyo-based company Attuned offers what it calls "predictive HR analytics" to help companies understand what makes each of their employees tick. And companies in Japan are paying thousands of dollars for the chance to get a better read on their workers. It's a simple process: When a company signs on with Attuned, its employees take a 55-question online test in which they're presented with pairs of statements, such as "Planning my day in advance gives me a sense of security," and "I prefer to be able to decide which task to focus on at any given time."

TOKYO - Hitachi, Fanuc and AI-startup Preferred Networks are creating a joint venture to develop manufacturing systems that combine artificial intelligence and edge computing technologies to achieve superior productivity. Intelligent Edge System will be capitalized at 30 million yen ($275,000), with the three companies contributing an equal amount, the trio said Wednesday. The joint venture will be established April 2 in Yamanashi Prefecture, where industrial robot and factory automation company Fanuc is headquartered. The new company will be led by Yutaka Saito, currently an executive at Hitachi. He will take up the post of senior executive vice president at Fanuc on April 1 and become the joint venture's CEO.

When it comes to cracking the code for self-driving cars, startups have an edge on big businesses, says computer scientist Katsuya Uenoyama. That may sound like bravado coming from the co-founder of a venture with just 30 employees working out of a small office in Tokyo, but Toyota Motor Corp. apparently agrees. The automaker last week made a $9.1 million (about ¥1 billion) investment in the initial public offering of Uenoyama's firm, PKSHA Technology Inc., which is developing software that could one day help cars learn to hold a conversation with drivers. "The digital needs of the manufacturing sector have become bigger and bigger, and that's why we started working with Toyota," said Uenoyama in a recent interview at his office near the University of Tokyo, where the 35-year-old received a Ph.D. in machine learning. Toyota's investment in PKSHA, along with another Tokyo-based startup called Preferred Networks Inc., comes as software starts to rival the motor as the most important thing inside a car and automakers compete with the likes of Google to make vehicles that can drive by themselves.

Line Corp. plans to use part of the 130 billion it garnered from last month's initial public offering to bankroll acquisitions of content and technology, transforming its messaging service into a one-stop shop for Asian social media users. Japan's most popular messaging service is gunning for companies in areas ranging from artificial intelligence chatbots and advertising to video streaming and games, including those with augmented reality features, Chief Executive Officer Takeshi Idezawa said in an interview. The Tokyo-based company has assembled a dedicated team to scope out and review possible targets across the globe. The idea is to build Line into a "smart portal," supplementing its mainstay features of chatting, stickers and games with commercial services such as food delivery, job searches and travel reservations in main markets. "We are very open-minded about the size and geography" of potential acquisitions, Idezawa said.