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Video
Meet the Kanjozoku, Osaka's infamous street racers

Street racing is obviously illegal and incredibly dangerous, but that has never stopped people from doing it. While we don't hear nearly as much about the scourge of Japanese tuner cars as when The Fast and the Furious first hit theaters over a decade ago, illegal street racing is still bubbling under the surface all over the island nation. An excellent new documentary short from Bowls Films takes a look at the Kanjoz

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Used Nissan Leaf batteries support solar energy system in Japan

The spiritual among us will view Sumitomo and Nissan's installation of its first-ever used-electric-vehicle-battery storage as a bit of divine reincarnation. But the idea is quite logical and practical. The two companies formed the 4R Energy Corporation in late 2010 and have now installed what they call the world's first "large-scale power storage system" using exclusively used batteries from battery-electric vehicles in Osaka, Japan.

Yamaha tests golf cart powered with cow dung

What can you do with cow dung? We can think of at least one green car option: transform it into biomethane and use the gas to power a golf cart. This is what the engineers at Yamaha in Katori, in Chiba Prefecture. Osaka Gas Co. provided the methane at a low cost. It was then stored in a special tank filled with activated carbon capable of absorbing the methane at relatively low pressure. The tank was developed by Osaka Gas Co. as an alternative to a high-pressure pump and tank. The town of Kator