The Japanese Ministry of Defense showed off its new high-tech battle suit in a presentation titled "Towards the realization of Gundam," a reference to the popular Mobile Suit Gundam anime. According to the ministry's Technical Research and Development Institute, the new Advanced Personal Armament System, which includes GPS, wireless networking, and thermal vision, was inspired by the cartoon mecha robots. Whether that's true or not, I think it's interesting that they went for otaku-appeal in the PR campaign.
Link (Thanks, Paul Saffo!)
