{"id":906762,"date":"2026-09-26T23:52:23","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T23:52:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/906762\/"},"modified":"2026-09-26T23:52:23","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T23:52:23","slug":"japans-cell-phone-memory-restart-event-reunites-users-with-old-photos-and-past-selves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/906762\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan\u2019s Cell Phone Memory Restart event reunites users with old photos and past selves"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A solution for when your trips down memory lane are blocked by a phone that won\u2019t turn on or hold a charge.<\/p>\n

Leave a battery in an empty state for too long, and it\u2019ll eventually lose its ability to charge through conventional means. That\u2019s the fate that\u2019s befallen many flip phones, which were set aside when their owners transferred to smartphones. Unfortunately, having an unchargeable phone means that any old photos, texts, or other memories it contained are locked away\u2026or they would be, were it not for a special program by KDDI, one of Japan\u2019s major phone service providers.<\/p>\n

Recently, KDDI held an event in Tokyo called Cell Phone Memory Restart (Omoide Keitai Saikido in Japanese). If you\u2019ve got an old phone that won\u2019t hold a charge, you can bring it and have KDDI use its special equipment to get it powered on again to help you preserve the memories inside. KDDI\u2019s technicians are happy to restart cell phones from other carriers too, not just their own company\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Cell Phone Memory Restart is a periodic program with iterations all around Japan, and while there\u2019s no fee for the service, reservations are required. Our Japanese-language reporter Natsuno Futon managed to secure a slot at the event held at KDDI\u2019s Ginza 456 showroom in Tokyo\u2019s Ginza neighborhood.<\/p>\n

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So on the day of her reservation, Natsuno grabbed her Toshiba Win-model flip phone, which she hasn\u2019t used in roughly a decade, and went to revive it.<\/p>\n

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Honestly, Natsuno is still very fond of the way it looks. The standardized form and thin bezels of modern smartphones mean there\u2019re only the most miniscule of differences between one device and another, but back in the day cell phone design was an extended expression of personal style.<\/p>\n

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Flicking it open for the first time in years, Natsuno was happy to learn that the hinges still work fine. On the other hand, more than one button\u2019s plate had fallen off, and while she can still press on the pads underneath, the phone won\u2019t turn on anymore.<\/p>\n

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Or, at least, it won\u2019t turn on with the standard, consumer-grade charger it came with. As the KDDI staff member pulled the battery pack out of Natsuno\u2019s phone, she explained, in laymen\u2019s terms, what the issue is. \u201cEssentially, your battery has forgotten that it\u2019s a battery, so we\u2019re going to give it a reminder,\u201d the attendant told her.<\/p>\n

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Doing this requires a much more specialized apparatus than a regular old AC adapter, one that plugs directly into the battery pack.<\/p>\n

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After a few minutes of waiting, the staff told Natsuno that her phone was ready, and that they\u2019d let her do the honors of turning it on.<\/p>\n

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With a sense of nervous excitement, Natsuno pressed and held down the power button\u2026and sure enough, her phone came back to life!<\/p>\n

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As it went through its startup sequence, though, Natsuno had a new source of nervousness. Like we mentioned above, it\u2019s been roughly 10 years since she used this phone, and she couldn\u2019t remember what her wallpaper photo had been. What if it was something incredibly cringey, a foolish part of her younger life that was so necessary to leave behind that she subconsciously scrubbed it from her memory?<\/p>\n

Thankfully, it didn\u2019t turn out to be anything all that embarrassing.<\/p>\n

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Greeting Natsuno from inside her screen was professional baseball player Masahiro Araki of the Chunichi Dragons, who play their home games in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture. Natsuno grew up in the neighboring prefecture of Gifu, which has no pro baseball team of its own, making her one of her hometown\u2019s many proximity-based Dragons fans. Though he\u2019s now retired, Araki spent his entire 23-year career with the Dragons, and even the KDDI staff recognized him. Together with Natsuno they took a quick trip down memory lane, chatting about the team at the time and its last championship, plus the ensuing parade where Natsuno took the picture on her phone.<\/p>\n

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Things got even more nostalgic when Natsuno started looking through her phone\u2019s photo album. There were photos of friends and family, of happy times (like the day she moved into her first apartment) and sad times (like the day her first car got into a fender-bender).<\/p>\n

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\u25bc There were also pictures of very happy days, like the one on which Natsuno ate this parfait.<\/p>\n

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Though the phone\u2019s camera was considered high-quality at the time, it\u2019s obviously been far surpassed by current technology. And yet, the lack of megapixels and automated color correction didn\u2019t diminish the visual appeal of the photos that had been slumbering on Natsuno\u2019s cell phone. If anything, the lack of megapixels and automated color correction made for an even more emotional connection with the broad-stroke sentimental mood of reminiscing about a moment from your past where you can\u2019t recall all the details, but clearly remember the way you felt.<\/p>\n

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As part of the Cell Phone Memory Restart service, KDDI will also print out a large-size copy of one picture of your choice. Natsuno decided on a photo of herself that her dormitory roommate had taken of her during her freshman year of college. KDDI puts the image up on its projection wall so you can see the details clearly, and then they give you your printed copy (like the battery recharge, there\u2019s no fee for this).<\/p>\n

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And while Natsuno is keeping these details to herself, having her phone powered on again also let her reread emails and text messages from back in the days when correspondence was stored on the device itself, not in a cloud network.<\/p>\n

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Ah, but aren\u2019t you just going to have to say goodbye to all those photos and messages again once you get home from the event and your battery drains? Not necessarily. KDDI\u2019s technicians say that following the Cell Phone Memory Restart\u2019s procedure to revive the battery, it should once again be able to charge via an ordinary AC adapter. What\u2019s more, if you no longer have an adaptor that works with your phone, at the Cell Phone Memory Restart they\u2019ll give you one to keep, for free, provided they have stock available.<\/p>\n

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All in all, it\u2019s a thoroughly satisfying, and incredibly generous, event. When she\u2019d left the house, Natsuno had thought she was just going to be having a reunion with her old phone, but it turned out to be a way to visit with her past self too.<\/p>\n

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The next Cell Phone Memory Restart iterations at Ginza 456 are coming up on October 2-4 and November 6-8, and the complete list of events, as well as reservation request links, can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Related: Cell Phone Memory Restart<\/a>
Photos \u00a9SoraNews24
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[ Read in Japanese<\/a> ]<\/p>\n