Man Buys Dream Ferrari After Saving Up for 10 Years, It Burns Down in an Hour
After saving up for 10 years to buy his dream car, a brand new Ferrari 458 Spider, a Japanese man had to sit by and watch it burn within an hour of driving it for the first time. Japanese social media has been abuzz with the sad story of Honkon, a young music producer who […]
The Sad Story of Happy – How a Weird Name Ruined a Man’s Life
A Japanese man named “Happy” has been struggling with his unusual name for as long as he can remember, claiming that it had attracted bullying as a kid and ridicule as an adult. When Terauchi Happy’s mother chose his unconventional name, she had no idea the kind of problems it would pose for him throughout […]
Aether Clock OC 020 – The World’s Most Accurate Clock
Created by Japanese manufacturer Shimadzu Corp, the Aether Clock OC 020 is a strontium optical lattice clock advertised as the most accurate clock in the world and sold for over $3 million. The world’s most accurate clock looks less like you’d imagine and more like a small refrigerator. Its rectangular case is around three feet […]
World’s Smallest Park Measures Only 0.24 Square Meters
A tiny park roughly the size of a newspaper in the Japanese town of Nagaizumi currently holds the Guinness Record for ‘world’s smallest park’. A decade ago, we wrote about Mill Ends Park, the former world’s smallest park. At just two meters in diameter, it only had room for one tree and a few tiny […]
32-Year-Old Man Marries Ex-Classmate’s 53-Year-Old Mother
Isamu Tomioka met his wife, Midori, when he was still in school. She was the mother of one of his classmates and 21 years his senior, but he didn’t let that stop him from marrying her. Isamu and Midori’s unusual love story went viral in Japan after the Shizuoka couple spoke about their relationship on […]
The Airplane-Nose Cargo Ships That Revolutionized Ship Design
Japanese coastal containership operator Imoto Lines operates a number of feeder vessels with a unique look inspired by the nose of large passenger airplanes. In 2015, the Kyokuyo shipyard in Yamaguchi, Japan, completed the first SSS-feeder (Semi-Spherically Shaped-feeder) commissioned by Imoto Lines. It was one of the largest feeder vessels ever built in Japan, but what […]
Japanese Company Offers Free Drinks and Hagover Leave to Attract New Talent
Unable to offer attractive wages, a Japanese tech company has been trying to attract new talent by offering ingenious benefits such as free alcoholic drinks at work and hangover leaves. Since the burst of the Japanese economic bubble in the early 1990s, the Japanese economy has been stagnating along with employee salaries. Even though some […]
The World’s Smallest Escalator Is a Useless Oddity
Located in the basement of a department store in Kawasaki, Japan, the world’s smallest escalator only has five steps and measures 83.4 centimeters (32.8 inches). The escalator is one of humanity’s most useful inventions, allowing people to effortlessly travel between floors in places where elevators would be impractical, but the world’s smallest escalator is actually […]
Middle-Aged Man Makes a Living Praising Strangers on the Street
A middle-aged Japanese man known as ‘Uncle Praise’ has been making a living by standing on the street and showering strangers with praises for a small fee. Uncle Praise first made news headlines in Japan in September of last year when Fuji TV released a short documentary on his unique “profession”. The 43-year-old man reportedly […]
Company Sells Bags of Popcorn as Edible Cushioning Material
A Japanese company came up with the genius idea of selling plastic bags of popcorn as an edible alternative to conventional cushioning materials like styrofoam pellets and cardboard. Azechi Foods, a popcorn manufacturer and delicacy wholesaler in Japan’s Kochi City, has become famous for using and selling popcorn not just as a snack but as […]
Japanese Ultra-Luxury Bottled Water Can Cost Up to $10,000 Per Liter
Fillico Jewelry Water is a Japanese company known for selling one of the most expensive bottled waters in the world, with exclusive limited editions selling for up to $10,000 per bottle. Water is one of the most basic human needs, so marketing and selling it as an ultra-luxury product is a pretty big challenge, even […]
Japanese Man Arrrested for Trespassing on Others’ Property as a Hobby
A Japanese man was recently admitted to trespassing onto other people’s properties over 1,000 times as a hobby because he found it thrilling and exhilarating. A couple of weeks ago, Fukuoka Prefectural Police arrested a 37-year-old man on suspicion of trespassing onto a couple’s property in the city of Daizafu. Little did the police know […]
Japanese Bank Executives Vow to Pay with Their Lives if Found Guilty of Irregularities
Shikoku Bank’s leadership has come up with a bizarre way of reassuring clients of its commitment – promising to pay with their lives if found guilty of ‘financial irregularities’. Banking executives are always held to high ethical standards, considering that they handle the wealth of thousands, sometimes millions of people, but while they face serious […]
Japanese Man Has Been Relying on Strangers to Let Him Sleep Over for the Last Five Years
A 33-year-old Japanese man has been getting a lot of attention for his ingenious way of putting a roof over his head – asking total strangers to let him sleep over. Shuraf Ishida has slept in over 500 different homes over the last five years. After quitting his job, he decided to sell all his […]
Japanese Company to Launch Human Washing Machine
Osaka-based showerhead maker Science Co. has developed a cutting-edge washing machine for humans aptly named “Mirai Ningen Sentakuki” (Human Washing Machine of the Future). At the 1970 Osaka Kansai Expo, Japanese tech giant Sanyo Electric Co., now Panasonic Holdings Corp., launched the world’s first-ever human washing machine. Its futuristic egg shape and bubble technology captured […]