This Japanese Smartphone Won’t Let You Take Inappropriate Photos
Japanese company Tone Mobile has been getting a lot of attention ever since it launched its Tone e20 model, the world’s first smartphone that prevents users from taking “inappropriate” (nude) photos. The Tone e20 is not a particularly attractive phone, and its spec sheet isn’t exactly impressive either, but it does one thing that no […]
Japan’s Ingenious Solution to Help Turtles Cross Train Tracks
Turtles may be cute, but they are also slow and clumsy, which doesn’t really help them when they are trying to cross train tracks. Luckily, for the turtles in Japan’s Hyōgo Prefecture, railway operators and a local aquarium teamed up to find a solution. Between 2002 and 2014, disruptions of train operation caused by turtles […]
Japan’s “Poop Soil Master” Shunned Indoor Pooping 45 Years Ago
A 70-year-old Japanese man who describes himself as a professional “fundoshi”, or “poop soil master” has been moving bowels outdoors for almost half a centuries, and encouraging others to follow his example. Masana Izawa, a published mushroom and moss photographer, is famous for avoiding indoor toilets as much as he can. In fact, he prides […]
Japanese Art Student Creates Wearable Clothes Exclusively Out of Rubber Bands
Looking at the stylish garments made by graduating art student Rie Sakamoto, you’d be tempted to think they are made of brown yarn, but in fact, every piece in her collection is made of knitted rubber bands. Rie Sakamoto is graduating from Tama Art University, in Tokyo this year and for her thesis she decided […]
Japanese Model Divorces Husband One Week into Marriage, After Being Told to Spend Less
Japanese model Kato Sari recently finalized her divorce from her husband, after getting separated from him just a week into their marriage, due to her uncontrolled money spending habits. 29-year-old Kato Sari has always been known for her luxurious lifestyle and love of expensive fashion brands, but her husband never imagined that her spending habits […]
Japanese Postman “Couldn’t Be Bothered” to Deliver 24,000 Pieces of Mail
A 61-year-old postal worker from the Japanese city of Yokohama was recently arrested for hoarding around 24,000 pieces of mail that he had failed to deliver since back in 2003. Officials at Japan Post, the government-owned mail service, noticed there was something peculiar about the unnamed postal worker’s activity last year, and he was let […]
The Japanese Rogue Convenience Store That Dared Closed Down for a Day on New Year’s
A convenience store owner in Osaka, japan, sparked a lot of controversy recently when he decided to close his business for a day on New Year’s. Appaerntly that was a pretty big deal in a country where convenience stores a traditionally open 24/7, all year long. While convenience stores are still pretty popular in the […]
Japanese Billionaire to Donate $9 Million to Random Twitter Followers to See If Money Makes Them Happier
A Japanese billionaire has announced plans to donate a billion yen (about $9 million) to 1,000 of his Twitter followers in an intriguing social experiment designed to show how money affects people’s lives. On January 1st, Yusaku Maezawa, founder of Japan’s largest fashion retail website, tweeted that he would be giving away 1 billion Japanese […]
This Petite Japanese Schoolgirl Is Actually a 42-Year-Old Man
It sounds almost impossible to believe, but the Japanese schoolgirl in the pictures below is actually a middle-aged, married man. According to Wikipedia, Takuma Tani is a Japanese male vocalist born in 1977. That description doesn’t fit too well with his current image, because virtually every photo of the guy has him looking like a […]
The Unbelievably Realistic Feline Drawings of Yuki Kudo
When it comes to hyper-realistic drawing, cats and other felines must be among the most difficult things to pull odd due to their fur. Getting every strand just right requires a steady hand and mountains of patience, and that’s what makes Yuki Kudo’s artworks so damn special. Over the past decade, we’ve posted some pretty […]
Mom Uses Several Life-Size Cardboard Cutouts of Herself to Trick Toddler Son Into Thinking She Is Always Around
A young Japanese couple have come up with an ingenious way of making their one-year-old son stop crying whenever he notices that his mother isn’t around – life-size cardboard cutouts of the woman placed strategically in the room he is playing in. Fuki Sato recently became an overnight sensation after photos of her life-size cutouts […]
Japanese Company Pays People to Be Filmed in Their Own Homes for a Month
Our online data is already monetized by several technology giants, but one Japanese IT company thinks real-life data could be monetized as well, and it’s willing to pay people to have their everyday life video-recorded and sold to various businesses. Last month, Tokyo-based Plasma.inc made national news headlines for inviting people to take part in […]
Japanese Man Gets Arrested After Calling Telecom Provider 24,000 Times to Complain
A 71-year-old pensioner from Saitama, Japan, was recently arrested and charged with obstruction of business after allegedly calling the toll-free number of his telecom provider a whopping 24,000 times over the last two years, to complain about the service and demand apologies. In the month of October alone, Akitoshi Okamoto, a 71-year-old man from Kasukabe […]
The Japanese City Where Beautiful Koi Fish Swim in Drain Channels
Can you imagine an inhabited city where the water running through the the drain channels is so pure that beautiful koi fish can swim in it? Well, such a place exists on Japan’s Kyushu island. It’s called Shimabara, and it’s quite a sight to behold. When the area around Shimabara was affected by the natural […]
Japan’s Cheapest Hotel Will Charge You Just $1 Per Night if You Don’t Care About Privacy
Getting a hotel room for $1 a night can be considered a bargain pretty much anywhere in the world, and especially so in a country like Japan. But getting the huge discount comes with a catch, and it’s a big one. Tourists visiting the Japanese city of Fukuoka on a budget can get a stellar […]