Ahh, Japan... land of the rising sun, rising sin, and rice with nearly every meal. In Japan everything is possible and possibly everything is available - often with a unique and unexpected twist. Vending machines dispensing whisky, frozen meat, live rhinoceros beetles or schoolgirl panties? Where else but in Japan, where urban legends live and die on streets that have no names.
As the Japanese Innovations Writer for InventorSpot.com and an unabashed Japanophile, I take great joy in channeling the relentless tsunami of on-the-edge Japanese ideas and products, each wondrous one revisiting and reinventing 1950s Japanese Transistor Radio Syndrome for the post-atomic age!

Show us your moobs! Well, at least show them off with the new Men's Premium Bra from Wishroom. It's no joke either, Men's Bras are the number one ranked seller at Japan's Rakuten online store.

Social Networking - is there anything it can't do? Mixi, Japan's largest social networking site, and cup noodle maker Acecook have combined for a tasty collaboration that is cranking out new instant ramen flavors and cool slogans to advertising them.

Cold Hands? Warm Heart! This reusable, environmentally friendly, heart-shaped portable heating pad puts out heat to the beat, again and again!

A league of their own? Not in Japan at least, where 16-year-old female knuckleballer Eri Yoshida has just been drafted by a Japanese pro baseball team. The boys of summer - plus one girl - will take the field in April 2009.

"Chew your food!!"... How many times have busy kids heard that exasperated command from overly concerned mothers? Now the Kami Kami Sensor from Japan's Nitto Kagaku will keep kids biting their food - and Moms biting their tongues.

Watch this space, but don't look for a face. Hiranao Tsuboi's faceless LED wristwatch is all band and no dial, a curious concept but one that ensures you're not the only one watching your watch!

Adult diapers have not only come out of the closet, they're taking center stage! A recent Tokyo runway show shines the spotlight on what has become a $500 million per year business in Japan. Could it happen here? Depends...

An innovative imaging system that uses muons - a type of cosmic ray - to reveal the interior of a volcano has been developed by scientists at the University of Tokyo's Earthquake Research Institute.

The Twitter Drawers Collection, or TDC for short, offers twitterers from Japan and elsewhere a free way to add a unique Japanese accent to their tweeting.

The instant camera is back, and it's better than ever! Forget Polaroid, Tomy's XIAO is a 5 megapixel digital camera that prints full color photos using Zink inkless paper.
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