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People walk past a half-body statue in Shibuya, Tokyo's main shopping area, on August 22. Online Game Company NHN Japan has set up a series of these statues to promote the mobile game site hange.jp. When people touch the statue's arm with their mobile phone, the application site will automatically open and a lucky winner will be rewarded 10,000 U.S. Dollars.

Japan's heaviest sumo wrestler has pledged to his fans that he will gain even more weight. Yamamotoyama currently weighs in at 511 pounds, but the 24-year-old's goal is to tip the scales at 531, surpassing the previous Japanese record holder, retired wrestler Susanoumi, who reached 529 pounds.

Yamamotoyama is reported to have once devoured 146 pieces of sushi in a single sitting, so packing on another 20 pounds seems doable. But he might be setting himself up for a difficult situation 16 years from now. This year, Japan enacted a policy that requires citizens ages 40 to 74 to undergo mandatory "fat checks." Those with waists more than 34 inches will be put on special exercise programs. It's part of an effort to keep citizens' bulging bottoms from breaking the government's budget, as reported in the FP article, "Bulging Bottom Lines."

Surely, though, there must be a special sumo exemption?

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The Japanese fishing industry is in dire straits, the LA Times reports:

If we lose our fishing industry, we Japanese will face a food crisis," said Masahiko Ariji, a fishery specialist at the Amita Institute for Sustainable Economics in Kyoto. About two-thirds of the nation's fishing groups were in the red last year, he said. With fuel prices higher this year, some "are about to collapse." [...]

If fuel prices keep rising, as many as 20% of Japan's fishing companies will close and 85,000 fishermen could leave the industry, the National Federation of Fisheries Cooperative Assns said. The fish catch, it says, could fall by almost half.

On balance, the fact that the Japanese fishing industry is suffering isn't necessarily a bad thing. If the trend keeps up, high gas prices might end up saving Pacific fisheries from imminent doom where regulation and conservation have failed. Add this one to the list.

In some ways, the iPhone is a step backward for Japan, where the masses are accustomed to using their mobile phones for everything from watching television to buying Royal Milk Tea from vending machines. But the iPhone 2.0's lack of such modern conveniences failed to deter the more than 1,000 people who waited patiently overnight outside the Softbank Mobile store in Tokyo to get their hands on Apple's latest device for the first time. Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son, the richest man in Japan, hailed it as "a historic day."

It's hard to tell from the photo below, but it looks like this guy is so excited, he's made himself an iPhone hat. Either that, or he's wearing a visor and leaning against a very clean glass window:

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Japan's chief cabinet secretary is disappointed that Carla Bruni, the wife of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, won't be attending this year's G-8 summit in Hokkaido.

I can't say I blame her. The supermodel-turned-singer has an album launch this coming Friday, and she'd rather prepare for it than sit around learning how to fold kimonos and sipping tea with the other G-8 wives.

Back in Europe, her album seems to be getting as much coverage as the summit itself. The British press is agog at the revelation that Mrs. Sarkozy has had 30 lovers, and the AFP reports that France's "gossip press" is "nearing fever pitch," and the album has gotten rave reviews thus far.

In case any French music critics are wondering how to handle the unusual task of critiquing their first lady's musical talents, Carla has a ready answer in "Ta Tienne" (Yours): "I am yours, if they diss me or damn me, I don't care a hoot."

This just might be the coolest vending machine of all time:

Michael Keferl of CScoutJapan reports:

Pushing the button on the vendor won’t exactly pop out a car, but it does dispense a branded tube containing pamphlets on the new models, dealer information, and a sheet of Smart Car stickers featuring the available colors.

Not quite as cool as an actual car vending machine, but ingenious nonetheless. I'm still waiting for MIT's Media Lab to roll out its long-hyped stackable cars, though.

(Hat tip: TreeHugger)

In Japan, where people seem to have a fondness for high-tech gizmos and small, cute things à la Hello Kitty, an engineering professor and his students are serving up something, er, gastronomic: the world's smallest bowl of Ramen noodles.

The bowl is 0.001 millimeters in diameter, while the noodles were 0.002 millimeters long and 0.00002 millimeters thick.

But this wasn't just a fun stunt. The whole thing is made from carbon-based nanotubes, whose special properties (they're stronger than steel) mean they have the potential for wide use in electronics and medicine. Note: not food! As Masayuki Nakao, the engineer behind the creation, stressed to the Associated Press, "… they are not edible."

Here's some lunchtime fun for you.

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Sumo wrestlers coaxed 80 babies, all less than a year old, to cry at last Sunday's annual baby-crying contest at Sensoji temple in Tokyo. The tiny winners are determined by who cries first and who wails the loudest. Participating Japanese parents apparently believe the sumo-induced cries are beneficial, with the babies crying out a wish for good health. At the very least, it probably exercises the lungs.

YOSHIKAZU TSUNO/AFP/Getty Images

Some babies reportedly refused to cooperate and stayed silent or even dared to laugh in the wrestlers' faces. Or, at least, that was the case until the wrestlers resorted to slipping on their scary masks.

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There's been a lot of discussion over the past few years about the United States' pitiful efforts at public diplomacy. Maybe the State Department just isn't being creative enough:

Japan has created an unusual government post to promote animation, and named a perfect figure Wednesday to the position: a popular cartoon robot cat named Doraemon.

Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura appointed the cat an "anime ambassador," handing a human-sized Doraemon doll an official certificate at an inauguration ceremony, along with dozens of "dorayaki" red bean pancakes — his favorite dessert — piled on a huge plate.

Komura told the doll, with an unidentified person inside, that he hoped he would widely promote Japanese animated cartoons, or "anime."

"Doraemon, I hope you will travel around the world as an anime ambassador to deepen people's understanding of Japan so they will become friends with Japan," Komura told the blue-and-white cat.

Remember the Japanese town named Obama? It looks like candidate Barack sent its mayor a belated thank-you note for last year's gift of a DVD and chopsticks:

Town officials said they believed the letter was genuine, although they had not verified it. They said they were concerned that it would be impolite to ask the candidate's office.

A Japanese town shares the same name as the U.S. presidential candidate:

As fanciful as it may seem, leaders in Obama — which means "Little Beach" in Japanese — are serious about forging a relationship with the candidate.

The mayor, Toshio Murakami, sent Obama a letter a year ago with a gift of lacquerware chopsticks, a DVD introducing the city, and a guidebook, but no one knows if the package arrived because they never received a response.

The town 250 miles west of Tokyo is undaunted. Murakami plans to send Obama another care-package, this one with a fist-sized lacquerware good-luck "daruma" doll with the word "victory" written across the chest in Japanese calligraphy.

"We want to ask him to stop by Obama as president if he visits Japan," Sadakazu Tsubouchi, an official at city hall.

I love a good bowl of noodles as much as the next gal. But a couple hundred of them? Check out this video of Japan's National Wanko Soba Eating Competition, which was held earlier this week. The winner downed 223 bowls in 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, in other food news in Japan, Crown Princess Masako is under fire for eating too well. The princess, a Harvard-educated former diplomat who dropped out of the public eye after marrying Crown Prince Naruhito in 1993, has been rumored to be battling depression in recent years, partially as a result of public pressure for not producing a male heir. Evidently, people think the lavish meals she's enjoyed recently are a sign that the imperial family is not as austere as it should be. Yet Japan reveres people like former hot-dog champion Kobayashi. Mixed messages, anyone?

Koichi Kamoshida/Getty Images

Japan Maritime Self Defense Force (JMSDF) personnel wearing protective body gear guard a landing strip as a helicopter carries VIPs at JMSDF Yokosuka Base on January 24, 2008 in Yokosuka, Kanagawa, Japan.

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It's no secret that Japan has traditionally been averse to immigration. Many long-term immigrants wait eternally for Japanese citizenship. The Japanese parliament also recently approved a plan to fingerprint and photograph all adult foreigners entering Japan.

But is the tide against foreigners turning in Japan? Possibly. According to a recent Mainichi newspaper telephone survey, 63 percent of respondents favored allowing the immigration of unskilled foreign laborers, even though the Japanese government generally opposes such measures—opting instead for a "cautious" approach toward unskilled workers. Out of the 63 percent, 58 percent supported accepting unskilled foreign workers in fields facing worker shortages, and 5 percent believed that entry-level foreign workers should be accepted without conditions.

Hidenori Sakanaka, head of the Japan Immigration Policy Institute, believes the shift in favor of foreigners may be due to Japan's enormous demographic challenge associated with its rapidly aging society. He also suggests the Japanese may gradually be appreciating the work already done in Japan by entry-level foreign workers in fields from nursing to agriculture, forestry and fisheries. Necessity may be the mother of invention—or in this case, acceptance—but it remains to be seen whether this is really a cultural shift toward embracing immigration. If legislation follows, I may be convinced.

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Worried about citizens embarrassing themselves while watching sports they are unfamiliar with or offending foreign visitors, Chinese authorities have set up a program to educate the population on cheering etiquette in preparation for this summer's Olympics:

Welcome to the "Beijing Civilized Workers Cheering Squad," a public-education program to teach sportsmanship, all part of a larger Olympic etiquette campaign to show off a polite, prosperous and powerful China.

"Civilization equals order," Mr. Zhang said. "We need to express the same slogans, think the same and behave the same way. That's how we become civilized."

Creepy. An example of an approved chant is: "China, China — ha, ha, ha. China, China must win. Let's go, let's go." Still, it's understandable that the Communist Party bigwigs would want to avoid incidents like this one:

At a field hockey test event this summer between Argentina and Australia, hundreds of middle-age women were bused in to add atmosphere — the kind of instant numbers only China can muster. The women tried to imitate cheers in Spanish but got it wrong.

"Ba mao si fen han de di le," they chanted, which in Chinese could roughly mean: "Eighty-four cents, you've offered a price too low." Nobody could figure out what this had to do with field hockey.

Another fear is that nationalist hostilities could occur during events involving China's historical enemy, Japan. Chinese fans jeered during Japan's national anthem at the recent women's World Cup and hurled insults at the Japanese players. China's new heavy-handed efforts to avoid offending its World War II rival remind me of one of my favorite John Cleese routines.

(Hat tip: Marginal Revolution)

"There is no Asia... Asia is a eurocentric concept."

That's how Lanxin Xiang somewhat bluntly began a recent discussion of the security implications of Asia's rise. Xiang, a professor at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, was participating in a conference Tuesday at the American Enterprise Institute titled "Asia 2012: Security Challenges and Opportunities for Development." A major undercurrent was the topic of Asian identity, i.e. whether  there are common Asian interests that override individual national priorities. Europeans have been growing gradually more integrated for most of the postwar era, but "Asian regionalism" is still a relatively new concept.

Clearly, not all Chinese scholars share Xiang's skepticism about the rest of Asia. (He also stated that China is not rising, it is merely "restoring its historical position.") Da Wei of the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations said that while he and other Chinese intellectuals had previously been skeptical of Asian regionalism, multilateral cooperation over issues like 1997 Asian Financial Crisis and SARS had changed their minds and that, "among scholars, a common Asian identity is developing."

A large part of the problem is the lack of multinational organizations that could from the basis for regional partnerships. ASEAN and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization are two possible candidates, but the event's keynote speaker, Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, sees potential in the Group of 6, formed to negotiate North Korea's nuclear program as a future framework for pan-Asian cooperation and negotiation with the United States:

If one day we reach a peaceful settlement on the peninsula, that might be the right time to elaborate this idea of a broader multilateral structure for security in Asia. 

That's a big if. Most of Negroponte's presentation was fairly unsurprising State Department boilerplate about "working with our Asian allies." China itself may inadvertently end up being the biggest driver of Asian regionalism, as other powers unite to counterbalance the rising hegemon. There are already some signs of this dynamic in ASEAN. This may also explain why Masafumi Ishii of the Japanese embassy in Washington seemed particularly bullish on India, the new kid on the block among Asian superpowers. He said in his presentation:

Japan is the past. China is the present. India is the future. 

NAKATSU, JAPAN - OCTOBER 12: Owner Masayuki Okudaira poses in front of the Nakatsu-Jo Castle on October 12, 2007 in Nakatsu, Oita Prefecture, Japan. Due to the cost of maintaining the building, Mr Okudaira, 19th head of the family, wishes to sell the castle for 3 million US dollars. The city of Nakatsu is deciding whether to buy the local tourist attraction, where visitors can also view heirlooms from local governing families of past eras exhibited inside. Constructed from 1587 under the feudal rule of daimyo Kuroda Yoshitaka and completed under the 17th century rule of daimyo Hosokawa Tadaoki, the current five-tiered castle was rebuilt in 1964 after being destroyed by fire in the 1877 Satsuma Rebellion. (Photo by Koichi Kamoshida/Getty Images)

He looks sad. I suppose I would be, too.

After an internal investigation, six Japanese civil servants at Japan's Agriculture Ministry were accused of neglecting their work and spending countless hours editing Wikipedia pages. It might have been acceptable if they were toiling away on articles for say, beef exports or rice cultivation, but the six bureaucrats were busy tweaking entries about the ever-popular manga comics. Their favorite page was the one devoted to Gundam, a popular animated series on robots. One of the six had apparently made 260 changes to the Gundam site since 2003. Tsutomu Shimomura, a spokesman for the ministry, made it extremely clear that this was NOT in their job description:

The agriculture ministry is not in charge of robots.

And to discourage others from following suit, the six received a harsh, verbal reprimand. That'll keep 'em in line.

PHILIPPE LOPEZ/AFP/Getty Images

Who knew that a history textbook could elicit anything more than a couple yawns from disinterested schoolchildren? On the Japanese island of Okiwana, the site of a bloody battle between U.S. and Japanese troops in 1945, a short passage in a new high school textbook brought more than 100,000 angry protesters out into the streets this past Saturday, the largest the small island has ever seen. For critics, the textbook dishonestly distorts the facts in its discussion of the several hundred Okinawa citizens who committed suicide during the U.S. invasion. The textbooks originally disclosed that the imperial army had handed out grenades to residents and ordered them to kill themselves rather than surrender, but Japan's Education Ministry instructed publishers to delete these references from the book's pages in March. The Ministry, reflecting the revisionism of recently ousted PM Shinzo Abe, cited divergent views of the event and said there was no real proof for either viewpoint.

Current PM Yasuo Fukuda's approach seems a bit more cautious. There is talk of Fukuda's government overturning this decision in an effort to "respect the sentiment of Okinawan people."

Europe has its own problems with history. Greek officials recently scrapped plans for a new sixth-grade history textbook that critics said downplayed the suffering of Greeks at the hands of the Ottoman empire. The book's depiction of events like the 1821 war of independence and the Greeks' 1922 flight from Smyrna (the modern-day Turkish city of Izmir) was apparently too unpatriotic for the country's Orthodox church and right-wing nationalist party Popular Orthodox Rally (LAOS) party.

Finding an objective account of history anywhere is easier said than done, it seems. Especially when the facts don't agree well with national pride.

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Back in July, Passport suggested that buying yen at that time may yield some hefty returns in the near future. It turned out that Randall Forsyth of Barron's, who made the contrarian argument originally, was right on the money. The "yen-carry trade" (borrowing yen cheaply to purchase currencies or stocks with higher return rates) has started to unwind as the yen has appreciated against other currencies. And we're now seeing the fallout. (Click here to see a good explanation of how yen-carry trading in the currency market works in practice.) While those who invested in the currency before its appreciation are probably a lot richer from selling their higher-valued yen, others have suffered substantial losses.

Goldman Sachs's Global Alpha fund, which is part of one of the world's largest hedge funds, reportedly fell almost 9 percent as a result of yen carry trading. But it's Japan's female investors that seem to have been hardest hit.

Analysts estimate that Japanese online investors, many of them housewives trading using family savings without their husbands' knowledge, lost $2.5 billion currency trading in August alone. The International Herald Tribune reports:

Itoh [a homemaker in Nagoya] recalled that she had wanted to cry as she watched the yen jump as much as 5 percent in value in a single day, Aug. 16.

"But I had to keep a poker face, because my husband was sitting behind me," Itoh said. She did not sell her position, thinking the yen would fall again. But by the next morning, only $1,000 remained in her account, she said.

Itoh lost almost all of her family's $100,000 savings. And she certainly isn't alone. These women—known generically as "Mrs. Watanabe"—have emerged as a powerful influence on currency markets, not only shaking conventional views about Japanese women, especially housewives, but earning them plenty of money in the process. But as Masafumi Yamamoto, a currency economist at Tokyo's Nikko Citigroup, notes succinctly, "Mrs. Watanabe got burned this time." Despite the setback, recent data indicate that online trading is regaining some of its momentum. But it remains to be seen whether all the Mrs. Watanabes can regain their losses.