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 his life. The 27-year-old man insists that he bears no grudge towards his mother, as she only named him “Happy” to express the overwhelming joy she felt when he was born. In fact, that is the only reason why he never went through with legally changing his name, despite the misery it caused him. When he was a small boy, the other kids teased and even bullied him because of his name, and unfortunately, things didn’t improve with age. Companies always thought he was joking when he sent in his resume for employment, and the unusual name even ruined his romantic relationship.

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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 tall and has a volume of 250 liters. Frankly, it doesn’t look like much, but this contraption is so precise that it would take about 10 billion years for it to deviate by a single second, according to Kyoto-based manufacturer Shimadzu Corp. The Aether Clock OC 020 is reportedly 100 times more accurate than cesium atomic clocks, which set the standard for the current definition of a second. Although optical lattice clocks have been around for a while, the Aether Clock OC 020 is the world’s first commercially available model.

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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 plants, but it was of decent size compared to the newly crowned smallest park on Earth. Located a short distance from Nagaizumi town hall, in Japan’s Shizuoka Prefecture, the tiny park measures 2.6 square feet and consists of a tiny patch of grass, a couple of stone plaques, and a stool for visitors to sit on and admire their surroundings. The park has reportedly been around since the late 1980s, but it was only recently recognized by Guinness Records as the world’s smallest recreational park.

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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 a popular television show. The 32-year-old man said that he first saw Midori at a parent-teacher at his school when he was a minor. She was the mother of one of his classmates, and he recalls thinking that the woman was very beautiful. When they met again, 20 years later, he was attracted by the woman’s mature and dignified look and contacted his ex-classmate in order to get close to her. Midori rejected his advances at first, thinking that the significant age difference made them incompatible, but she was eventually overwhelmed by his persistence and grew to like him too.

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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 really separated it from other ships in its class was the unusual design. The 600-TEU Natori featured a hemispherical bow that looked very similar to the nose of a large Airbus passenger jet that no one had dared implement before. But this wasn’t just a design option to make the vessel stand out, it had functional aspects that won the Natori the title of “Ship of the Year” from the Japan Society of Naval Architects and Oceanographers as well as numerous other awards in the small cargo vessel category.

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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 corporations have announced plans to increase starting wages in hopes of attracting new talent, small and medium-sized companies simply don’t have that option because their budgets don’t allow it. In order to compete with big players, they have to think outside the box and offer appealing and sometimes unorthodox benefits to potential employees. One small technology company in Osaka recently went viral in the Land of the Rising Sun by offering its staff free alcoholic drinks during work hours and hangover leaves to clear their heads.

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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 a useless oddity that holds no real purpose than to claim the Guinness record for the world’s smallest escalator. Known as the ‘Petitcalator’ or ‘Puchicalator’, this unusual contraption is located in the basement of More’s Department Store in the city of Kawasaki and is considered more of a tourist attraction than a useful piece of technology. Yes, it’s useable, but it measures just 83.4 centimeters so it offers no real benefit to whoever is riding it over traditional stairs.

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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 used to work for a company in his hometown of Tochigi, but at one point in his life, he got so addicted to gambling that he lost both his family and his job. His father fell ill, he lost his job and couldn’t pay the mortgage anymore, his family eventually cut ties with him, and he found himself living on the street. It was a rude awakening that helped him beat his gambling addiction and really assess his life. The middle-aged man had always dreamed of being a street performer, but he had no special skills such as magic tricks or singing, so he came up with the idea of praising people for money.

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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 a cushioning material. The company’s manager, Shihoko Wada, had been struggling to promote popcorn on the Azechi Foods online store where people mainly bought delicacies when she was inspired by a laptop repair technician at a management seminar. The man used Umaibo sticks (cylindrical puffed corn snacks) as a cushioning material, and while some in attendance found it funny, for Wada it was a revelation. Not only could the popcorn be used as an actual snack after use, but it was also an incredible opportunity to attract attention.

“If Umaibo can be used as a cushioning material, then I thought the popcorn that our company makes could also be used as a cushioning material,” Shihoko Wada told Gendai Magazine. “Once it’s finished serving its purpose as a cushioning material, it can be eaten, so it doesn’t become useless garbage. Above all, I thought that the customers who received it would be happy with the surprise, they would get a sense of value, and it would also help improve the company’s image.”

Wada’s idea was to package the popcorn in a transparent plastic bag that had “not edible” printed on it, only with the ‘not’ crossed out, and then use the bags as cushioning material in the packages they sent all over the country. People loved the idea and before long, photos of the bags started going viral on Japanese social media.

Azechi Foods filed for a trademark registration and soon started receiving orders from all sorts of businesses, like a company that sells used video games, a greengrocer, a wine seller. etc. As photos of its unique cushioning material went viral online, the number of orders increased and they even got requests for coverage from national TV outlets.

Although the bags of popcorn are more expensive than conventional cushioning materials like styrofoam or cardboard, they also come with a few definite advantages: they can be eaten, and thus eliminate the risk of waste, which can’t really be said about other cushioning or filler materials, most of which end up in the trash after one use.

Azechi Foods currently offers two package sizes – 40g and 13g – but Azechi Foods hopes to start offering it in other sizes, as well as other styles of packaging to keep customers entertained.

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 among the snobbiest of snobs, but a Japanese company proved it can be done successfully. Launched in 2005, Fillico Water set out to create a complete luxury experience that would make people reach for their wallets and pay obscene amounts of money to have it. Using some of the purest mineral water in Japan wasn’t nearly enough, so they put a lot of work into the design of the packaging, which was marketed as a work of art in itself. Somehow, they made it work, and today Fillico Jewelry Water is one of the most sought-after ultra-luxury bottled water brands in the world, with prices surpassing $1,000 per liter and even several thousand for limited edition offerings.

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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 that this had hardly been an isolated incident and the man was a serial trespasser who had done it countless times for his personal enjoyment. During questioning, the man, identified as Yuta Sugawara, not only admitted to trespassing onto the couple’s property when he thought they were away but casually told investigators that this was a hobby of his and that he had trespassed onto other people’s properties over 1,000 times. Sugawara was apprehended by the victims of his latest trespassing attempt, who saw him on their land and chased after him when he ran. The man managed to immobilize the culprit while his wife called the police.

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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 punishment in case of fraud or embezzlement, they aren’t quite expected to pay with their lives. That is not the case with the management of Shikoku Bank, a financial institution whose top 23 executives, including President Miura, signed a blood oath requiring them to commit seppuku if found guilty of engaging in financial irregularities, embezzlement or other fraudulent activities. Rooted in the code of honor of Japan’s samurai era, the bizarre pledge posted on Shikoku Bank’s website went viral sparking reactions varying from admiration to disbelief.

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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 belongings except for a few essentials that fit into his backpack and travel around Japan using his savings. Normally, accommodation would have ranked highest on his list of expenses, but the 33-year-old man found an ingenious way of putting a roof over his head for free. Every day, Ishida stands in crowded areas sometimes for hours at a time, holding up a sign that reads “Please Let Me Stay Over Tonight!” As weird as it sounds, he almost always finds someone willing to take him in, mostly lonely homeowners in need of someone to talk to.

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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 people’s imagination and drew huge crowds to the manufacturer’s booth. Yasuaki Aoyama was one of the many people who got to see Sanyo’s washing machine in action. He was only a curious fourth-grader at the time, but the feeling of awe stuck with him all through adulthood, and today, as the chairman of Science Co., a company specializing in bathtubs and showerheads, he is preparing to launch his very own modern washing machine for humans.

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A Chinese man known only by his online moniker, Sudden Fantasy, has been receiving a lot of attention online for documenting his life as a jobless man financially supported by his loving wife.

Sudden Fantasy began posting videos on Douyin (Chinese version of TikTok) roughly a month ago, but he already has over 1.4 million followers on the popular social network, mainly because of the unique topic he covers. The Chinese young man posts about his life as a kept man in Japan relying exclusively on his wife for financial support. He reportedly moved to the neighboring country about eight years ago and went to date his wife, whose Chinese name is Fenghua, after falling down on hard times. She was there for him when he needed help putting food on the table and covering his tuition, and she eventually became his wife. Despite being well-educated and coming from a wealthy family, Fenghua has no problem providing for her husband who loves sitting around playing video games.

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