The mining city of Yubari, located on Japan’s northernmost island of Hokkaido, wants to to raise cash by selling the naming rights to a public toilet in front of its JR Shikanotani Station.

The lucky loo sponsor will be asked to pony up 400,000 yen to cover water, electricity and cleaning expenses for the right to to operate shops on the parking lot.

While some residents were doubtful the move will work, a city official said Yubari has a high profile and is confident. The move may be the only way to fund the facility’s reopening.

Yeah… And maybe more people will start to give a sh….

scattered around buddhist temples in the tohoku region of japan there are mummified bodies enshrined in . practitioners of an ancient set of rituals known as shugendô, these monks actually mummified themselves in a prolonged act of asceticism. believing that they could attain enlightenment in a mere ten thousand days (about 8 years, 2 months, and 19 days) by adhering to a strict diet, keeping a strict schedule of meditation and exercise, and slowly poisoning themselves.

A strange story from Jaipur, India, where a Japanese tourist “had registered a complaint with the police alleging she was raped by the employees of the hotel last night”.

In an intriguing turn of events, a Japanese on Monday complained to the police of her rape in a hotel by its staff but withdrew the charge within hours saying the term ‘rape’ was used for use of force for taking away her mobile phone and not for sexual assault.

The woman explained later “The word rape used by me in the complaint is meant as application of force for taking away my mobile phone.” I need to buy me a new dictionary, as it seems mine is hopelessly out of date.

A global survey by MTV Networks International (MTVNI) reveals that young people in developing countries are twice as likely to feel happy about their lives than those in developed countries. According to the survey, Indians are the happiest overall and Japanese the most miserable.

In the United States and Britain, fewer than 30 percent of young people said they were happy, and only eight percent in Japan said they were happy. Reasons cited for unhappiness include lack of optimism, concern over jobs, and pressure to succeed.

Developed countries were particularly pessimistic about globalization, with 95 percent of young Germans thinking it is ruining their culture, while developing countries, which tended to be more receptive to globalization, were also more optimistic about their economic future and more proud of their nationality.

Here’s a little something to think about the next time you are about to let loose of your credit card number while shopping on the web.

A 23-year-old Indian call center employee was arrested after it was discovered that she was going on buying binges using credit cards that she gained access to through her job.

She apparently used the card numbers of 42 people in the U.S. to purchase chocolate, an air conditioner, and other items.

“[The woman] is well aware of the new age cyber crimes, going by her modus operandi. She targeted US citizens so that she can escape law as they would be unable to lodge complaints from there,” said Gyanwant Singh, deputy commissioner of police (detective department).

He said when the US clients would contact the call centre for online purchases and disclose their credit card numbers, she would note them down.

As the Japanese economy recovers, investment trends are showing increased interest in India and other Asian countries, at the expense of China. According to Japanese sources, investment interest in China is on the wane because terms being offered by Beijing are not as generous as they once were.

[A]lthough Beijing still offers incentives and facilities to investors from some industry sectors, like in high-tech fields, it is no longer as conductive and significantly lucrative for business since many high-tech sectors are increasingly getting saturated there.

In addition, the Chinese labor market has lost its appeal because of high social security costs in the Middle Kingdom.

The Japan Economy and Trade Organization (JETRO) estimates that China’s social-security burden ratio is one of the highest in Southeast Asia, ranging between 9 percent and to 44 percent, while the Philippines is the lowest at about 7 percent. While low wages are one of the merits of China, its social-security burden is exceedingly high, said JETRO.

There are some who go so far as to claim that the evaporation of Japanese investment funds earmarked for China may be behind the sudden upsurge in anti-Japanese demonstrations that have occurred recently there.

Sometimes it feels as if bureaucrats breed like rats, and nowhere is this truer than in New Delhi, India, where they have their very own municipal Rat Surveillance Department (RSD).

Staffed by 97 rat catchers who are paid 3,500 rupees ($77) a month each, the RSD has a pretty dismal record – there has been no recorded capture of a rodent by an official rat catcher for more than 10 years!

That is not to say that is a lack of potential targets in New Delhi, for rats can be seen everywhere – in parks, on streets, and in homes.

Though officials were quoted as saying that traps are set whenever a complaint is received about presence of rats in any other government department, they had no recollection of when or where any trap had been set.

After a fight with his wife, an Indian man stormed out of his house and disappeared for two years. Imagine the shock of is family when he returned as a eunuch!

While the man was away, he had himself castrated, and started earning money singing and dancing.

According to the man, “I was always fond of singing and dancing, but felt suffocated in my body as a man.”

His wife, who fainted when she saw her husband’s new look, wants a divorce.

The Economic Times reports that only a quarter of condoms that are made in India are actually being used for sex. The rest are being used in the manufacture of saris, toys and bathroom slippers.

The condoms are valuable to manufacturers because of the lubricant on them. Sari weavers place the condoms on their thread spools and the lubricant on the prophylactics is rubbed off on the thread, making it move faster through their sewing machines, The Economic Times newspaper quoted an Indian industry official as saying.

Sari makers also turn the condom’s inside out, place them on their fingers and use the high-quality lubricant to polish gold and silver threads used in the traditional Indian women’s outfits.