The Problem With Japanese Inventions…

We’ve all read the books and – for those for whom books are anathema – the websites about the zany Japanese inventions designed to improve day-to-day life.

Butter in a glue stick, slippers with a retractable rod in the heel to squash cockroaches from a distance, double-headed jugs so you can pour two glasses of water at a time, and my absolute favourite: the hardhat with a suction cup on the back, so you can attach yourself to the train window on the way home and fall asleep without your head falling into your chest.

The problem with these inventions is that they seem to ignore one fairly major factor in the success of a new product: will it embarrass me?

And it’s difficult, really, to know whether this is really some international prank perpetrated by the Japanese upon the West. Some contrived and frighteningly complicated genius plan to take over the world while we’re busy laughing at the head-mounted tissue dispenser.

“Mwa ha ha, they must really think we’re insane! Keep churning out the chopsticks with the noodle-cooling, battery-powered fan attached, my pretties! They’ll never know what hit them!”

I’m sure that’s it.

The image at the top of this article is perhaps the most functional and least humiliating whacky invention I’ve seen from Japan yet, but in the same vein, I offer the following:

Surely the most protective umbrella, but good luck speaking to anyone...

The second-least embarrassing umbrella invention from Japan, but still...

What exactly do you do with the curtain when you're finished with it? Roll it up? Wrap it around your arm?

Sure you're collecting water, but you're also getting soaked.

What are your favourite Japanese inventions? Link them up in the comments!

[Buy the shoulder-mounted umbrella holder at Amazon Japan]