Everything you know about sex is true.

Hiromi Ozaki's alter-ego is Sputniko!, a Japanese pop star whose music, videos, performances and electronic devices explore themes of technology, gender and pop culture.

Hiromi is the author of devices such as the Pénis Cybernétique, a motorised penis which moves up and down based on her heartbeat and Crowbot Jenny, a dark-haired girl who goes around urban park carrying on her shoulder a crow-shaped robot that can communicate with crows and turn them into a bird army.

More than just a gadget, a video, a song, Sputniko! creates a whole character with its own manga-inspired aesthetics, attributes, super-powers and dynamics. Each of her projects has been produced in collaboration with scientists experts in Zoology, Medicine and Reproductive Science.

She received a lot of press fame recently thanks to her Menstruation Machine, Takashi's Take.

Fitted with a blood dispensing mechanism and lower-abdomen-stimulating electrodes (the same used by your uncle to muscle his abs while watching tv on the sofa, only that Hiromi maxed out the power of the contractions), the Menstruation Machine simulates the pain and bleeding of an average 5 day menstruation.

The machine could be worn by men who desire to feel closer to women and experience what they have to go through, but also by women when menstruation becomes obsolete in the future and the process becomes a mere ritual of gender and identity.

The artist made a music video to illustrate how and by whom the machine can be used.

The video 'Menstruation Machine - Takashi's Take' stars Takashi, a boy who builds the machine in an attempt to understand better what the girls he hang around with experience every month.

Trailer of Air Doll, a film directed by Hirokazu Koreeda and based on a manga by Yoshiie Gōda.

Hideo, who lives alone, owns a life-size air doll, which suddenly finds herself with a heart. Everything is new to her in the world outside Hideos house. She meets all kinds of people. The world is filled with so many beautiful things, but everyone seems to have some kind of hollowness, just as she has. In the morning, she pumps herself up, and takes a walk.

One afternoon, she meets Junichi who works at a rental video store, and instantly falls in love with him. A first date. New words she learns from him. She starts working with him at the store, enjoys talking and being with him. Everything seems to be going perfect, until something unexpected happens to the doll.

This is a story about a new form of love.

Via La Petite Claudine.

Triumph International, maker of the quirkiest (a diplomatic version of the word 'ridiculous') and most puzzling bras in the world, is offering a new kind of support for Japanese women on the prowl for a husband.

Their latest bra features an electronic nuptial timepiece, putting women seeking spouses literally on the clock. If an engagement ring is inserted into the mechanism, the countdown stops and the bra plays Felix Mendelssohn's "The Wedding March." The bra also includes holders for the traditional seal some people use to sign off contracts and a pen for any possible nuptial agreement.

Triumph spokeswoman Keiko Masuda said the product, which is not for sale, would suit modern Japanese women who are no longer content to sit and wait for a potential husband to approach them.

Via jezebel.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has developed a next-generation space toilet, which they hope to complete within the next five years.

Clean and easy to use, the envisioned space toilet is designed to be worn like a diaper around the astronaut’s waist at all times. Sensors detect when the user relieves him or herself, automatically activating a rear-mounted suction unit that draws the waste away from the body through tubes into a separate container. In addition to washing and drying the wearer after each use, the next-generation space toilet will incorporate features that eliminate unwanted sound and odor.

The developers indicate their next-generation space toilet may also prove useful in earthbound settings — particularly in hospitals with bedridden patients.

The current ISS toilet is a Russian-built, western-style commode that sucks waste away like a vacuum cleaner. Use of that toilet requires practice before heading to space, particularly because an improperly seated user has the potential to create a messy situation.

Via eyebeam reblog.

A Japanese lingerie retailer that sells underwear for cross-dressing men has found that bras have become one of its most popular items.

Since launching two weeks ago on Rakuten, a major Japanese web shopping mall, the Wishroom shop has sold over 300 men's bras for 2,800 yen (£20) each.

"I like this tight feeling. It feels good," Wishroom representative Masayuki Tsuchiya said.

Wishroom Executive Director Akiko Okunomiya said she was surprised at the number of men who were looking for their inner woman. "I think more and more men are becoming interested in bras. Since we launched the men's bra, we've been getting feedback from customers saying 'wow, we'd been waiting for this for such a long time'," she said.

Rakuten say the bra, which comes in black, pink and white, will “make you feel more gentle” and “give you a sense of relief - because that is a very important feeling to have”.

The underwear has stirred a heated debate online with more than 8,000 people debating the merits of men wearing bras in one night on Mixi, Japan's top social network website.

Part 2, Part 3, Part 4