Japan

I don’t pretend to understand Japan at all, but while this may seem rather funny, it’s surely also terribly melancholy: Japanese couples, too busy for a normal social life, are increasingly turning to actors to play their friends on the most important days of their lives. Several agencies have sprung up offering actors to attend weddings or even funerals… Agencies such as Hagemashi Tai – which means “I want to cheer you up” – charge around £100 for each “guest”. Other services such as giving a speech in praise of a bride or the groom cost extra. Increasingly busy and put upon, many Japanese surround themselves with only a very

I don’t know very much about Japan, but I hope we’ll hear more from Miyuki Hatoyama, the new Prime Minister’s wife. Japan’s new first lady is enlivening the nation’s grey-suited world of politics with colourful claims that she met a UFO in a dream and was whisked away to Venus. Miyuki Hatoyama, 66, the charismatic wife of the leader of the incoming Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), has also described how she met Tom Cruise in a former life and enjoys “eating” the sun for energy. Writing in a book published last year, she said: “While my body was asleep, I think my soul rode on a triangular-shaped UFO and