Chindongu is the not-so-ancient Japanese art of inventing ingenious everyday gadgets that, on the face of it, seem like an ideal solution to a particular problem. However, Chindogu has a distinctive feature: anyone actually attempting to use one of these inventions, would find that it causes so many new problems, or such significant social embarrassment, that effectively it has no utility whatsoever. Chindogu are sometimes described as ‘unuseless’ - that is, they cannot be regarded as ‘useless’ in an absolute sense, since they do actually solve a problem; however, in practical terms, they cannot positively be called ‘useful’. Vertigo soothing glasses, Portable office tie and Solar powered lighter are concrete reminders of how off-kilter humanity can become. The following are 20 examples culled from the pages of the book 101 unuseless inventions, written by Kenji Kawakami.
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