Adult satellite network Paradise TV is poised to hold its annual charity telethon, promising to get physical with its philanthropy, according to Shukan Taishu (8/20-27).

Click the link below to see what's happening in the world of the weeklies, from Aug. 13-17.

A woman cavorts on the beach in Apia, Samoa with her daughter while watching the spectacular South Pacific sunset; a young man strums out Irish folk tunes on his harp on the streets of Dublin.

There's little as disheartening as a bad session in the sack; a point many Japanese are painfully aware of judging by the enormous sales of sex manuals, according to Spa! (8/14-21).

Good Japanese girls are always taught to protect their chastity, and for the large part they do -- though there are occasional lapses, and they have to start over again.

Mitsuru Akaboshi is a big man in the world of Japan's little people, rising -- metaphorically at least -- from the streets of Saitama Prefecture's gritty Hasuda to become arguably the country's most famous midget actor, according to Jitsuwa Knuckles (September).

Giving an entirely new meaning to "exercise balls" is a new health method gaining popularity in Japan.

Posh women are increasingly returning to the arms of their old beaus, even if they're as fat, bald and stinky as their husbands, in a phenomenon Shukan Gendai (8/18-25) labels "recycling sex."

Click the link below for a healthy helping of both from the weeklies, for the week Aug. 6-10.

Are you suffering from severe carpal tunnel syndrome and physically unable to relieve yourself? Or are you merely experiencing short-term cash flow problems and unable to afford 'honban' (the real thing) or 'sumata' -- best described as the closest you can get to the real thing without penetration?

Surprisingly, considering how many Japanese take pride in overworking, the latest pet fad to hit Japan is the barely moving, lazy sloth, according to AERA (8/13-20).

Summer, when women wear skimpier clothes and expose more flesh, traditionally sparks a jump in cases of train groping, Japan's national scourge that Shukan Post (8/17-24) says is all triggered by the brain.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe led Japan's perennial rulers the Liberal Democratic Party to a shattering House of Councillors defeat of unprecedented proportions because he cares more for his miniature dachshund than the welfare of the Japanese people, according to Friday (8/17).

Mina Sakai creates quite an impression as she uses black lipstick to mark her face in the way Japan's indigenous people, the Ainu, once tattooed women's face to mark their entry into adulthood, according to AERA (8/13-20).

Gunma Prefecture has the ugliest women in Japan, according to Shukan Shincho (8/9), which cites the results of an online survey that gave the rustic prefecture the lowest rank of women's beauty in any of Japan's 47 prefectures.

Click the link below to join in a summer of, amongst other things, love, courtesy of the weeklies from July 30 to Aug. 3.

"Yama Onna, Kabe Onna" (Mountain Woman, Wall woman), cartoonist Atsuko Takakura's popular manga that touches on female protuberances -- or the lack thereof -- is now a humorous drama series on TV.

Japan's adult toy market is expanding more furiously than many of the organs it caters for, according to Shukan Post (8/10).

Tadao Yoshida gets around Tokyo on a motorbike with a huge container on the back identical to those used by Japanese pizza delivery staff; but instead of carrying around diavolas or family deluxes, he carts bonsai from place to place, according to Shukan Shincho (8/2).

The 28-year-old woman's life started to change about three years ago when she was picked to become an important part of her company's systems management project.