????如果你想搞清楚人造乳房能否經受住滾燙的溫泉的考驗，熊貓糞便是否會溶解垃圾，機器人能否進入大學這些稀里古怪的問題，那么日本將是一個滿足你好奇心的好去處。

????如此隱秘的事情正是價值1,300億美元的日本研發產業某些分支樂而不疲的研究對象。上周，一年一度的搞笑諾貝爾獎（Ig Noble）在哈佛大學（Harvard University）舉行頒獎儀式時，組織者馬克?亞伯拉罕將給予這些日本研究人員以無聲的感謝。他說，倘若沒有他們，這個獎根本就辦不起來。“這么長時間以來，日本一直在推薦不容我們錯過的研究成果。”他還暗示說，對于日本來說，今天又將是一個喜獲豐收的日子。

????他指出，這些研究在試圖解決問題，帶動產業發展的同時，獲得了某種出人意料的深度，還產生了一個額外的好處：給人們帶來會心一笑。

????這個獎項目前已經有22年的歷史。亞伯拉罕說，期間，就資歷而論，有兩個國家迄今為止的表現可謂出類拔萃。“日本和英國持續不斷地涌現出數量可觀的搞笑諾貝爾獎得主，”他說。“我認為，出現這種局面的部分原因在于兩國文化所共有的某種特質。大多數其他國家都容不下怪人。與這些國家恰恰相反的是，日本和英國以本國的怪人而自豪。”

????日本的實際情況或許正是如此。這是一個將二戰后的貧瘠轉化為世界第二大經濟體（往往要歸功于堅韌的國民精神，以及能工巧匠的創造力）的民族，另類發明家的確在尋求靈感的日本工薪一族的心目中占有特殊的分量。日本有一些頗受歡迎的電視節目專門呈現這些孤僻的發明家及其發明成果。這些發明當時看起來似乎有些稀奇古怪，但很快就會成為引領風潮，或者具有革命性的產品。任天堂公司（Nintendo）的Wii和電子寵物（Tamagotchi）就是兩個經典的例子。

????諾貝爾獎獲得者（迄今為止共18位）在日本也備受推崇。日本希望在未來50年中再涌現出30位諾獎得主。為了達成這項目標，日本每年投入的研發資金占國民生產總值（GNP）的比重（3.47% ）比任何其他國家都要高——美國的這項比率為2.81%，中國為1.55%。日本的研發預算額度在全球位列第三位，并且擁有逾70萬名研究人員。

????頗具諷刺意味的是，正是這種帶有迫切感，鄭重其事的創新策略，激發出了相當多非傳統的研究，而且在不經意間產生出滑稽的效果。“在我看來，這么多日本人獲得搞笑諾貝爾獎的原因在于日本研究人員具有一種嚴苛的實事求是精神，”筑波大學（Tsukuba University）首席科學發起人渡邊正孝指出。筑波大學是日本最主要的創新中心之一。

????“這種悖論是馬克?亞伯拉罕的幽默感造成的。日本的獲獎者們并不認為自己的研究是很滑稽的事情。但馬克卻發現這些研究成果非常搞笑。”承認一種“荒唐失效感”或許更加接近這個島國的現實：在日本，諷刺是一個跟和尚燒烤同樣稀罕的事物。

????自22年前，組織者拉攏真正的諾貝爾獎得主頒發這些“令人笑掉大牙”的獎項以來，日本人已經輕而易舉地斬獲了15項搞笑諾貝爾獎。與真正的諾貝爾獎一樣，搞笑諾貝爾獎也劃分為包括和平、生物和物理在內的類別。這個發明獎項的目的是向意想不到的后果之神致敬，因此，2004年的和平獎頒發給卡拉OK的發明者井上大佑堪稱實至名歸，因為他“為人類提供了一種學會彼此容忍的全新方式。”

????If you ever wondered if artificial breasts can survive scalding hot springs, whether panda dung will dissolve garbage, and if a robot could enter university, then Japan would be the place to satisfy your curiosity.

????Such esoteric research is meat and drink to certain branches of the $130 billion research and development industry here. To which, when the annual Ig Noble prizes are presented at Harvard today, its organizer Marc Abrahams will give silent thanks. He couldn't do without them, he says. "Japan has been putting up stuff for so long it's hard to miss," he says hinting today will be another bumper year for Japan.

????He refers to research that, while attempting to solve problems and drive industry, has achieved some crooked profundity while generating the added bonus of making people smile.

????So far, in the prize's 22-year-history, two nations stand out amongst others in eligibility says Abrahams. "Japan and the UK both have consistently produced impressive numbers of Ig Nobel Prize winners," he says. "I think that's partly due to something the two cultures share. Most other countries punish their eccentrics. Japan and the UK, in contrast, are proud of their eccentrics."

????That certainly might be true of Japan. For the people who transformed post-war penury into the world's number two economy -- often thanks to persistence and tinkerers' ingenuity -- offbeat inventors do have a special place in the heart of the nation's inspiration-seeking salarymen. Some popular TV here is devoted to lone inventors and their innovations that seemed quirky at the time but quickly become novel or breakthrough. Nintendo's (NTDOY) Wii or the Tamagotchi are two examples.

????Noble prize winners (18 so far) are appreciated, too. Japan wants to produce 30 Nobel prize winners over the next 50 years. And in that quest spends more on R&D as part of gross national product than any other (3.47% of GNP compared to US 2.81% and China 1.55%). While Japan has the third largest budget globally for R&D and over 700,000 researchers.

????Ironically it is this driven, earnest approach to innovation that ingenuously sparks a fair bit of unconventional research, and the unintentionally funny. "I think the reason why we have a disproportion (of Japanese Ig Noble winners) is the strict matter-of-fact-ness of Japanese researcher," points out Masataka Watanabe, chief science promoter for one of Japan's great centers of innovation -- Tsukuba University.

????"Such a paradox is caused by Marc Abraham's sense of humor. Japanese laureates don't see their research as funny. But Marc has found funny things in them." This admission to a sense-of-the-absurd-failure might be closer to the truth in the land where irony is as rare as a Zen barbecue.

????The Japanese have so far romped 15 Ig Noble prizes after 22 years of roping in actual Noble prize winners to give out the tounge-placed-firmly-in-cheek awards, which like the real Nobles are divided into categories including Peace, Biology, and Physics. As a type of invention's homage to the god of unintended consequences, Daisuke Inoue's 2004 Peace prize for inventing karaoke and "providing an entirely new way for people to learn to tolerate each other," was apt.