Japanese cognitive scientist puts his research to use with subliminal messages for handsets
When Japanese cognitive scientist turned criminal psychologist Hideto Tomabechi began researching the subconscious in the 1980s, mobile phones were the size and weight of bricks and a bulging bank balance was required to buy one.
These days mobile penetration in Japan is about 62 per cent, and a growing number of users have downloaded Mr Tomabechi's research onto their handsets in the form of 'miracle' ring tones with subliminal messages that promise biological enhancements from bigger breasts to improved memory and greater sex appeal.
'I never intended to make this a business - a Japanese content provider approached me to apply my research commercially,' Mr Tomabechi said.
'The breast enlargement ring-tone was released first just to gain attention, but there are ring tones for better memory, [sex appeal] and weight loss.'
According to Japanese distributor Mediaseek, the bust-enhancing ring tone clocked 10,000 downloads in its first week of release in July and reached 50,000 in the following three months.
But Mr Tomabechi said his more serious ring tones were not nearly as popular. 'The ring tone that makes users more appealing to the opposite sex is getting 70 per cent of the downloads, but the ones that I think are important, such as improving memory, don't get downloaded,' he said.