Are journalists often attacked by angry mobs in Japan? Ninjas? There must be some reason why Yoshiro Nakamats of Tokyo decided to invent this combination notepad / brass knuckles. Yoshiro’s application was filed on October 8, 1996 and granted U.S. Patent 5,823,572 on October 20, 1998. From the abstract:
The memo pad has a plurality of edges and an indentation in at last one of the edges adapted to accept at least part of at least one finger or the victim’s hand such that the indentation facilitates the victim’s capability to firmly grasp and hold the memo pad in the victim’s hand, whereby the memo pad can thereby be used by the victim as a self defense weapon to ward off perpetrators.
The inventor also stresses that this notepad makes it “possible to provide protection from a mugger and also to quickly and easily write a record or a message without failure of missing or forgetting significant information under a stressful situation.”
I have a whole new respect for journalists stationed in Japan.
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