In Japan, it's kind of a badge of honor for people to say that they are working hard and busy—super-busy. It’s the busier the better. And certainly, while some people’s workdays are hectic and full of activity, it’s more typical for people at work to say that they're busy even when they are not. This serves as evidence to others and themselves that they are important members of society and their organizations. It also serves as a barrier to prevent the assignment of additional work. It's so common for people in Japan to say that they're busy, that when I am in other countries I'm surprised when people proudly tell me, ‘I’m not so busy.’

On the other hand, it seems the image that many people tend to have of artist life is of a free, relaxed and independent lifestyle. But that’s far from the reality. The Japanese artists we work with are actually always working hard and really are busy—with no need to convince themselves or others of their value to any organization. Think of the hardest working doctor, investment banker, consultant or teacher that you know and that's how hard many of these artists work.

Last week Facebook hit a record-breaking 500 million users, prompting many to dub it the ‘third most populous nation’ in the world.

The Economist covered this news by creating a simple graphic illustrating the idea of Facebook as a country, and suggested in a piece that while it’s clearly not a sovereign state, the social networking site is in many ways ‘beginning to look and act like one.’

While I’m a pretty avid user of the Facebook, I was quite sceptical of this claim, and am still far from believing that ‘liking’ others’ status updates and articles and tending to virtual farms is in any way close to the way we go about our real lives. The idea, in fact, that I could be eligible for a passport for my Facebook membership is absurd.

But admitting first that such a forecast for Facebook ‘still smacks of cyber-fantasy,’ the Economist’s piece does makes a pretty good case for the possibility, mentioning ways in which the social networking forum might already be for regular ‘inhabitants’ a sort of liberal state for them to exist in, where they can regularly ‘air opinions, rally support and right wrongs.’ Furthermore, it argues that the social networking forum has already begun to steer the course of its own online economy, in a fashion not unlike real-life governments who ‘seek to influence economic activity in the real world, through fiscal and monetary policy.’

And it also throws out the idea that Facebook may thus grow to one day influence how these real world governments manage and execute their own services.

This reminded me of news coming out of the Philippines today that puts Facebook in the role of an honorary unintended hero for aiding in a high-profile murder case. According to news sources, the suspect, 28-year-old Mark Dizon, was arrested by Filipino police forces today in Manila after being identified by several witnesses through his Facebook account, more specifically his profile photo.

Facebook has been shown to influence peoples’ work lives—employees have been fired for making public blunders on the forum and there are warnings of professional reputations being tarnished by too much disclosure online. But this is the first time I’ve heard of Facebook in the region directly affecting a real-world crime case. We’ll see what’s next as it continues as a global presence.

Image: Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg at the  World Economic Forum in 2009. By Robert Scoble.

Last week I compiled a list of 5 things banned in the Asia-Pacific, which included beards in Japan, junk food ads in Korea and certain hairstyles—including the much-shunned mullet—in Iran.

As for the latter, earlier this month, Iran’s Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance released a catalogue of ‘Islamically permissible hairstyles’ for men, emphasizing that the purpose of the guide is to ‘protect culture and respect Iranian tradition,’ by coming up with appropriate hairstyles that ‘confront Western cultural invasion.’ And the international media jumped on the story, giving it the catchy treatment: ‘Iran bans the mullet.’

I wondered what the Iranian media itself, as well those in the country, likely made of the news and so spoke to Diplomat columnist Meir Javedanfar, an Iranian native, about the matter.

The concept of mail-order brides has been around not for decades, but centuries, rooted in 1800s US settlement life, when migration to new and isolated lands forced people to seek companionship and marriage via long-distance ‘dating’ methods such as posting adverts in churches and letter writing.

Of course, with the Internet, mail-order spouses and marriage brokering can happen much faster and more frequently, across oceans and borders. Marriages, for example, between Japanese men and foreign women have risen sharply (by 73 percent) over the decade from 1995 and hit 35,993 in 2006 according to an official report.

Among things prohibited in the Asia-Pacific so far this year are junk food ads in Korea, mullets in Iran and facial hair in Japan.

1. Junk Food Commercials

(South Korea)

In January, Korea’s Ministry of Health, Welfare and Family Affairs imposed a strict ‘junk food curfew,’ for which TV commercials that promote processed and unhealthy foods with high fat, sugar and salt content (like pizza and hamburgers) are banned from airing between 5 and 7pm.

All TV ads (including promotional video and audio) for culinary items exceeding 250 calories, with less than 2 grams of protein or more than 4 grams of saturated fat or 17 grams of sugar per serving, are also included in the ban.

The new rules came into place after a couple of years of warnings by experts of the likely link between growing child obesity in the country and TV commercials ‘encouraging consumption of these products.’