Japanese Turning To "Therapeutic Ringtones"

indiavision writes "A host of young Japanese are drawn to the allure of 'therapeutic ringtones' — a genre of melodies that promises to ease a range of day-to-day gripes, from chronic insomnia to a rotten hangover. Developed by Matsumi Suzuki, the head of the Japan Ringing Tone Laboratory, an eight-year-old subsidiary of the Japan Acoustic Laboratory, the tones are a hit with housewives as well as teenagers."

Re:Theraputic?

[icebike]

I can't speak to Theraputic, but having a loud annoying ring tone affects the way most people answer the phone.

Something soothing sets the mood. Something loud or annoying tends to make people snap at the caller.

This was found when the first electronic handsets were introduced to offices. They came with a selection of ring tones and office managers quickly determined that setting the phones to use the more pleasant sounding the ring, lead to more civil answering, even during hectic times.

Well, the smart money is on it, at least.

[PaganRitual]

the tones are a hit with housewives as well as teenagers.

Ah, the two most well-informed, fad-immune, money-conscious target markets out there. If anything was going to convince me that this wasn't just total bullshit, it would be the take up of this concept by those two groups. I'll take three, please.

Re:Ringtone?

[bahstid]

I didn't RTFA either, but my phone (I live in Japan) has a "Spa Menu", with a feature called "Healing Illumination" when turned on makes kind of peaceful sounds... sort of "ambient", as in the music genre, along with blinkenlights fading between "soothing" pale shades of colour. (Other settings on the menu are to display an hourglass or clock, presumably to keep yourself from being overcooked, the obvious music/radio/tv player and even a quiz section to brush up on your English or Maths while you soak)

To answer your question though, these sounds and light display can also be set up to be the result of an incoming call, so the answer is probably BOTH.

My phone is at least 2 years old though, so I'm guessing this "news" is a bit of an evolution of that. In case you are wondering what the obsession is with bathing, the phone is waterproof, so I guess when the phone was released taking it into the bath [wikipedia.org] with you was a big selling point... Camera and all.