Sneak often gazes an envious eye over to the Far East; the land of the rising sun, the school girl panty-dispensing machine, karaoke, and Hello Kitty vibrators. But no, that’s not why Sneak’s peers are fascinated with Japan, it’s the bewildering rate of technological innovation and change that reduces geeks everywhere to a quivering mass of sweaty, lonely, nervous excitement. No matter that 90 percent of households don’t even have double glazing or central heating, and a bed consists of a thin lumpy mattress spread out on the floor, this is the nation that many look to in order to predict technology trends.

Well, maybe we shouldn’t look too closely in future, because some Japanese citizens are doing some rather disturbing things with our old friend the internet. Sneak read last week that police have arrested a certain Kazunari Saito on suspicion of killing a young lady – Sayaka Nishizawa – with sleeping pills and a plastic bag. But that’s not the weird bit. Apparently Saito was contacted by the girl herself on his mobile web site, asking him to come over and do her in. His site incidentally sells sleeping pills to people thinking about suicide, as you do - if this is the future of e-commerce and the mobile web, we should all be a little afraid.