Japan's oldest "love doll" manufacturer wants to strip the sex toys of their seedy image and encourage people to see them as works of art instead. "Even now there is still a stigma," said Junpei Oguchi, a representative for Tokyo-based sex doll maker Orient Industry, which recently celebrated its 40th anniversary with a three-week exhibition showing the evolution of its dolls that drew over 10,000 visitors. "But at our exhibition there were lots of men and women visitors -- more women than men, in fact," he said. "There were young and old, men and women, a really wide range of people. I think people came because they had heard the reputation of how beautiful our dolls are. We want to get rid of the stigma."

Stocks extended their winning streak to a fourth session on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Thursday, backed by the yen's further drop against the dollar and a brighter U.S. economic outlook. The Nikkei average rose 79.86 points, or 0.47 percent, to finish at 16,899.10. On Wednesday, it gained 83.59 points. The Topix index closed up 6.12 points, or 0.45 percent, at 1,353.93, after climbing 7.60 points the previous day. The Tokyo market opened sharply higher thanks to the weaker yen and gains on Wall Street.