Popping pleasure !

Stress relief, diet aid, lucky charm: few can resist the allure of bubble wrap and now a Japanese company is finding new reasons to pop till you drop.

In Japan, the plastic packaging material is best known by a local brand-name Puti Puti, pronounced "poochy-poochy", and Kawakami Sangyo Co, its biggest manufacturer, has set up the Puti Puti Culture Laboratory dedicated to finding unusual uses for it.

"I think about Puti Puti almost every waking hour," said Ayaka Sugiyama, the head of the laboratory whose hobbies include singing in a five-person band called "Puti Metal".

"I'm not an expert in psychology, but it is said that if people see a chair, they want to sit in it. If they see a button on an intercom, they want to push it," she said.

"It's the same with Puti Puti. The bubbles stick out, so you want to squash them."

Hoping to tap into Puti Puti's appeal, Sugiyama started jotting down notes on unusual uses of the packaging material about seven years ago and the ideas were compiled in a "Puti Puti Official Book" published last year.

Among the suggestions are injecting the bubbles with coloured ink to create mosaic-like artwork, sitting on the sheets at picnics, sewing them into in a wedding dress and -- this from an 85-year-old woman -- popping bubbles to help prevent senility.

Kawakami Sangyo teamed up with toy maker Bandai Corp to develop a Mugen Puti Puti, or an "infinite pop pop" key chain with eight re-poppable bubbles -- although Puti Puti purist Sugiyama admits the sensation isn't the same as the real thing.

Sugiyama, a slender 30-year-old, says she sometimes pops Puti Puti bubbles while watching TV as a way to keep her hands busy and refrain from munching junk food.

Kawakami Sangyo, whose main customers for Puti Puti are manufacturers, is creating products aimed at retail consumers.

"Pucchin Sukatto", a box of small bubble wrap sheets developed solely for popping, went on sale at convenience stores for 198 yen ($1.78) in October and a "Puti Puti Calendar" comes with a square bubble on each day of the month.

"For those who think one Puti Puti per day is not enough, there are extras at the end of each month," Sugiyama said.

Kawakami Sangyo also includes one heart-shaped bubble per every 10,000 on ordinary wrapping for good luck -- sort of like a four-leaf clover -- and offers special sheets of giant bubbles that make a startlingly loud cracking noise when popped.

The company is now trying to develop star-shaped bubbles as well as scented Puti Puti, though both have proven tricky.

"The scent doesn't last," Sugiyama said of the efforts so far to make strawberry-scented Puti Puti.

"But we're still trying. Bursting the bubbles makes you feel calm and reduces stress and if there were a scent, it would be even more soothing."