Real wages in Japan dropped for the seventh-straight month in October from a year earlier.

Nominal pay was higher but grew at a slower pace than consumer inflation.

With the Nissan Z Proto officially revealed, a lot of questions have been answered. We know what it looks like, and it looks quite good. We know it will have a twin-turbo V6 and manual and automatic transmission options, which also sounds good. But it also raises many questions, since the company didn't give many specifics. One of those is, what is it going to be called? Yes, it will have a Z in the name, but there are numbers and maybe even an extra letter to determine! We don't have a final answer to that, but we have some ideas for what it could or perhaps should be called.

Whatever the Z Proto is called, it will almost certainly derive its numbers from its engine. Ever since its introduction, the engine displacement has dictated the name of the Z. The 240Z had a 2.4-liter engine, the 260Z a 2.6 and even up to today, the 370Z has a 3.7-liter engine. While Nissan hasn't given specifics about the twin-turbo engine, we have a good feeling it's probably a version of the 3.0-liter twin-turbo V6 used in the Infiniti Q50. As such, the new Z would logically have 300 in the name.

The marriage seems so right you wonder what took so long. Honda's hybrid powertrain is excellent and the CR-V is its best-selling model, yet the 2020 Honda CR-V Hybrid is only just arriving in dealers now. That's four years after this current CR-V generation was introduced, three years after the hybrid powertrain debuted in the Accord, two years after it was applied to the Insight (which is basically a Civic Hybrid) and five years since the first-generation Toyota RAV4 Hybrid was introduced.

The current RAV4 Hybrid is now Toyota's best-selling hybrid, and it would be shocking if this new CR-V Hybrid doesn't do the same trick for Honda. The powertrain is available on every trim level, effectively an option commanding a $1,225 premium over a comparable all-wheel-drive CR-V. That's impressively reasonable given its fuel economy advantage, added performance, agreeable drivability and lack of practical drawbacks.

flumpool have revealed the jacket covers for their new album "Real" that's slated for release on May 20. 

You may remember the jacket covers for flumpool's debut mini album "Unreal" (released in November of 2008) in which the members were pictured nude from behind. In order to portray the worldview of the album, that shows the current way of living after experiencing a period of setbacks and conflicts, the band decided to use the same studio and photographer to shoot the jacket covers. 

flumpool's new album "Real" will be released on May 20. 

This comes about 4 years since the band last released their album "EGG" in March of 2016. It will consist of a total of 13 tracks, such as "Subarashiki Uso," "HELP," and "Chiisana Hibi." 

The Nissan 350Z, despite being out of production for more than a decade, is still a superb sports car and a joy to drive. We suspect this particular 350Z is a little less enjoyable because of its out-of-this-world bodywork, however.