Too lazy to pick up a TV guide magazine to find out what's on the good ol' telly? Now you can find out from your Wii! If your Wii lives in Japan.

We've known about this for a few months, but today, Japan has seen the launch of the Wii TV Friend Channel. This new Channel allows users to view TV schedules and times, but it's a lot more interesting than we first believed it to be.

In addition to the rather obvious viewing of schedules from the Japanese G-Guide, users can highlight any shows they find interesting with a Mii, and also give programs star ratings. Still not excited? You can also use your Wii Remote to change channels on your actual TV.

Friend codes also rear their ugly head - anyone you've exchanged friend codes with will be able to see which programs you like, and vice versa. And for the final, rather awesome, feature, you're able to register your email address and/or mobile phone number with the Channel and have program reminders sent to you 30 minutes before the start of a program.

Here's a couple of videos showing off the new Channel:

A rep from NOE has also commented today that there are no plans to bring this Channel to Europe, reinforcing what we already knew from the GDC. This is a shame, as the Wii TV Friend Channel actually looked really good, but at least we can save the unused 135 blocks for WiiWare and the Virtual Console.