Mixi Adds New Friends-Making Feature For Shy Japanese

Mixi, Japan’s largest social network service, introduced a new feature around Mai-Miku(=My Mixi, my friends) management, called My List.
Your new “My List” is completely private for you, no one can see who is on it. You may add other Mixi users by random browsing, or from recommended users list. Without letting them notice, you can make a list of possible future friends.
Plus, you can mark “Mai-Miku O.K.”(It will be okay if s/he is my friend) to others on your list. If the other person marks you as a possible friend, you will become standard friends after an undetermined time span.

With this system, The Mixi release explains [J], that a shy Japanese person who thinks s/he can not ask others to become friends, and who feels it would be so embarrassing if their friend-request was rejected, will be able to make more friends on Mixi.
Sound very Japanese?
(proofread by Sean O’Hagan)