We have by now learned to accept the innate contradiction that exists at the heart of Japanese porn: that the country has one of the largest, most varied industries in the world, and yet it also adheres to an interpretation of a century-plus-old obscenity law that says you cannot show genitalia. Hence JAV always has "mosaic" -- pixellation of the penis and vagina.
We have gotten used to this and no longer find it distracting, nor do we think it actually obscures the really important stuff (i.e., the beautiful face and body of the porn star).
Others, though, disagree and there exist ...
Horny otaku in Akihabara will have to go somewhere else for their kicks -- because they can no longer stand on the street and admire buxom anime ladies.
Perhaps in another sign that Tokyo is becoming less tolerant, not least as the behemoth of 2020 looms large, a billboard in the gaming and anime subculture district has been removed following complaints that it was too sexy.
Installed on November 1st, the billboard was an ad for the video game Motto! Haramase! Honoo no Oppai Chou Ero *Heart Mark* App Gakuen! (もっと！孕ませ！炎のおっぱい超エロ♡アプリ学園！) -- ...
The famed Tobita Shinchi red light district in Osaka will close down during the upcoming Group of 20 summit in late June, according to media reports
Tobita Shinchi is a rare example of an old-style red light district (yukaku) in Japan, similar to how Yoshiwara used to be in Tokyo, featuring rows of licensed establishments in which young ladies sit in open doorways waiting for patrons.
This time it's not the authorities actually doing the closing; it's kind of a case of self-censorship. Apparently the Tobita Shinchi association itself has agreed to "restrain" its activities during the ...
We stumbled upon this great Twitter feed detailing a report by Shinbunka, the publishing industry trade journal in Japan, about the decline of the much-loved porn magazine vending machine. It also cites from an interview with the photographer Tetsuya Kurosawa, who has documented the vending machines (visiting some 500 locations along the way!).
It's true, we haven't seen one for many a moon. Here's why.
At the peak of the adult vending machine boom, there were some 50,000 machines nationwide in the 1970s. That lofty number has been reduced to a mere fraction now.
What are left are often ...
And so the pre-Olympic crackdown continues.
After earlier initiatives outside Tokyo, we reported in November 2017 on the decision by the convenience store chain Ministop to stop selling pornographic magazines.
Well, the sentiment is spreading and one of the largest chains in the country, Lawson, announced on January 21st that its 14,574 branches nationwide would in principle cease sales of adult magazines by the end of August.
Until now, it was up to affiliates in the franchise whether or not they sold porn magazines, which typically are available in most conbinis among the rack of ...
Just when you think the bureaucrats couldn't get any sillier, along come some to prove you wrong.
Activists and ero-manga (adult manga) fans in Japan have been shocked by the recent designation by Hokkaido and Shiga prefectures of two reference books as "harmful" to youngsters.
Zenkoku-ban Anohino Erohon Jihanki Tanbouki (Nationwide Study of Pornography Vending Machine of Yesterdays) and Ero Manga Hyogenshi (The Expression History of Ero-manga) by Yusuke Kato are about adult manga but are not adult manga themselves. But this distinction means nothing to Shiga and Hokkaido: the former ...
If you like Japanese schoolgirl porn -- that is Japanese adult video with a schoolgirl theme, though performers will be above legal age -- then you may well know that Japanese porn titles often use euphemisms to describe this subgenre.
The Japanese word "joshi kosei" means "high school girl" but by writing the third with a different kanji (女子校生, rather than 女子高生), it was possible to hide the "high" part and just make it look like female students without a specific age -- even more useful if you also wanted to hint that the students are younger than high school age.
The ...
Following the high-profile cancellation of the latest "Futomomo" thighs fetish exhibition, another exhibition has run afoul of Ikebukuro Marui department store this month.
Mixing photography and illustration, the annual Girls' Love (yuri) (as opposed to Boys' Love) fetish exhibition was set to run from March 17th to March 25th at the Ikebukuro branch of Marui. The "Yuri Exhibition" event has now been cancelled for reasons that are not yet fully clear. The organizers (who include subculture store Village Vanguard) claim that it has now become "difficult" for the exhibitors to display and ...
The latest edition of the immensely successful "Futomomo" series of exhibitions has been cancelled amid allegations of underage models.
These exhibitions by the photographer Yuria have showcased Japanese female thighs in all manner of poses and settings, and have some 35,000 fans since the first event in July 2015. Last year there was even a spin-off cafe.
But the most recent exhibition, which was set to run at Ikebukuro Marui department store from March 9th to March 26th, has been cancelled over allegations that the models may be legally minors and that the photography was promoting ...
And so it begins.
It started in Chiba and Osaka, where convenience stores began covering up adult magazines to "protect" minors from seeing the sexual images.
The clampdown continues anew as Tokyo attempts to "clean up" ahead of the 2020 Olympic Games in the city and the ongoing inbound tourism boom.
Now the Ministop convenience store chain has announced that it will no longer sell pornographic magazines.
Such magazines are a staple of every konbini in Japan, usually tucked away in their own corner.
We hate to say "We told you so" but we actually predicted this way back in ...
