Japanese Lawson convenience stores to stop selling adult magazines
January 24, 2019
/ Tadashi Anahori
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 ...
Ero-manga and adult vending machine reference books designated as harmful to young people by regional governments
April 20, 2018
/ Tadashi Anahori
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 ...
Adult video industry turns to new euphemism for Japanese schoolgirl porn
April 5, 2018
/ Tadashi Anahori
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 ...
Yuri Girls’ Love photography exhibition latest fetish event in Tokyo to be cancelled
March 15, 2018
/ Tadashi Anahori
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 ...
Latest “Futomomo” thighs photography exhibition in Tokyo cancelled after allegations of underage models
March 5, 2018
/ Tadashi Anahori
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 ...
2020 Olympics crackdown: Ministop convenience stores ban the sale of pornography magazines
November 22, 2017
/ Tadashi Anahori
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 ...
Pornography protected? Chiba City plan to cover up adult magazines at convenience stores stumbles
September 8, 2017
/ Tadashi Anahori
We've written before about the growing speculation on the fate of Japanese convenience store's typically ample selection of adult magazines. With the 2020 Tokyo Olympics fast approaching, some have noted the possible demise or at least temporary concealment of this corner of liberty in a straitened society.
Schemes are underway to make this a reality, though with mixed success.
Chiba City attempted to carry out a test with convenience stores, asking them to cover up their porn mags with covers and see what happened to sales. Unfortunately the 12 brands of 7-Eleven that the city had ...
A short history of the hair nude: Full-frontal nude photo shoots by Japanese actresses, models, and idols
July 18, 2016
/ Tadashi Anahori
The "hair nude" is a curious Japanese-English term. It refers not just to naked flesh; it's naked flesh specifically with genital hair.
What is "shocking" here is the display of pubic hair, the line by which art and entertainment is usually fettered in Japan. It is fine to have plenty of nudity in films and print publications, but to avoid the century-old ambiguous obscenity laws, people censored or did not show actual pubic hair.
The hair nude set out to deliberately show this bush taboo was something to be challenged, both legally and artistically.
While the likes of Nobuyoshi Araki ...
Vagina artist Rokudenashiko found guilty of obscenity
May 10, 2016
/ Tadashi Anahori
So-called "vagina artist" Rokudenashiko has been found guilty and convicted of a charge of obscenity, and ordered to pay a fee of ¥400,000 (around $3,700).
Rokudenashiko ("good-for-nothing girl"), whose real name is Megumi Igarashi and whose first manga book has just been released in English, was first arrested in July 2014 for distributing data that enabled recipients to make 3D prints of her vagina.
She was arrested again in December of that year for making a plaster mold of a kayak based on her genitals, which was displayed at an adult shop.
Her defence argues that her work ...
City in Osaka clamps down on convenience store adult magazines
April 8, 2016
/ Tadashi Anahori
Something that shocks some visitors to Japan is the volume of porn, soft-core porn or other adult magazines lining the shelves of convenience stores. It is placed in a certain section marked as "adult" but not on a top shelf like in other countries. And the covers make it very clear what is inside, awaiting the horny reader.
There has been talk about "cleaning this up" as we get closer to the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, but no concrete developments.
Until now. In what may be the first salvo against the freedom for pornographers to push their wares in open, a local mayor has taken the ...