The Osaka expo has proved controversial for a number of reasons, not least the huge budget overruns, the infestation of bugs, the unfinished pavilions, and the overpriced food.
But what about panchira (panties flash)? The latest issue involves a young Japanese woman who has posed for photos deliberately showing off her panties, and then posted those pics on social media for likes and views.
She certainly succeeded in getting a lot of attention.
The OL-themed cosplayer yuu_OLdays posed against the expo's famous wooden ring structure (the largest wooden structure in the world), wearing expo ...
In a first in Japan, four people have been arrested for making nude pictures of women using generative AI and then selling them online as posters.
It is first such time in Japan that an arrest has been made for selling obscene materials made entirely using AI. (Though we have seen at least one arrest before for a man who used AI to decensor porn.)
According to investigators, 44-year-old Tomohiro Mizutani and two other men and a 27-year-old woman sold such materials on multiple occasions via an online auction site in around October 2024. The materials were posters featuring printed versions ...
Back in 2019, we lamented the (fortunately temporary) closure of Osaka's red-light district Tobita Shinchi in a bid to stave off a crackdown by the authorities ahead of the G-20 summit. (Because the 2020 Olympics ended up being held in 2021 and with basically no visitors, the Tokyo Games ultimately did not involve as much of a crackdown on porn and sex services as expected.
There's nothing we hate more than hypocrisy and trying to hide what society is truly like, but Osaka is at it again.
With next year's expo fast approaching, Osaka police have raided a strip club called the Toyo Show ...
The founder of Japanese video hosting site FC2, Riyo Takahashi, once ran unsuccessfully for election in Japan's upper house.
His campaign platform was to "crush mosaic censorship," referring to the pixellation that covers genitalia in Japanese porn to protect producers and retailers from prosecution under Japan's obscenity law, which is usually interpreted as drawing the line at showing a penis or vagina. (This same logic is applied to nudity in mainstream movies too.)
Now Takahashi has been arrested by police in Japan when he returned to the country. The 51-year-old was arrested on ...
We've said it before and we'll say it again: we think shunga, erotic woodblock prints, are one of the most impressive and significant parts of Japanese historical culture, and that the government should be singing its praises from the rooftops, instead of trying to hide them and keep people from seeing them under threat of prosecution.
Fortunately, we are no longer alone. Shunga has achieved global success, not least in the form of a very successful art exhibition in Britain in 2013, which belatedly came to Japan in 2015 and attracted huge crowds.
Money talks. Organizers now can point to ...
Back in May, we reported on the arrests of the head of Japanese secondhand book store chain Mandarake and four of its employees over the sale of sexually explicit old photo books, which the chain apparently sold online and at two of its stores.
Though "hair nude" photo books with full-frontal nudity have been produced and sold by mainstream publishers for decades, the books in question here were so-called "vinyl books," which are older and more obscure -- and less regulated. They constitute a kind of gray zone in terms of adult publications in Japan: hair nude books are "celebrity books" or ...
Convenience stores are, well, convenient for a number of reasons: the food and drink available, paying your bills, using the copy machine, or popping to the bathroom.
Some conbini have a rule that you are meant to inform the staff on duty that you wish to use the toilet. Many people don't bother to ask permission but it seems one customer in Fukuoka took this rule a bit far.
The 28-year-old Atsushi Iwao was such a stickler for the rules, in fact, that he even specified exactly what he planned to do inside the public convenience. And it wasn't a number one or number two.
Indeed, as he ...
Though there is a tiny inkling of a chance that this might change if FC2 founder Riyo Takahashi wins a seat in the Japanese Upper House this month, it remains illegal in Japan to sell or distribute uncensored porn.
The "mosaic" look has become an iconic part of Japanese adult video: those grainy pixels where the penis and vagina should be.
Personally, we don't mind it. But some are put off by the constant blur and there is clearly a market for uncensored Japanese porn. Just don't try selling it if you are in Japan.
Masayuki Nakamoto was arrested last October for selling uncensored adult ...
Elections bring out the eccentrics, with plenty of novelty candidates reliably popping up to keep us amused. Past examples include the wannabe politician who wore government-supplied face masks as a bra or the regular appearances of Teruki Goto -- including once nude on his campaign poster.
With the recent passing of the controversial new law regulating the porn industry, how are candidates responding to the current situation?
We found two intriguing examples among candidates for the upcoming Upper House election.
Riyo Takahashi, the 48-year-old founder of the Japanese video hosting site ...
People have arrested the CEO of famous Japanese secondhand book store chain Mandarake as well as four employees in connection with the sale of obscene material.
Best known for manga but also offering collectibles, doujinshi, and anime toys, Mandarake was selling so-called "vinyl books," a term referring to pornographic photo books from the 1970s and 1980s that showed genitalia. (The "vinyl" part means the plastic that was used to cover the books.)
As regular readers will know, Japan's strange obscenity laws mean it is nominally illegal to show actual genitalia, hence adult video is ...
