Last week saw a married couple from Fukui Prefecture in western Japan detained for public indecency; their saucy website falling foul of the censors as it contained footage of 38-year-old Fumio Hisano and his 32-year-old wife Reiko indulging in rather rigorous marital relations.
Called Aya’s Room, the enterprise was certainly more than a mere hobby, as due to membership fees the pair had netted over 200 million yen (840,000 pound) since the site’s inception over 7 years ago. Yet in the land where practically every family focused video shop has a lot more to offer than Disney and Doraemon.
As well as vending machines that contain stuff a little stronger than cigarettes and 7 Up.
The Japanese censorship system could well be seen as somewhat sanctimonious.
And then some.
Kaspian says
What’s deemed indecent in Japan does seem cherry picked at times. This couple gets arrested, yet there is all this under-aged looking moe stuff, the adult sections in you show photos of above, and phone booths ensconched in saucy late night advertising. Sometimes I wonder just what criteria the Japanese censors look at when they bring the hammer down for indecency.
John says
Simple, censors simply apply these rules:
a) Were they given free access to the material
b) Did they enjoy it
Fail on either one, and you’re out of luck 🙂