Book bother

Presumably realising that a brief book burning bash would raise more than a few eyebrows, prefectural officials in Fukui city instead opted to simply remove books they disagreed with from a local library.

It appears that those in charge of promoting gender equality in the region felt that some books were too radical. So radical in fact, that the idea of readers making their own minds up was simply inconceivable, resulting in around 150 books being taken off the shelves. Some of the titles deemed dangerous including one on how to divorce, another on the subject of making schools free of gender and the wonderfully named ‘A Theatre Under The Skirt’ by Chizuko Ueno, a Tokyo University professor and expert in gender studies.

However after some assembly members rumbled the dirty deed, the books appear to be on their way back, library head Riyuko Sadaike rather unconvincingly saying, “We removed the books just to check their contents. We will return them to the shelves as soon as possible as we have received the protest.”

All in all a rather unsavoury affair, although as an isolated incident it’s hardly indicative of a return to ‘the bad old days’. No, surely for that to be the case we would have to see the likes of people clamouring for a change in the country’s pacifist constitution, the forcing of public employees to sing the national anthem and high-ranking ministers suggesting the emperor should visit the war-linked Yasukuni Shrine.

Oh, hold on a minute…