Advancements in digital technology has meant smaller and smaller cameras, which in turn has resulted in sleazier and more surreptitious shooting. With arguably the best-known use of such equipment being upskirt photography. But whereas this particular art form is generally practiced by lone deviants, in other areas of furtive filming, whole industries have developed.
In a recent newspaper report, the DVD “Hidden Camera: Kansai Women’s Bath†was used as a prime example. Secretly filmed, appropriately enough in a women’s bath in Kansai, the voyeuristic video is now widely available for anybody with 8,000 yen (40 pound) to spare. And on the same shelf will be countless other films of a similar nature, the sales of which generate somewhere in the region of 5 billion yen (25 million pound) a year.
But with so much money at stake, filmmakers it seems are prepared to stoop ever lower to get their desired images. With the actions of a consortium in Wakayama Prefecture a couple of years ago amply proving this. As on a piece of vacant land the group built a public toilet, which needless to say wasn’t a benevolent gift to the weak bladdered citizens of Wakayama. No, the public convenience was constructed with only one thing in mind, and as such it was equipped with all the latest digital technology. And in a matter of months, they had enough material for a staggering 60 videos. Netting the organization a cool 50 million yen (250,000 pound).
Whatever next?
Colin says
The etymology of the word ‘deviancy’ suggests a turning away from the norm – the norm being, presumably, what most of us recognise would as healthy sexual practices. But with this kind of furtive behaviour so prevalent in modern Japan, it would appear that the deviancy has actually become the norm. And thus people whose life is ‘regular’ are now the new deviants…
So what next? Pink-lit Kabukicho clubs where, for 10,000 yen, a man can don pyjamas, get into bed with a woman wearing curlers and drink a cup of cocoa before dozing off to sleep?
A whole section at the back of the video store dedicated to films of people reading at bedtime?
No doubt you’ll report it if it happens, Lee.
J Schnorng says
Wow. I’m never ever using a public bathroom again.
Then again, I doubt it’s my dangly bits they’re after, so I suppose there’s no harm.
Toni says
It’s stories like this that make me hate men so much.