Asia After Hours

Several decades ago, most Japanese men wore white briefs (a.k.a. Jockey Shorts). But for various they began falling out of favor with women and their sales plummeted, to about half of what they were at the peak.

Shukan Post (Sep. 16-23), however, reports that since last summer white men’s briefs appear to have made something of a comeback.

“Perhaps the electric power cutbacks were a factor,” says a spokesperson for the Japan subsidiary of B.V.D. “Because beige chinos and other light-colored lightweight slacks were in fashion, dark-colored trunks showed through the material. So demand for white briefs made a comeback again.”

Still, out of concern that white briefs had fallen out of favor with women, most men tended to wear boxer shorts.

That said, lovelorn advice columnist Mikako Kikuchi writes that “The times have changed.” To wit, while an overwhelming majority of females say they don’t particularly like to see men wearing white briefs, the number who now prefer them has increased.

“Women seek ‘security,’” says Kikuchi. Since the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami on March 11, they realized that a man’s income or job position didn’t count for much. Instead, they sought men who had the vitality to survive, even in the wild. And to these women, claims Kikuchi, men wearing white briefs come across as masculine hunks.

“White briefs are easy to become begrimed and spotted, so some guys who wear them are showing confidence in their ability to keep them clean. On the other hand if the guy isn’t concerned about them showing stains, it heightens his masculinity, as a wild, uncivilized type.

“When I meet up with guys in white briefs, I really get turned on!” Kikuchi confesses. (K.S.)

Source: “Josei tachi ga totsuzen hen’i!? ‘Shiro buriifu’ fechi ga fueteru sou na,” Shukan Post (Sep. 16-23, page 158)

Note: Brief extracts from Japanese vernacular media in the public domain that appear here were translated and summarized under the principle of “fair use.” Every effort has been made to ensure accuracy of the translations. However, we are not responsible for the veracity of their contents. The activities of individuals described herein should not be construed as “typical” behavior of Japanese people nor reflect the intention to portray the country in a negative manner. Our sole aim is to provide examples of various types of reading matter enjoyed by Japanese.

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Not far from JR Sendai Station is a hotel that was used as an evacuation center after the Great East Japan Earthquake in March. Yet even now, seven months later, the mood inside its cafe is still rather dark.

Three groups of men in suits are seated, facing one another. One member casts a stern glance over at a reporter for weekly tabloid Shukan Post (Oct. 14). “Don’t make eye contact as they will likely start something,” says a local construction company employee. “This place is becoming a yakuza hangout.”

The commissioner general of the National Police Agency, Takaharu Ando, has stepped up measures to eliminate boryokudan activities, but he will have his work cut out for him in Tohoku, where gang groups are flocking to the area and the estimated 23-trillion yen in reconstruction work set to take place over the next decade.

“For many years, yakuza groups have been involved in reconstruction projects that follow disasters,” explains the same construction company employee. “They will have companies they back join the bids or rip off the contractors that get the work.”

But those groups seen staying at this hotel are not local, the source adds, rather they are from Nagoya.

Nagoya is the base for Kodo-kai, an affiliate of the Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan’s largest criminal organization. The Aichi prefectural police are currently collecting information and monitoring Kodo-kai activities.

After the earthquake, there were cases of unidentified groups distributing envelopes containing cash totaling 30,000 yen to evacuees at centers in Minami Sanriku and Ishinomaki in Miyagi Prefecture. To prevent inequality, evacuation centers asked that donations be made to the center and distributed thereafter. That idea was refused, but the total amount reached around 50,000,000 yen.

“The police looked into the case and found that the Kodo-kai was involved,” says a local newspaper reporter. “By providing money, yakuza gangs are seeking to gain trust. While the enforcement has become more strict, the money for rebuilding is appealing. As a matter of fact, it is said that the company that won the bid to clean up the mess in the Sanriku area is said to be a front company of a yakuza group.”

The police appear to be taking the situation seriously. During a meeting in May with various chiefs of detectives from around the country, Ando said, “Yakuza involvement in the rebuilding process cannot be permitted.”

However, a crackdown has not begun. What they can do, according to a reporter from a local paper, is “disclose the names of companies that have relationships with yakuza.”

Yet it won’t be easy. Yakuza advances in business go beyond infrastructure work. It is said that they are also after the low-interest loans, which can reach a maximum of 200,000 yen, that the government has extended to victims who lost their homes. The sex shops shops that reopened right after the earthquake were allegedly due to such lending.

The article concludes on an ominous note, citing a reason for the lack of action to this point being due to the mixed relationship between the police and yakuza. “These are small communities, and they tend to hang out together,” says the previously quoted construction company employee. “Just because the police chief suddenly initiates an anti-yakuza crackdown it doesn’t necessarily mean that much.” (A.T.)

Source: “Shinsai fukko jigyo 23-cho yen ni muragaru boryokudan tachi,” Shukan Post (Oct. 14, page 54)

Note: Brief extracts from Japanese vernacular media in the public domain that appear here were translated and summarized under the principle of “fair use.” Every effort has been made to ensure accuracy of the translations. However, we are not responsible for the veracity of their contents. The activities of individuals described herein should not be construed as “typical” behavior of Japanese people nor reflect the intention to portray the country in a negative manner. Our sole aim is to provide examples of various types of reading matter enjoyed by Japanese.

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Included in a series of articles inside Shukan Post (Oct. 7) discussing the complete power the Ministry of Finance (MOF) wields over Japan is a sidebar that explains that trips to an infamous restaurant in Tokyo’s Kabukicho red-light district over a decade ago were just the tip of the iceberg as far as the illicit entertainment of bureaucrats.

In the late ’90s, sexually-charged entertainment for MOF bureaucrats came in two forms. Widely known was that which was sponsored by bankers assigned to the ministry, but what few realized was that other members within the Kasumigaseki community also acted as hosts.

“The other ministries were in search budgetary allotments,” says a retired ministry official. “Those ministries would send someone who went to the same university in the same year as MOF officials for hard night out on the town.”

Entertainment costs were paid by corporations that a particular ministry oversees. The erotic arrangements were similar to that of what the banks offered, with reports of ventures to the now-defunct Loulan no-pan shabu-shabu restaurant in Kabukicho, where hostesses served without underpants, eventually becoming symbolic of government excess at the time. (For a list of members from various ministries and public corporations who dined at Loulan check this site.)

But more extreme entertainment happened elsewhere, Shukan Post assures. “High-ranking MOF officials enjoyed the Mukojima district the best,” says a former banker. “Since it is a bit outside of the center of the city, many high-end ryotei establishments were able to deliver sex services. It was something of a ritual for younger MOF officials to wind up making out with geishas in their early 20s and also engage in dancing and drinking. Within 10 minutes of entry, everyone was naked.”

It was common to go one or two other places thereafter and even prepare hotel rooms, with the end result being expenditures of 10 million yen a night.

The article also includes a glossary of MOF slang commonly used, such as zabuton (ざぶとん), or pillow, which is a company you will be transferring to upon retirement, to further illustrate that their lifestyle tended to be rather cushy.

Rest assured, MOF officials also assumed the role of hosts, such as for when they wanted to tame a group of journalists from leading television stations and newspapers.

“While we didn’t go to premier restaurants,” a former writer says, “they bought our dinner at a restaurant inside their dormitories. They also had beer and whiskey on the rocks when we visited their offices after 5 p.m.”

Has anything changed since? Shukan Post is doubtful. (A.T.)

Source: “No-pan-shabushabu wa jono-kuchi datta zenra no elite tachi no inbi na sekai,” Shukan Post (Oct. 7, page 42-43)

Note: Brief extracts from Japanese vernacular media in the public domain that appear here were translated and summarized under the principle of “fair use.” Every effort has been made to ensure accuracy of the translations. However, we are not responsible for the veracity of their contents. The activities of individuals described herein should not be construed as “typical” behavior of Japanese people nor reflect the intention to portray the country in a negative manner. Our sole aim is to provide examples of various types of reading matter enjoyed by Japanese.

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There have been very few upbeat stories emerging from the Tohoku area following the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11. However, weekly tabloid Shukan Post (July 22-29), happily reports that the region’s only porn theater, in Ishinomaki, Miyagi, Prefecture, reopened for business on June 20.

The two-screen Ishinomaki Nikkatsu Pearl Cinema has 260 seats and was heavily damaged by the earthquake and subsequent tsunami. Yet in spite of resuming operations, it is not exactly business as usual.

A man in his 60s who visited the cinema early in July tells Shukan Post, “While I heard about the reopening from a friend, I came here to actually to confirm that as the schedule was not appearing in the newspaper. I was worried, but I am so delighted that it has reopened.”

According to the patron, the schedule typically appears three times a month in the local Ishinomaki Kahoku newspaper. However, no ad has appeared since the reopening. “The owner told me that ads were rejected,” the man says.

A person in the ad department at the Ishinomaki Kahohu explains, with a bit of sadness: “We are refraining from listing titles of such films. It is not appropriate to list them along with obituaries.”

The owner of the cinema is 84-year-old Tahei Kiyono, who handles the day-to-day operations entirely himself — from taking the tickets to the actual film projection. He has been placing ads in the paper for the last three decades. “I understand the situation,” says Kiyono. “The titles are too provocative. What are we showing now? ‘Beautiful Ass Ecstasy: The Pleasure Hole in the Afternoon 美尻エクスタシー 白昼の穴快楽’ and three others.”

There used to be five adult cinemas in Ishinomaki, but the Nikkatsu Pearl is the only one remaining. “When ‘roman porno’” — a genre of adult films made by the Nikkatsu studio between 1971 and 1988 that emphasized somewhat broad story lines to go with the erotic activities unfolding atop the tatami — “was in it’s golden era, most towns with commercial areas had adult cinemas,” Kiyono says. “Now this cinema is the only one left in Tohoku. I have a sense of duty to continue operating.”

The proprietor was at the cinema on March 11, when the tsunami sent mud flowing inside its doors. All the films stored on the first floor were completely destroyed. The projection machine on the second floor, however, was not damaged.

“I thought about closing the cinema,” he says. “But then I started to think about reopening and began cleaning up. Volunteers who were here helped me, too.”

When Nikkatsu shifted its focus to the roman porno genre in the early 1970s, the Nikkatsu Pearl converted its building from a single 400-seat theater to the current two-screen arrangement. Kiyono seems fond of those days, invoking the title of a famous Nikkatsu yakuza film “Otoko no Monsho,” from 1963 and starring actor Hideki Takahashi, to summarize his feelings for his work.

“It is a real ‘emblem of manhood,’” he says. (A.T.)

Source: “Kokoku kyohi ni mo megenai poruno eigakan ro-oonaa otoko no kunsho,” Shukan Post (July 22-29, page 144)

Note: Brief extracts from Japanese vernacular media in the public domain that appear here were translated and summarized under the principle of “fair use.” Every effort has been made to ensure accuracy of the translations. However, we are not responsible for the veracity of their contents. The activities of individuals described herein should not be construed as “typical” behavior of Japanese people nor reflect the intention to portray the country in a negative manner. Our sole aim is to provide examples of various types of reading matter enjoyed by Japanese.

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Three months have passed since the March 11 disaster in Tohoku, and while the survivors’ basic needs of food, clothing and shelter have been realized, Shukan Post (Jul. 1) has discovered a savvy humanitarian has also given consideration to other human urges.

To wit, in the “Emergency Supplies” delivered to a shelter in Iwaki City, Fukushima Prefecture, were adult goods from Tenga designed for male self-stimulation.

The credit goes to a gentleman named Shinichi Motoyanagi, age 39, who in late March returned to his home prefecture of Fukushima to assist in recovery efforts.

“The shelters were full of healthy males,” he tells the magazine. “And I asked a few, ‘Aren’t you fellows building up a load?’ It may seem like a dumb question, but one man said to me, ‘Y’know after age 50, it’s hard to do hand sumo (masturbation).’ I recommended he avail himself of Tenga products, but neither him nor anyone else had ever heard of them.”

Since their sales launch in July 2005, Tenga synthetic vaginas have been shipped to over 40 countries, with shipments of over 15 million units. But while popularized via online sales, apparently rustics in their 40s and 50s had yet to hear of these newfangled nookies.

So Motoyanagi-san ran over to the nearest Don Quijote outlet in Koriyama City and came back grinning with eight of Tenga’s standard cup models, which he distributed to eagerly awaiting gentlemen. And before you could say “Did the earth move for you too?” the word was spreading throughout the shelters.

Tenga was delighted to discover its products were in demand in the disaster zone, and the company took the opportunity to provide several hundreds of its popular oval “Egg series” models free of charge. The users promptly smuggled them into toilet stalls or utilized the items in the dark while out of doors, or perhaps enjoyed them in the privacy of the communal showers.

“A woman asked me for one as well,” says Motoyanagi. “She told me, ‘I want to use it together with my boyfriend.’”

The Tengas have been effective at maintaining morale, but now another problem has cropped up: Apparently some users are asking for okazu (side dishes), which in this case means erotic imagery that can be used to encourage erection.

“Some people asked me to lend them some porno films, but almost nobody here has a TV or DVD player,” Motoyanagi relates. “So I told them, ‘Do the best you can with your imagination!’” (K.S.)

Source: “Dansei borantia no ‘eidan’ de daikohyo ‘hinansho to TENGA’ chotto ii hanashi,” Shukan Post (July 1, page 136)

Note: Brief extracts from Japanese vernacular media in the public domain that appear here were translated and summarized under the principle of “fair use.” Every effort has been made to ensure accuracy of the translations. However, we are not responsible for the veracity of their contents. The activities of individuals described herein should not be construed as “typical” behavior of Japanese people nor reflect the intention to portray the country in a negative manner. Our sole aim is to provide examples of various types of reading matter enjoyed by Japanese.

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Wild Sex Video From Bali

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Seduction in Japan often starts with a male inviting a female to join him for a perfectly legal cup of java. But using coffee to purge patients’ bowels has landed the operator of a defunct Chiba clinic and two other individuals in the pokey, Sankei Sports (Dec. 4) reports.

When a 14-year-old middle school girl complaining of constipation came for a consultation, Chikayoshi Hishiki, age 55, arranged for her to be administered a coffee enema, which, he told her, would “clean out” her intestines.

Sankei Sports did not go into detail on the identity of the stool pigeon who reported Hishiki to the authorities. He faces charges of practicing medicine without a license. He is alleged to have performed the treatment on a total of six patients, including two females in their 70s.

Hishiki insists that nothing untoward occurred. He admits that while he helped the patients prepare for the enema and assisted in the cleanup afterwards, the patients administered the enemas to themselves.

While the coffee — presumably served at less than body temperature — was said to have no ill effects on those who ingested it in this manner, the police are looking at charging Hishiki with other possible violations.

From 2009 to July of this year, his two Chiba clinics are said to have consulted some 5,000 patients, from whom he raked in revenues of 40 million yen.

Coffee enemas are said to be popular with Hollywood starlets and supermodels, who believe them to be effective in flushing toxins from the intestines and relieving fecal impaction. The article reports that in Japan, many women have also recently begun to show interest via sites on the Web. (K.S.)

Source: “Chu-ichi joshi ni kohi kancho,” Sankei Spots (Dec. 4, page 24)

Note: Brief extracts from Japanese vernacular media in the public domain that appear here were translated and summarized under the principle of “fair use.” Every effort has been made to ensure accuracy of the translations. However, we are not responsible for the veracity of their contents. The activities of individuals described herein should not be construed as “typical” behavior of Japanese people nor reflect the intention to portray the country in a negative manner. Our sole aim is to provide examples of various types of reading matter enjoyed by Japanese.

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In a special section dedicated to trends in China, weekly tabloid Shukan Post (Oct. 1) explains that while Japan may have recently been surpassed by its Asian neighbor in GDP it is China that still has a lot of catching up to do when it comes to debauchery. One article discusses the porn industry. Let’s take a stab at that, so to speak.

The tabloid explains that it is impossible to measure how much influence the Web has had on the world of AV, or adult video. China is certainly no exception as porn sites are growing exponentially and overtaking the popularity of video tapes and DVDs.

Minetoshi Yasuda, a nonfiction writer, says that while the Chinese Government imposes restrictions there are still numerous ways to cheat with a personal computer. “But law enforcement is not that aggressive,” the writer says. “It is more concerned with monitoring political sites and dealing with issues related to Tiananmen Square. Basically, they are simply pretending to monitor but in fact are not.”

The magazine notes that if one uses a Virtual Private Network (VPN) software client he can process data transfers securely and without detection. As a result, a VPN enables a user to have a similar scope of access to that available in the U.S. and Japan. There are also vendors who download content on behalf of users, typically for an annual fee of about 2,000 yen.

In a country filled with so many restrictions, this technology has something of a liberating effect, Shukan Post says, allowing one the right to speak freely and express opinions openly…and download porn.

“Japanese porn is by far the most popular,” Yasuda continues. “Maria Ozawa and Saori Hara are the top two, with Hotaru Akane also receiving rising support. On April 11, tweets on the Twitter networking site” — which is currently blocked in China — “from star Sora Aoi yielded 10,000 Chinese followers, making it a major incident.”

(More specifically, Aoi indicated that she felt sympathy for the victims of this year’s Yushu earthquake in Qinghai Province and would like to assist in raising funds.)

The article also mentions that many sexually-charged events that promote adult wellness and reproduction are held in different regions of China. Tooru Muranishi, a director porn publishing house Soft On Demand, and other Japanese companies in the industry are proactively participating in these promotions.

Japanese AV has also had an impact on the language, specifically upon the writing of kanji characters, which originate from China.

“In China, the rendering of actress is 女演員,” Yasuda explains. “But nowadays when the Japanese version of actress appears (女優), which refers to any type of actress, it specifically means porn actresses to Chinese. Also, yametee (ヤメてー) — an exclamation for ‘please stop’ in a desperate and somewhat provocative way — is a famous phrase in China and those who are familiar with it likely learned it from Japanese AV.”

While Chinese rank Japanese at the top of marriage charts as far as prospective spouses, they also denounce Japan as being small and limited, a nation of face shots, SM play, mature women fetishes and rape fantasies.

You’ve come a long way, baby, smirks Shukan Post, just not long enough. (K.N.)

Source: “Ozawa Maria ni Hara Saori! Nihon no joyu dangi ni Hana sakasu,” Shukan Post (Oct. 1, pages 158-159)

Note: Brief extracts from Japanese vernacular media in the public domain that appear here were translated and summarized under the principle of “fair use.” Every effort has been made to ensure accuracy of the translations. However, we are not responsible for the veracity of their contents. The activities of individuals described herein should not be construed as “typical” behavior of Japanese people nor reflect the intention to portray the country in a negative manner. Our sole aim is to provide examples of various types of reading matter enjoyed by Japanese.

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