Japan needs an influx of cute little babies to keep the economic wheels spinning
with youthful vigor and to keep grandma and grandpa from having to punch a
clock until they are 90. The problem is not that Japanese kids aren't having
sex - they are and at younger ages than ever - but I'm not so sure they really
know what they're doing. Perhaps if the offending mosaic, which not only kills
the mood but often looks unerringly like some kind of lost scratch 'n' sniff,
were removed, the kids might have a better idea of what they are getting into.
I'm not guaranteeing this would help increase the birthrate, but what have you
got to lose, Japan? I do believe that being able to see a few strategically
placed condoms might actually encourage safe sex in a country where it seems
woefully lacking. I know that some things should be left to the imagination,
but this is one area where I beg to differ.
In Japan, I can find racks full of magazines and manga and movies aplenty. Can
I find one that will show me the labia majora? Sorry, impossible. Ten-tentacled
space aliens doing weird things to a schoolgirl? Sure, aisle 5, rows 1-6. A
clitoris? No can do, but if you'd like a nurse to dance on your testicles -
blurred out, of course - you can live that fantasy in aisle 2, next to the
hot-springs spy cams. You get the idea. Just don't get too many because you
might think you're missing something.
Japan and its people seem so open and healthy about sex in many ways, yet
there's not a vagina or penis to be seen in any "legal" publication that I'm
aware of. I'm not advocating hardcore porn with the evening news or even having
it available at the local convenience store, but I also don't think sex is
something to be ashamed of. I can't think of another country where the
suggestion of sex is more blatant than here, so why are intercourse and
genitals off-limits? If I can get unsolicited Lolita porn in my mailbox and see
seductively posed, half-naked women on the train, not to mention the seriously
kinky comic books I've peeked at over shoulders, then why on earth can't I see
some plain Jane sex?
Particularly in light of the Internet, which now really makes the obscenity
rules so simple to circumvent, I cannot fathom why Japan keeps up this
ridiculous farce. In fact, I can't imagine why this convention ever existed in
the first place.
Oh, that's right. I said at the beginning that I wasn't only talking about
porn, didn't I? Sorry, got carried away.
What set me off was watching "Seven" on DVD the other day and noticing that
when the big fat guy was in the morgue for his autopsy, he had a
will-o'-the-wisp floating over his genitals. Now, while I have to admit that
seeing a big, fat, dead guy's schlong is not my thing, neither is having
someone decide for me what I should and shouldn't see.
D Bracken Dibert is a photographer and traveler who teaches English in Tokyo.
