Osaka police recently uncovered a booming mail-order business servicing the entire nation with pornographic DVDs which lacked the legally required pixellation over actors’ genitalia.
On Feb 9, police announced the arrest of 39-year-old Hiroshi Suzuki of Osaka on charges of possession of obscene material with intent to distribute. He was found on the second floor of a Nipponbashi area commercial building along with 50 copies of DVDs featuring uncensored adult material.
In Japan it is illegal to sell adult videos which show the performers’ genitalia, so adult filmmakers must cover them with a mosaic pixellation effect.
To bypass this restriction, Suzuki stands accused of obtaining copies of films without the mosaic and selling them online for 150 to 200 yen each. He had allegedly been renting both the second and third floors of the building in which he was arrested and where police seized 52,000 blank DVDs and 150 DVD burners.
Judging by the amount of materials, the organization — which police believe consisted of six men between the ages of 20 and 50 — was expecting a lot of future business. And according to a police investigation into Suzuki’s bank account, they were right to think so.
Through transactions made on websites he allegedly ran such as Himitsu no Rabu (Secret Lab), approximately 800,000 discs were said to have been sold in the past year alone, resulting in estimated 130 million yen in revenue for the mosaic-free DVD distributors.
It’s a staggering figure considering the DVDs were bought over the internet, where people usually have to make an effort to avoid seeing uncensored porn.
When questioned by police, Suzuki reportedly admitted saying, “I did it for the money.” And in doing so, he passed up an excellent opportunity to make himself into an anti-censorship martyr.
Nevertheless, the Secret Lab has now been shut down, and Japan can rest safe knowing that all those images of reproductive organs were taken off the market.
Source: Mainichi Shimbun
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© Japan Today
70 Comments
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scoobydoo
Viewing the genitals is illegal, but incest, rape and other perversions are acceptable to be sold and read in public places such as in the train, in the form of manga. What a messed up sense of morality. Mean while ......(insert other serious crimes like top level corruption, bribery etc that go unpunished or pursued) ... get overlooked.
savethegaijin
Do the police not have anything better to do?
Michael Craig
There are far worse crimes!
A.N. Other
No doubt that the Police, upon viewing the evidence, will have their hands full.
Disillusioned
No doubt this fella's operating got too big too quickly and hadn't been passing on his 'gifts' to the right people.
ukguyjp
As a friend and I noticed on a recent jaunt to an erotic dvd store in Kyoto, the number of porn DVDs sold in Japan is amazing, considering the vast amount of mosaic-free content available on the internet.
Garthgoyle
Want to amend parts of the constitution? Then start by changing these archaic laws, Japan. It's not 1945 anymore.
Paustovsky
There can't be anything as toe-curlingly unsexy as Japanese pornography. One can't pixel out the awful noise.
Yubaru
Actually this should be "Secret of Love" as Himitsu no Rabo would be Secret Lab. Cos-play on words.
Roger Jolly
What a terrible crime, uh? While politicians keep stealing and bribing, yakuza having official boryoku offices, etc. And in meantime you can type an address in internet and watch censorship-free streamed movies from abroad. Also Japanese ones. Someday eventually people will grow up here too...
nath
I bet they were making money hand over fist!
kurisupisu
When is the government going to wake up and realize that this is the 21st century.....?
gokai_wo_maneku
I know, people are saying, "WHAT?!?! Japanese still buy DVDs? Don't they use the Internet?"
rainyday
First vagina kayak lady and now uncensored DVDs showing stuff that anybody with access to internet can freely view in about 2 seconds anyway.
It is funny to see how Japanese police resources are openly squandered on stuff like this. Also the fact that the system works in such a slow way that completely pointless and irrational rules are still being rigidly enforced decades after whatever social norms that may have once justified them no longer exist.
dodosuko
Why still pay for porn and watch censored porn these days?
Uncensored J-porn is nothing new, and you can watch tons of them for free now on websites like vies, xamer or 2
Akula
Seems like a gigantic waste of police resources to go after someone like this regardless of whether you approve of porn or not.
CrazyJoe
Feel sorry for the cops who have to watch these porn videos.
choiwaruoyaji
xham**er
Yubaru
Doubtful, this is Japan.
WilliB
I totally dón´t get it. Anybody who wants to watch unpixelated porn can do so via the internet, and has been able to do that for a long time. And these guys run a "booming business" selling DVDs? Unbelievable.
Myhumbletake
Why buy DVDs when you can watch uncensored porn films for free online?! sigh
KnowBetter
You know you're in Japan when porn must be censored to be legally sold and dancing is illegal in places that sell alcohol to be consumed on the premises.
WilliB
dcog:
What really gets me is that there is that at the same time there is no pixellation for Shunga or events like the Kanamara penis festival. The Japanese mental ability to compartmentalize is amazing.
SenseNotSoCommon
Another embarrassing reminder of flaccid internet penetration.
Heckleberry
Pixellating genitals in porn.. sort of defeats the purpose really.
Only in Japan.
1glenn
Interesting.
therougou
Shouldn't that be "avoid seeing censored porn" ? This is a stupid law anyway. Maybe if they didn't put the mosaic on, they wouldn't have to come up with so many perverted gimmicks to get people to watch that stuff.
Sensato
Often with Japanese online porn, although genetals are not pixelated, the man's face is, but not the woman's face.
Obviously, there is some need to protect the man's identity, but not the woman's.
goldorak
"Japan can rest safe knowing that all those images of reproductive organs were taken off the market" what a strange thing to say/write, love it! :)
Pixelating actors genitalia has to be the most hypocritical thing to do in today's world. The even stranger thing is that some people buy/watch this. now that's left field & deviant!
wtfjapan
where people usually have to make an effort to avoid seeing uncensored porn. are you serious, just do a search for many of the popular japanese porn stars and youll plenty of mosaic free porn, just dont search on japanese sites
HonestDictator
How much money is wasted on censoring stuff? And chasing down stuff that isn't censored? I think it's better to use that money towards child pornography and sex slavery etc. Japan loves to waste resources.
nandakandamanda
Yubaru, Himitsu no Rabu would surely be Secret Love. (Not the Secret of Love, which would be Rabu no Himitsu.)
paulinusa
150 to 200 yen each? This guy doesn't have much business sense. He could have sold them for much, much more.
WarwickNchuaa
I honestly don't understand how the porn industry sustains itself. Surely there can't be so many knuckle-shufflers who are still without an internet connection?
erlols
I think one reason why Japanese don't watch porn online is that many are afraid of perpetuating 'illegal' activities on internet. Many people I know were for instance very concerned about using torrents or streaming websites because they thought they might 'get caught'.
Another reason might be that porn fans (and apparently there are many) want to watch their up-to-date movies with their favorite actresses and not just some random, maybe old videos online. Something like porn idol logics...
palsunstar
Sensato: Often with Japanese online porn, although genetals are not pixelated, the man's face is, but not the woman's face.
Obviously, there is some need to protect the man's identity, but not the woman's.
I think in this case it's more that it's a predominantly male audience that likes to fantasize that they are in the film with the actress. The pixelation of the face allows this.
Yubaru
Please stop with perpetuating a fallacy and something that is down right not true. The level in which they "break" the law may be lower, but they are not angels either.
takeda.shingen.1991@gmail.com
Not true. That's called an 'appeal to the status quo,' and simply saying something is law does not mean it has value.
dcog9065
Seriously don't understand why they have to pixelate porn in Japan.. It sort of treats everyone like children by blanket censoring..
nath
They pixelate it because it is the Law,main and simple.
They pixrlation process uses a mathematic algorithm and can be easily be undone by most graphics programs.
As for the Internet I guess most are no comfortable using english and worried about being traced by the Cops.
Those stings have been going on for years, most operate out of an rented apartment.
TheGodfather
This article makes it sound like his was the business one doing it...
But maybe his was the only business NOT PAYING THE COPS... ;-)
forestfurrywolf
Is this fair ?
smithinjapan
Bet you a million the police keep the copies, and not as 'evidence' of anything except that the mosaic effect is stupid. Show a girl getting gang raped or brothers and sisters being taught sex by loving moms? par for the course, so long as you can't see their junk clearly!
Yubaru
Did you read my entire post?
Tessa
I don't know why people think pixellating hides anything. I doubt you can see anything through all that hair.
EyeOfTheCat
Pixelation of movies? Who is the brain who invented that law??
seadog538
Thank heaven's for that! Let's keep to the Edo Shunga --graphic but tasteful and cultured!
Patrick Kimura-Macke
The sales of censored pornography is still high because the images aren't illegal. Uncensored pornography on the internet or elsewhere is illegal in Japan and perhaps more than anywhere else in the world a vast amount of the population here do not do things that are against the law.
badsey3
For people without computer or smart phones ¥200 may be an acceptable deal. Maybe selling wholesale for others to sell also. Seems to be a bunch of people undercutting the Japanese Porn industry here and I would assume all involved will get a knock on their door soon by Police or Yakuza.
proxy
Porn must be one of Japan's biggest exports.
Bernd Laurent
Why all the outrage directed at Japan? You don’t have to look very far to find antiquated nudity laws in your own country, which get strictly persecuted despite other much worse crimes taking place. Take for example the R-Rating which is applied to anything slightly erotic, while violence is deemed OK for children older than 13.
TheGodfather
"Porn must be one of Japan's biggest exports"
It is. And Japan has a deserved reputation as The World's Pervy Uncle!!
TheGodfather
"it's legal and (somewhat) socially acceptable visit the Soaplands"
Prostitution is ILLEGAL in Japan...
Hawkeye
Dont get it. It is illegal to distribute porn with unpixelated genitalia but the internet streaming into Japan allows it. Based on that fact, the internet providers should all be arrested, jailed, fined or shut down. Japan is still a joke when it cums to their laws. Its time Japan grows up and starts wearing big boy pants.
A.N. Other
Many of the guys in JAVs are butt-ugly, so there's that angle to work. I know that if one is paying too much attention to the dude and not the woman, one is probably watching the wrong kind of skin-flick, but if the guy looks like he howls at the moon: it's just plain distracting.
TheGodfather
"I know that if one is paying too much attention to the dude and not the woman, one is probably watching the wrong kind of skin-flick"
All porn is gay porn, just cunningly disguised. The more men in the scene, the more obvious it is!!... ;-)
Thunderbird2
I just take my glasses off... it's all the same then lol
Fadamor
Yeah! Like catching people breaking the law! (Oh. Wait...)
forestfurrywolf
How could you Japan ?
sado001
I agree with @scoobydoo, it's illegal to show the genitals of the AV actors/actresses, but their theme ranges from the normal porn to RAPE, INCEST, and even actresses acting as 10 year old child having sex with their father/brother, which is really disturbing. They are like encouraging people that rape is OK just don't show your thing when you video it.
Japanese Logic
Bartholomew Harte
At about $2.00 a pop he must had to use his freinds & family in the flicks just to break even & that is one Pixellating problem!
shonanbb
Shunga shows it all and exaterated.
Bradley Fried
There are still people who buy and collect porn?
albaleo
It provides employment for lots of students.
Not if my neighbors in Osaka in the late 1980s were anything to go by. The wives regularly exchanged unpixellated videos.
Nessie
Think of all the poor pixelators whose employment this is threatening.
Serrano
"I bet they were making money hand over fist!"
Har!
"Pixellating genitals in porn.. sort of defeats the purpose really."
Nah, it makes you use your imagination, lol.
Toshio Nakamura
Hmmm, let's see. Japan, where all porn genitalia must be pixilated but it's legal and (somewhat) socially acceptable visit the Soaplands at your leisure, or America, where you can buy and watch uncensored porn all day long YET the police takes great pains to stamp out all forms of prostitution wherever and whenever it finds it.
I wonder who the real hypocritical prudes are, 'Merica?
Mirai Hayashi
Whats the point of censored porn? Have they not heard of the internet yet?
tinawatanabe
It is the law. There must be some benefit. I was suprised at unpixellated magazine like Penthouse when I was in US.
koiwaicoffee
This is brutal. That enclosed on itself is this society that such an amount of porn is sold? Is it really that difficult for a Japanese guy to go out there and find a girlfriend? Or do they just prefer to watch porn, to avoid the hassle of dating someone?