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Some women selling nude selfies online for easy money

27 Comments

On March 13, a 20-year-old Osaka woman was arrested on suspicion of obscenity. The circumstances were unusual. Normally, says Shukan Jitsuwa (April 5), it’s the purchase of sexually explicit images that police clamp down on. Targeting the purveyor represents something of a shift. The point, the magazine assumes, is to send a warning to the growing number of women selling nude selfies online.

The woman in question is a university student who police say sold five pornographic self-images to a man in his 50s for 5,000 yen, which allegedly was transferred to the woman’s bank account.

This sort of transaction is as old as the internet – much, much older, of course, if one thinks non-digitally. In terms of seriousness, it pales against “revenge porn,” typically involving a man rejected by a former lover posting erotic footage of her where everyone can see it. It’s hard to know where to draw the line, however, since much revenge porn starts out as selfies sent voluntarily. Relationships turn sour, tempers turn ugly, and the police are called. It happened 1,144 times during the first six months of 2017 – the most ever, a 12.1 percent increase over the previous year, according to the National Police Agency. The woman’s arrest, Shukan Jitsuwa figures, is part of an attempt to attack revenge porn at the root.

Why, one naturally wonders, would a young woman with higher education expose herself to the obvious risks? Easy money is one answer, but not the only one. Easy attention is another, and easy popularity, or at least the feeling of being popular.

“At first,” the magazine hears from a 21-year-old university student, “I did it for pocket money. Then I began hearing from men, dozens of them, who told me they want me. I’d always been a quiet type. Being popular like this made me feel very happy.”

She sounds like precisely the sort of woman at whom the police would be directing their warning.” It would make people who think purely in terms of easy money hesitate,” observes journalist Yukio Ishihara. The money isn’t easy if being arrested is a possibility. If that happens, “it’s all over. And what if it gets in the news? It can damage your whole future.”

But laws are as old as crime, if not older, and yet crime persists all the same. This one probably will too, Ishihara speculates. Money and popularity can be irresistible lures – doubly so if the two come in tandem.

In Tokyo’s Shibuya in January, police arrested three people – a girl, a boy and a young man. The girl is a first-year senior high school student. A photo, her face blurred, shows her holding a sign reading “Furii oppai” (“free breasts”) – apparently an invitation to passersby to fondle her. The males with her, an 18-year-old high school student and a 23-year-old company employee, seem to have been filming the scene. The idea, police say, was to post the footage on YouTube and draw as many hits as possible. Hits draw ads – the more hits, the higher the ad prices.

It’s not only police who are up in arms against this, Shukan Jitsuwa points out. Hardcore “YouTubers” pursuing the same ad revenue without erotic content are similarly indignant. Unfair competition, they call it.

© Japan Today

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

27 Comments
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Jesus, leave her alone. It was a consensual and private sale. Is the government supposed to decide what people can trade with each other and what constitutes morality now? Very slippery slope

16 ( +17 / -1 )

Free breasts, I'll take that

7 ( +10 / -3 )

They're just mad because they're not getting their tax cut, hence the arrests.

8 ( +13 / -5 )

She's over-age and consenting. The government should do nothing at this level. There is nothing new about posing nude.

21 ( +22 / -1 )

The woman in question is a university student who police say sold five pornographic self-images to a man in his 50s for 5,000 yen, which allegedly was transferred to the woman’s bank account.

Funny how they can arrest her for that but no problem when you have teens and preteens in skimpy bikini pictures being sold in conbinis.

Stupid.

-4 ( +9 / -13 )

Funny how they can arrest her for that but no problem when you have teens and preteens in skimpy bikini pictures being sold in conbinis.

There's a big difference between "pornographic self-images" to girls in bikinis. If you equate the two as equivalent, do you feel uncomfortable when you go to the beach and think that you are looking at porn? Do you prefer women covering up, like in veils?

0 ( +9 / -9 )

There's a big difference between "pornographic self-images" to girls in bikinis.

Not when you take pictures of them and put them in magazines for men like you to buy.

If you equate the two as equivalent, do you feel uncomfortable when you go to the beach and think that you are looking at porn?

If you equate the two as equivalent, Try taking a picture of the girls you see at the beach and see what happens.

-8 ( +0 / -8 )

@Aly Rustom

The article says she got arrested for "obscenity" which means, I guess, that she sold an uncensored image of her private parts. Which is a crime (stupid indeed, but the law is like this).

What shocks me the most is that someone paid for that when he could have millions for free on the internet...

8 ( +8 / -0 )

The article says she got arrested for "obscenity" which means, I guess, that she sold an uncensored image of her private parts. Which is a crime (stupid indeed, but the law is like this).

Fair enough brother. Just some posters need to be taught a lesson in manners, that's all.

What shocks me the most is that someone paid for that when he could have millions for free on the internet...

Yes that's true. But I'll agree with most of the posters on the fact that she has the right to do it.

-4 ( +7 / -11 )

The article says she got arrested for "obscenity" which means, I guess, that she sold an uncensored image of her private parts. Which is a crime (stupid indeed, but the law is like this).

Sad that showing something that roughly 50% of the world has, is considered obscene.

That idea seems obscene.

16 ( +17 / -1 )

There's a big difference between "pornographic self-images" to girls in bikinis.

I agree. But what Aly is talking about is the fact to show girls who are still minors, or even children sometimes, in bikini and in sexy poses. Not against the law, just like beauty pageant for children or idol groups for that matter, but I understand his indignation.

I saw an idol's group concert before, and seeing grown up men screaming at the top of their lung the name of a 13 year old dancing on a stage was more disturbing than any explicitly sexual images I have ever seen.

3 ( +7 / -4 )

Thanks for the support brother!

I saw an idol's group concert before, and seeing grown up men screaming at the top of their lung the name of a 13 year old dancing on a stage was more disturbing than any explicitly sexual images I have ever seen.

That's my point exactly! Its ok to fetishize minors yet the cops actually arrest a grown woman for selling pics of herself nude. She has every right to do that.

-4 ( +5 / -9 )

I agree. But what Aly is talking about is the fact to show girls who are still minors, or even children sometimes, in bikini and in sexy poses. Not against the law, just like beauty pageant for children or idol groups for that matter, but I understand his indignation.

I saw an idol's group concert before, and seeing grown up men screaming at the top of their lung the name of a 13 year old dancing on a stage was more disturbing than any explicitly sexual images I have ever seen.

No, it is not illegal so therefore it is an invalid argument of someone who just wants to push their so called "morals" onto the rest of society, most likely due to personal bitterness and vindictiveness. No one is forcing anyone to look at anything so if you are unable to keep yourself from looking at magazines in combinis, there are more serious problems to be worried about.

Also, no one is forcing you to go to an idol concert either

2 ( +2 / -0 )

This article fails to mention that she was 19 when she started so she was in fact under age. Also, it is illegal to distribute porn electronically without a licence and censorship. Whether it was her body or someone else’s is not relevant.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

Why the big deal when I was Tokyo young Japanese women were up skirting each other so they could post the photo's on the internet to make money.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

No, it is not illegal so therefore it is an invalid argument of someone who just wants to push their so called "morals" onto the rest of society, most likely due to personal bitterness and vindictiveness.

Look who's talking

>

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Disgusting.

Women don't need to be selling explicit images of themselves to others (or 'sexting').

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

This article fails to mention that she was 19 when she started so she was in fact under age.

That is incorrect - the legal age in Japan is 18.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Not sure that an arrest was justified. The pornography industry is legal, but selling a nude selfie isn't?

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Not sure that an arrest was justified. The pornography industry is legal, but selling a nude selfie isn't?

Unpixelated images of genitals are illegal in the porn industry.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Why, one naturally wonders, would a young woman with higher education expose herself to the obvious risks?

Higher education, has nothing to do with being smart or logical thinking capability! I have met some really stupid higher educated people, and some really smart uneducated people. Wisdom, on the other hand comes with age and hindsight!

1 ( +2 / -1 )

katsu78Today 10:32 am UTC

In terms of seriousness, it pales against “revenge porn,” typically involving a man rejected by a former lover posting erotic footage of her where everyone can see it. It’s hard to know where to draw the line, however, since much revenge porn starts out as selfies sent voluntarily. 

It's actually very easy to draw the line between "revenge porn" and "sold nude selfies". The line is the consent of the people depicted in the picture. If they want other people to have the picture, it's legal. If they don't, it's a crime. This is not a difficult concept to comprehend except to people who reject the concept that women are capable of consenting on their own.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

So in Japan, a picture of an underaged girl in a barely there bikini can be sold to an adult- no problem. However an adult cannot sell a simple nude picture? There are paintings, pictures, and sculptures of nude people in government run museums. I understand that laws evolve over time and differing regulations can become nonsensical when compared together. This seems to be the case here. The far bigger problem in Japan is the exploitation of underaged girls - not the private transaction of a photo between consenting adults. And revenge porn is a different issue altogether.

Please Japan, go after those pushing sexualized images of underaged girls.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

The far bigger problem in Japan is the exploitation of underaged girls - not the private transaction of a photo between consenting adults.

It may be a problem but when you're not looking for it you don't see them do you?

A private transaction of photos between consenting adults can definitely be a problem in certain cases. Never heard of childporn rings?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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