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Little-known porn 'white post' boxes fading into Japan's lurid past

41 Comments
By Kai Nishino

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It’s where pixelated photos go to die…?

2 ( +15 / -13 )

You stay strange, Japan.

-3 ( +22 / -25 )

Little known that to many Japanese oyaji that today people can access content with a few tap/clicks from their device.

-14 ( +8 / -22 )

I miss the old Japan.

-3 ( +11 / -14 )

I've been here for 32 years and have never once seen anything like that, nor even heard of them. Must be a thing in big cities down south! Why not just put the stuff in the garbage? I know some people check to see if you have separated your trach correctly, but they still wouldn't know whose trash, would they.

10 ( +17 / -7 )

I live in Fukuoka, I have seen many of these.

-2 ( +9 / -11 )

Just walk into any convenient store and you will see Semi Porn magazines on bookshelves some are as explicit it could get without violating the laws. Many of these stores are located across the streets from Elementary, Jr high, and H schools where children walk by these stands daily.

Then if you go to any book store many have a section for porn materials with very little or no restrictions what so ever.

-10 ( +17 / -27 )

It reminds me Cigarettes machine with large posters and adds installed on the streets leading to Schools for all ages and they still exist till this day, kids walk by them daily.

-17 ( +4 / -21 )

How do these morally upstanding folks get their hands on "obscene books," DVDs, etc in the first place?

-6 ( +2 / -8 )

In all on the day, he collected 16 books and 81 DVDs from eight white post boxes in the area.

i hope he was wearing gloves.

And the plastic helmet just in case.

7 ( +14 / -7 )

"At night, when the streets are less crowded, men of all ages, from young to old, come to get rid of their stuff."

Indeed they do.

0 ( +5 / -5 )

Still some peculiar vending machines out there amongst the rice paddies.

Each to their own.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

I say one of these in the country side many moons ago. Had to ask what it was for at the time. This is the type of thing that should be

World Heritage Listed - Something uniquely Japanese.

Last year, Nagasaki closed a series of white post boxes on a trial basis. The city says the annual number of collected items has dropped from about 5,000 to 6,000 in the 2010s to around 2,000 today.

Yes, closing boxes would see a reduction in things dropped into them wouldn't it?

According to the National Police Agency's statistics for 2023, the number of victims of child pornography was 1,444. Of these, uploads of nude selfies accounted for more than 30 percent.

> "It is necessary not only to regulate and eliminate harmful information, but also to support children who have been victimized online and establish an improved system of sex education."

Something tells me that printed media wouldn't have much child porn, although these boxes would be convenient ways for terrible people to Dispose of it.

I fully agree that serial education in Japan is something that needs improvement.

-3 ( +5 / -8 )

Most people can get on the dark web to see anything they are into. They don’t need to get physical magazines anymore

-6 ( +0 / -6 )

Guy in photo with DVDs in hand, "Seen it, seen it, seen it, oooooh..."

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

Japantime

Most people can get on the dark web to see anything they are into. They don’t need to get physical magazines anymore

Dark web? Porn is mainstream, and available the regular standard normal web web.

5 ( +9 / -4 )

Why doesn't he just watch it online instead of having to collect it from white boxes

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

Living at home is such a drag

Your mom threw away your best porno mag

You gotta FIGHT! For your RIGHT! To PAAAAARTY!

The sounds of my youth! MCA rest in peace

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Used to be vending machines of that kinda stuff.

-1 ( +4 / -5 )

How do these morally upstanding folks get their hands on "obscene books," DVDs, etc in the first place?

Are you asking for a friend?

1 ( +4 / -3 )

Ezekial 23 20 ...Holy Ghost...that books rocks ...

First I new of it.

-2 ( +3 / -5 )

Last October, a city-commissioned worker unlocked a white box in Nakagawa, Fukuoka Prefecture, in southwestern Japan, and removed one book and a DVD. In all on the day, he collected 16 books and 81 DVDs from eight white post boxes in the area.

The man, Kazuhide Inoue, 73, who has performed this task for the past 12 years, still feels the need to keep the boxes in his community.

"I don't know how to use the internet," Inoue said with a frown. "And my wife keeps a tight rein on the family finances. So this is the only way I've been able to get my rocks off for the last decade or so."

"It's been quite the ride," he added, shedding a tear.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

What a grotesque pointless article describing another bizarre nobody cares Japan thing.

-15 ( +6 / -21 )

MarkXToday 08:23 am JST

I've been here for 32 years and have never once seen anything like that, nor even heard of them.

I am living in Japan (Tokyo and Okayama) since 44 years and I also have never seen them, I did not even know that they exist.

I guess they are located in red-light districts with host/hostess/nightclubs and love hotels,  in areas I never go for a walk.

3 ( +9 / -6 )

As the ancient sage Mencius said over 2,000 years ago, "The philosopher Gao said, 'To enjoy food and delight in colours (i.e. sex) is natural. Benevolence is internal and not external; righteousness is external and not internal.'" This is usually just shortened to 食色性也 (shoku-shoku sei ya).

1 ( +3 / -2 )

One has to appreciate the concise and direct nature of Classical Chinese used for 2,000 years throughout East Asia.

-7 ( +0 / -7 )

Remember the joke that went 新幹線は男か女か

男です。なぜか知ってる?

駅を飛ばす。

-7 ( +2 / -9 )

With their stories featured daily in the news the "dirty old men" of Japan, not the young, provide the lessons of what not to do (反面教). The natural curiosity of the young in matters sexual can never be curbed since they are the biological creators of mankind's future.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Chikan pervert culture is inulcated at a young age in Japan

-12 ( +7 / -19 )

35 years in Japan and I had never seen or heard of these boxes. In my experience though it hasn't been unusual to see porno mags, videos or dvds dumped in the parks, gardens or waterways around big cities along with stolen womens panties.

What a country!

-6 ( +3 / -9 )

I guess there is no shortage of volunteers to empty the boxes among the city workers.

-4 ( +2 / -6 )

Those guys must have quite a collection.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

It's sad that children today won't get the chance to find some hardcore German porn ripped up in an alleyway (like I did as a lad 50 years ago), and then spend hours trying to piece the magazine together and more hours trying to work out what they were doing.

:-)

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

And uh, where does all of this discarded paraphernalia go exactly? Something tells me they aren't being destroyed...

I also find such a system and reason behind said system rather ironic considering some of the racy and eyebrow raising magazine covers I've seen at Japanese convenience stores - it's just sitting on the shelf in plain sight with no censorship bars or pixelation.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

I remember seeing one of these years ago on a main street in a moderately major city (I think it was Mito).

I didn't have terrific confidence in my Japanese reading ability at the time, but I remember being able to understand that this was a box "for things that you didn't want children to see".

"Is this box for what I think it is? ", i wondered. Turned out, yes it was!

Seems like having these on such a visible major street would be a problem for those that might plan to use it, however.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

I saw one of these white boxes in Mito (Ibaraki) about ten years ago.

It is funny to notice that when these boxes were installed porn magazines were easily accessible in the nearest combini.

They installed white boxes “to protect young people from exposure to explicit material not intended for their unsuspecting eyes”, but young people were able to find and peek at adult material in any conbini/bookstore. They claimed to protect the eyes of young people, but at the same time, lolicon manga were legal.

-9 ( +8 / -17 )

I've been here for 32 years and have never once seen anything like that, nor even heard of them. Must be a thing in big cities down south!

Well you kind of right. More of an inaka thing.

I live in Kitakyushu Fukuoka city line. I have seen these and seen Japanese dropping items down in them for 34 years. Since they do not sell the porn mags in the Lawson and 7-11's anymore. No need I guess. Its all on the phones now.

Nakagawa is a city located in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. The city was founded on October 1, 2018, making it the newest city in Japan. As of as march 31st 2024, the city had an estimated population of 49,400.

The Kudo kai used to be are thick there, so the porn was as well. Its now yuppie ville.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Trying to get satisfied off of porn is like trying to get full off of the Food Channel. Might be pleasing to the eye, but eventually you will starve.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

JeremiahToday 01:17 am JST

Trying to get satisfied off of porn is like trying to get full off of the Food Channel. Might be pleasing to the eye, but eventually you will starve.

That is why red light districts need to be legal :)

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Trying to get satisfied off of porn is like trying to get full off of the Food Channel. Might be pleasing to the eye, but eventually you will starve.

Which is why sex workers like undertakers will never lack customers.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

In my experience though it hasn't been unusual to see porno mags, videos or dvds dumped in the parks, gardens or waterways around big cities along with stolen womens panties.

Stolen women's panties? I can't recall ever seeing discarded panties. Even you commonly find them, how on earth would you know they were stolen? That's a big assumption.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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