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NTV pulls online videos depicting sexy rugby players after complaints

47 Comments

Nihon Television (Channel 4) has removed two online videos depicting sexy rugby players promoting the 2015 Rugby World Cup after receiving complaints for the public.

NTV, which will broadcast the World Cup in England from Sept 18, announced on Monday that it had removed the videos from its website, titled “Sexy Rugby Rules," Sports Nippon reported Tuesday.

The videos show scantily-clad young women holding a rugby ball and explaining simple rules of the game, such as how to pass and kick.

NTV said it received numerous complaints online about close-up shots of the women's cleavage, with some viewers saying such videos denigrate the image of the sport.

Former Japan rugby player Tsuyoshi Hirao tweeted that the videos make a mockery of rugby and that they were a disgrace to the true dignity of the game.

An NTV spokesperson apologized and said the videos, which were removed on Sunday afternoon, had been simply intended to be amusing and informative for anyone new to the game of rugby.

Japan will participate in the World Cup and faces South Africa, Samoa, Scotland and the United States in a tough Pool B.

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47 Comments
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very surprised coming from Japan a country with an infatuation with boobs. sad thing is you dont get complaint when underage girls dance around in skimpy costumes. sometime I think if Japan has got its moral wiring all messed up!?

18 ( +22 / -4 )

God help me I love this country

2 ( +6 / -4 )

I'm bettin these girls have never played a game of rugby in their entire lives.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

What were they thinking.... with?

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Humiliation of women ? here ? Never.

Mind you, at least these ladies look grown up.

9 ( +9 / -0 )

There goes my acting career. 23 years of blood and booze left me with a face only a my mother could love.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

All rugby players and fans that I know are more than happy with "close-up shots of (the) women’s cleavage".

5 ( +6 / -1 )

I'm bettin these girls have never played a game of rugby in their entire lives.

and i'm betting most men wouldn't give a rats ar*e.

13 ( +13 / -0 )

Im game for a scrum!

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Kinda dumb, but relatively harmless.

I'd like to see some public objection to all the porno mags out in the open and at kids' eye level in the conbini.

5 ( +7 / -2 )

Notice how this blurb makes NO mention of the denigration of women, only how it degrades rugby LOL!!!!

12 ( +13 / -1 )

I doubt many ruby fans who are men complained. ;-)

4 ( +4 / -0 )

What utter garbage.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

I'd love to feed a ball into that scrum

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Yep! And when they take those skimpy clothes off, they will put there normal clothes on and STILL act like ladies. No tattoos, nose nipple belly button rings. Classy all the way. As someone said above "God help me I love this country"

4 ( +8 / -4 )

Japanese GOLD!!!!

1 ( +1 / -0 )

How about these ads denigrate women.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

Excellent. Hirao's comment also a winner. all round J craziness.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

FizzBit - a thousand "goods" if I could.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

These harmless kinds of things is what I used to really love about this country.

Now a little bit of T and A on TV causes outrage.

Take me back to the 70s Japan that wasn't so uptight.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

do these people watch evening tv here??? sexy shots & poses all over the place.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Sexy rugby players? The oxymoron of the day!

3 ( +3 / -0 )

"NTV said it received numerous complaints online about close-up shots of the women’s cleavage, with some viewers saying such videos denigrate the image of the sport."

Sorry -- it's denigrating women more than it is to the sport, peeps.

"Former Japan rugby player Tsuyoshi Hirao tweeted that the videos make a mockery of rugby and that they were a disgrace to the true dignity of the game."

Again -- it has naught to do with the sport, but exploiting women to sell the game via sex.

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

sometime I think if Japan has got its moral wiring all messed up!?

You don't seem to be sure of yourself. I guess you don't live here.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Considering the shite you see on train advertising here (nondescript girl group members in bikinis, week in week out), this is a bit rich.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Heheh, wonder if Japan would react the same way if other countries try to teach sumo by sexy girls explaining the intricacies of the sport

1 ( +1 / -0 )

sometime I think if Japan has got its moral wiring all messed up!?

@wtf. Me too

I'd like to see some public objection to all the porno mags out in the open and at kids' eye level in the conbini.

@stranger. I always wondered why that's perfectly okay too. Why isn't anyone complaining about everyday ads in public. Such as women skimpily (also showing cleavage like this vid) dressed in bikinis holding a kirin or super dry? Hypocrites.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

sometime I think if Japan has got its moral wiring all messed up!?

Anywhere you go, morality changes wildly between 100 year periods. I am pretty sick of Japan getting singled out, derided for being different, and not nearly praised enough for what they do right.

As for the dignity of rugby, I think anyone who would even think along those lines needs to go out and get a life. Its a sport and a game. Take a pill. Relax.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

Yet another Japanese Copycat..thing? This kind of video has been done before with much "better" quality, camera work and actresses overseas.

Original "foreign" version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUBOo_8ZTIw

@Disillusioned: Sexy Rugby Players- wish granted.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Rugby is bad ass, like football with no pads. Go Syracuse Hammerheads (rugby team) !

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I am pretty sick of Japan getting singled out, derided for being different, and not nearly praised enough for what they do right.

So what are they doing so right? Kiddy porn was just barely banned a yr ago. You got sexual/ mataharasu cases pending throughout Japan Inc. Soaplands are legally open for business. Enjokusai still exists, prob because those who engage in it are (in the circle) and will never be prosecuted for it.

. . . and some people are fussing about this rugby vid?

Once again, I say- Hypocrites!

3 ( +4 / -1 )

@1800: >I am pretty sick of Japan getting singled out, derided for being different, and not nearly praised enough for what they do right.

Japan is the number 3 world economy, was number 2. That, among many other reasons (such as renouncing war), should be reason enough for Japan to be nothing but a Paragon of behavior to the rest of the world.

Instead, for the last 10-ish years Japan has been nothing of the sort on the world stage. They have completely flubbed the handling of a major disaster, basically ignoring it in favor of hosting an event known to economically drain the host country.

So, on topic of the video, sure it's a kinda..sorta..sexy video that lots of guys are going to like, but it's in really poor taste. The original Australian one is done to comedic effect by utilizing WAY over the top models and explanation of terms in a way that's just silly, a la Playboy or even Mad Magazine. Because of the high production values it can pretend to take itself seriously and we can laugh at the sheer ridiculousness of it.

The Japanese uses very normal looking girls with very cheap editing, so while it shows the same general things technically it obviously just wants to show you but and boobs and comes off as cheap smut.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

"How about these ads denigrate women."

No, not at all. They are celebrating the sexy, female body. I am celebrating right now.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

If they're gonna ban that vid they should also ban AKB48

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Kenny: there are many ways to celebrate the female body, selling them is not one. This is a country that jails omen who try to celebrate the female body through art, but openly accepts rape porn (with children even!, with comics). This rugby m is just exploitation.

1800: If you're sick of Japan being singled out, be so for the right reasons. Ie. be tired of them putting themselves in that position.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

It's odd because, usually in Japan, promotions of most things focus much more on detailing the product and NOT on the barely dressed, sexed up lady in the skin tight, painted on short shorts and super exposed cleve.

For a tasteful display of promotions, readers should look at any of the "race queens" on display at the "car shows" here in beautiul country.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

smithinjapan - compared to other videos in other western countries, this video is tame. Seriously, explain what is soooo wrong about it, other than it being sexually attractive. If the video replaced the women with men, would you be outraged? This is not child porn, no one is also saying that jailed artist deserved it...what does that have to do with this video? A + B = Cheese, again...

0 ( +2 / -2 )

@kaynide

should be reason enough for Japan to be nothing but a Paragon of behavior to the rest of the world.

Holy smokes dude! Number one is no paragon and could learn lessons in several things from number three, such as lightening up where the female body is concerned!

For Pete's sake, this is just rugby and a video clip featuring lots of cleavage. People getting so worked up about have some serious issues!

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Kenny: I have nothing against sex or sexually attractive people, the problem is that it has ZERO to do with what it is advertising. As for te jailed artist and kiddie-porn, I was giving examples of how CMs here do anything BUT truly celebrate the body but exploit. To answer your question I would feel the same if it were men as long as, like this, it was selling sex instead. Don't say it's a "celebration" of the female body, or a good representation of rugby.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

@smithinjapan, cannot both the beauty of the female form and rugby be promoted at the same time? I don't know, maybe a lot people's processing speed is too damn slow for both at the same time? I don't seem to have that handicap. And I would hate to live in a world where everything is set to the slow speed of such people. It was annoying enough in junior high when they pulled us out of performance segregated classes and put us all together which wound up with a whole lot of my class time being used up with questions like "What page are we on?".

It might also be worth considering that if we always remove anything sexy from all other content that people will never learn to deal with them both together for lack of experience. I don't see any benefit in that. All I see is people up in their own heads with grandiose ideas of purity and other such nonsense.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

@1800: America does indeed have huge faults, huge ones. It too should be a much better citizen- no arguments there. There's no excuse for America not to improve itself- it has the resources, tech and people.

That said, I'm certainly not saying that ogling pretty girls is wrong, heck I rather liked the Australian version with some smoking hot girls... the Japanese one? not so much.

It's not the subject matter, it's that the Japanese one is just really really cheap, and an even cheaper knockoff of the LYNX brand commercial. That, to me, is simply poor taste. Like, you wouldn't put a man wearing a speedo to advertise McDonalds burgers right? Not unless it was so over the top laugh-out-loud ridiculous right?

0 ( +1 / -1 )

How can they get upset about scantily clad adults when they have scantily clad teens and preteens in every mag in every conbini?

Absolute hypocrites.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Absolute hypocrites.

They would be hypocrites if the people complaining about the rugby ad were the same ones putting the magazines in mags in the conbinis.

Do you think they are the same people? I don't. So it's a false equivalency.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Whiners.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Great! Removed it before I got a chance to see it! Hopefully someone re-posted it on YOU TUBE!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Sorry. I did not know this is sexy contest until I read the article above, Thought story about reducing weight.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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