Business Changes in Okinawa For the World's Oldest Profession

Hard to believe but prostitution is illegal in Japan. But, as it was explained to me once by an elder Japanese gentleman, "Yes, prostitution is illegal, but if people fall in love for 15 minutes, there's no law against that!"

Come to think of it, that makes sense. Why prostitution - which is sex between two consenting adults - is illegal - is beyond me. Victimless crimes should be wiped from the books.

But off my soapbox for now...

Check this from Tokyo Reporter. It is a story of how the girls are hitting the streets in Okinawa as the US military moves.

With the relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Ginowan City on the island of Okinawa factoring in the recently held gubernatorial election, weekly tabloid Shukan Jitsuwa (Dec. 9) updates its readership on any impact that may be in store for its surrounding red-light district. During the run-up to the vote, held on Nov. 28, in which Okinawan Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima, 71, narrowly defeated 58-year-old former Ginowan Mayor Yoichi Iha to retain his title, the magazine explains that the ongoing crackdown on shops supplying sleaze in Ginowan's Maebara entertainment area was an issue that lurked behind the scenes. For a little background, along with the Tobita Shinchi brothel quarter in Osaka, the Maebara red-light district is known for adult-oriented clubs that specialize in quickies and feature attractive prices. Since spring, police have been cracking down on establishments in the area, also referred to as "Shinmachi." Many of the shops had been operating on an underground basis. 

George Williams Voted by NACB as Japan's #6 Person of the Year!

Great News!!

2010年今年の顔（パーソン・オブ・ザ・イヤー）今年あなたを一番「にこっ！」とさせた有名人カテゴリー第1位にジョージ・ウイリアムズが選ばれました！

George Williams

George Williams was voted 6th and 8th ranking of "Person of the Year for Japan 2010".

This is research done by National Association of Commercial Broadcasters. The voting date was 25th. Nov. 2010. 5:00-24:00

In the category for voting amongst young people (under 30), George finished above baseball star Ichiro George is above, Ichiro, Ryo Ishikawa!

Ichiro

Ryo Ishikawa

2010年今年の顔（パーソン・オブ・ザ・イヤー）今年あなたを一番「にこっ！」とさせた有名人カテゴリー第1位にジョージ・ウイリアムズが選ばれました！

 全国の民放ラジオ100 社で実施した今年の顔（パーソン・オブ・ザ・イヤー）。喜怒哀楽の各カテゴリーで行われた調査のうち、Ｑ．今年あなたを一番「にこっ！」とさせた有名人は誰ですか？世代別　20歳代で　ジョージ・ウイリアムズが第1位に輝きました！（世代別30歳代で第3位・総合6位）　 

この件に関する問い合わせ：民放連業務部／井上・古賀 電話：03-5213-7710

See:

NACB PRESS RELEASE:

You Kiddin' Me? New Japanese Maid Cafe Opens

I need a drink....

From Japanator:

Japan's maid cafe industry can be a competitive one. It's not enough to have a bunch of cute girls wait on girl-deprived customers, you have to have something special to stand out. We've seen samurai maids, zombie maids, and boys-dressed-as-girls maids, but at some point, the whole "sexy young girl" thing becomes played out and you need to bring back the classic.

Ikebukuro's new Grandma's Maid Cafe Rottenmeier aims to do just that. Inspired by the strict housekeeper in the classic anime Heidi, Girl of the Alps, the cafe only hired women who "see themselves as grannies" to give the proper old-fashioned feel. The women wear a custom-made dress, wig, and make-up designed in the 19th century European style to match the similarly designed decor. I wondered if the wig is really necessary, but apparently the ages of the 29 "grannies" ranges from 24 to 77 years old! What kind of 24-year-old girl already considers herself a granny?

The cafe will only be open for a month to correspond with Festival/Tokyo, but I'd imagine that if it does well enough, the owner might consider opening it again in the future. It is certainly unique enough in a sea of cutesy maid cafes catering solely to otaku tastes.

Porn Filmed in Japanese McDonald's? I'm Rubbin' It!

You cannot make this stuff up:

Porn filmed in Japanese McDonald's? I'm rubbin' it!

McDonald's customers suspected something amiss when one guy pulled out his whopper. They knew for sure when he began partaking of fur burger. The upshot was four people trying to make an adult movie in a fast food outlet ended up getting arrested, says Friday (5/2).

Arrested in the case earlier this month for indecent exposure and obstruction of business were Kunikazu Ishii, 52, the director, Nahoko Shimada, 21, an actress and dental nurse, and actors Yuya Ochiai, 29, and Makoto Nishizumi.

Nahoko Shimada 
- "Hold the Mayo!"
-"I got your 'secret sauce' right here!" - Mike 

Saitama Prefectural Police say the four spent about 30 minutes one afternoon in January this year filming an adult movie in the McDonald's Higashi Matsuyama Itoyokado outlet in Higashi Matsuyama, Saitama Prefecture. They were allegedly caught after another customer called the police and told cops what was supposedly going on.

"(Shimada) came into the restaurant holding hands with Ochiai. But Ochiai didn't look the type good enough to pick up a woman like her, so I thought something fishy was going on," a customer in the store at the time of the incident tells Friday. "It was even more suspicious because there was one young woman surrounded by all those much older guys."

The group apparently took up a corner counter not easily visible to serving staff and went about their purportedly pornographic proclivities.

Ochiai apparently spent the time with his hands up Shimada's skirt as he displayed his deft handiwork, Ishii did the filming and Nishizumi acted as a barrier and barked out orders to participants -- so the cops say, anyway.

When police did arrive on the scene, the group had allegedly been filming inside the restaurant for about half an hour. Each of the four suspects was led away individually and taken to a nearby cop station in a different patrol car.

Adult movie experts say the arrests are a sign of the times.

"Filming that way is basically like screaming out to the cops: 'Hey, come and arrest me,'" an industry insider tells Friday.

An adult movie production company associate adds his two bits.

"They probably did something that stupid because they wanted to cut production costs," the associate says.

"Putting the actress's wages aside, 10 years ago most cheap adult movies had a budget of about 1 million yen, but now that figure is more likely to be 500,000 yen or, in really bad cases, only around 300,000 yen. If you've only got 300,000 yen to work with, there'll be no room to book a studio or hotel room once you've rented the filming equipment and paid the guys' wages. So that's probably why they filmed in the fast food restaurant."

Most adult movie actresses are usually the highest paid workers on each flick. Though that was likely to have been the case with this movie, too, starlet Shimada was hardly likely to have been raking in big bucks (at least in cash terms).

"Women acting in these cheap adult flicks usually get paid around 70,000 yen per movie, but some may only get as little as 20,000 yen. Nearly all the women who act in these kinds of movies have a real job and do it as a sideline. There are nurses, stage actresses and members of the Self-Defense Forces," the associate tells Friday.

"Shimada's main job was a dental nurse. She only started appearing in a few adult movies from December last year, so she's basically a complete amateur. Now she's been arrested, her chosen part-time profession has ended up costing her quite a lot." (By Ryann Connell)

Link 

Great Music Video! The Missing Suitcase!

A regular reader wants to know the name of a an instrumental video that was shot in Tokyo.

He writes;

"Mike.... Am looking for a music video and figured that you were the guy to ask. It is a video that is an instrumental about two guys stealing a suitcase in Japan and at the end of the video one guy escapes in a jet. Do you know the one?"

I'll bet I do. I think you are asking about Ninja Tunes artist The Herbaliser "The Missing Suitcase." And, my, what great taste you have! Yes! This is way cool.

At the beginning, by the way, the fat Japanese guy talking on the phone is Hidaka san, the president of Smash. The guys who promote Fuji Rock.

Here's the video. Enjoy!

Tokyo Sky Tree Blows Away Tokyo Tower

I wrote a while back about how Tokyo Tower was a big letdown and how it has lost its attraction as a tourist site (there's no romance left there at all - how could there be? They have a flea market on the first floor!)

Well, the next one to visit will be Sky Tree. It is something like three times taller than Tokyo Tower.

Here is an awesome photo from the Mainichi Newspaper:

The Tokyo Sky Tree, now under construction in the capital's 

Sumida Ward, is seen from a Mainichi helicopter on Dec. 1, 2010. 

The tower, which will be 634 meters tall when completed, 

passed the 500-meter mark that morning. (Mainichi)

Japanese Sex Attitudes: Your Son Needs to Get Laid!

The Tokyo Reporter never ceases to make me laugh. Where do they get this fantastic stuff?

Today, they have an article about a counselor who was asked by parents if she could help their son get laid.

You can't make this stuff up!

A seminar, on the theme of "The Current Marriage Situation in Japan," was held at an auditorium on the campus of a national university. The attendees were several dozen male and female participants ranging in age from their 40s to their 60s. The real reason people attended, reports Nikkan Gendai (Nov. 30), is that they want to commiserate on why their children seem unable to find a marriage partner. The guest speaker, marriage consultant Hiromi Ikeuchi, doesn't pull any punches. "It might be presumptuous of me to say this, but you parents also bear responsibility for why your children are unable to marry," she says.

“Males today are raised by overbearing, overprotective parents,” Ikeuchi continues. “These ‘helicopter parents’ are constantly hovering over their sons, and boys aren’t able to learn about sexual practices on their own, in a natural way. Or even when they do, they get a rather late start. This is why they have trouble getting rid of their virginity at the right age.”

“My son, a systems engineer, still seems to be a virgin even though he’s already 35,” a man in the audience tells Ikeuchi. “When I was a college student, my seniors took me to a soapland (erotic bathhouse) to get me laid.”

But because of the weakening of interpersonal relationships in Japan, those sorts of educational escapades are vanishing.

“So now the fathers’ roles in helping their sons to have adventures is being subject to question,” points out Ikeuchi, who advises, “One way is overcome the problem is for a father to recruit one of his younger company subordinates, or a relative, such as a cousin, who can speak to the son frankly and openly.”

“A man about 10 years older ought to be just right,” Ikuchi says. (K.S.)