The Tokyo Reporter - News, Features, and Photography from Tokyo

Churlish cherry boys’ circle jerk exploits good-natured gal’s generosity

"After I got my first personal computer I was having fun surfing the net, and one day I came across a home page titled 'Take My Male Virginity...please.' I was fascinated by the poor fellow's hard-up situation and decided to meet up with the page's webmaster, a Mr. T." Related articles:

Thomas the Yak Engine? Publisher alleged to host gangster front company

Children's books and criminal organizations go together like water and oil. However, reports weekly tabloid Shukan Shincho (Sep. 9), the pair is apparently coexisting under the same roof at the Tokyo headquarters of the well-known publisher Poplar Publishing, which prints Japanese language editions of the "Thomas the Tank Engine" series of books. Related articles:

NHK offers tits for rating stats, and we mean breasts, folks

While public broadcaster NHK is regarded as a conservative channel, Shukan Asahi Geino (Sep. 9) reports that it has been broadcasting some sexually-charged programming of late. The August 22 airing of "Tokyo Kawaii TV," a program dedicated to female fashion, on cleavage. Related articles:

Reporn: Ueno Okura Theater raises new ‘pink’ curtain

Given their unseemly reputation, a porn theater boasting of high-quality interiors and modern fixtures is equally as improbable as 15 minutes passing on the screen without bare flesh hitting the tatami. Yet that is the case following last month’s opening of the replacement to the rundown, all-night Ueno Okura Theater. Related articles:

Mo better boobs: Japanese gals acquire taste for men’s mammaries

It's kind of hard to ignore a 36-point headline emblazoned with the words "Men's Nipples." Why has Sunday Mainichi (Sept. 12) chosen to raise this heretofore largely ignored topic? "Many women," it writes, "take an interest in men's nipples that protrude through their linen shirts or polo shirts. Rather than men's backs, we're in an era when men's nipples are discussed." Related articles:

Shanghai surprise: Japanese Expo gals banned from evening escapades

The Japan pavilion has been a popular attraction at the Shanghai World Expo 2010, now at its midway point, but frustrations are mounting among female staffers who have been banned from mingling with men from other countries, reports Shukan Post (Aug. 20-27). Related articles:

Tour of Asakusa

Tokyo can be crudely described as a metropolis of soaring and undulating concrete collectively illuminated by a glow of garish neon. Yet bordering the Sumida River in the east is the Asakusa district, which adheres to many of those characteristics but also retains certain cultural elements of life back in the Edo Period (1615 - 1868). Related articles:

Tokyo International Players Second Stage Presents “Greater Tuna”

Tokyo International Players, Japan's longest running English language theater group, proudly presents an extended engagement of "Greater Tuna" in September. Related articles:

Couple wiggles and giggles in car during a summer washout

"The other day my boyfriend bought a new car, and we promptly headed for a drive through the mountains to admire the scenery. The skies had been fair, but clouds began forming and we ran into an unexpected rainstorm. Before long it was coming down in buckets." Related articles:

Entertainment world to follow sumo in baseball betting clampdown

As the world of sumo continues to grapple with revelations that wrestlers routinely gambled on baseball games, Shukan Jitsuwa (Sep. 2) reports that police authorities are now targeting entertainers for the same illegal activity. Related articles:

Links for 2010-08-23 [Digg]

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 00:00:00 PDT

Pairity for charity: Porn channel raises funds for AIDS
Very few company presidents could sit in a conference room and casually explain why he will later this month allow the general public to enter his corporate headquarters and fondle the breasts of a selection of the female staff for a modest donation to charity.

Links for 2010-08-18 [Digg]

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 00:00:00 PDT

Playful prankster's uninhibited prancing provokes desk staff
In her latest weekly installment in Nikkan Gendai (Aug. 12) the pseudonymous Shoko Harano, a divorcee who has spent three years working at the front desk of a Tokyo love hotel, relates a wacky incident in which she was involved.

Links for 2010-08-16 [Digg]

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 00:00:00 PDT

Right-wing groups protest anti-Yasukuni march in Tokyo
Right-wing groups protest anti-Yasukuni Shrine march in Tokyo.

Links for 2010-08-09 [Digg]

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 00:00:00 PDT

Soaring Tokyo temperatures provide profusion of perversions
There's flaky and then there's outright weird. The Nagoya police ought to know, reports Nikkan Gendai (Aug. 7). A 33-year-old salaryman assaulted a woman on an escalator in an heretofore unheard-of manner.
Summertime, and the hookin' is easy, Johns are jumpin' and..
A young girl plying the trade known as enjokosai, or compensated dating, is hardly new. Yet, observes Shukan Jitsuwa (Aug. 19), the glut of such gals on summer break and the harsh economy are combining to make the present the best time to broker the best deals.

Links for 2010-08-02 [Digg]

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 00:00:00 PDT

Porn again: Historic Tokyo 'pink' theater upgrades
The Kabuki-za theater in Ginza is not the only notable Tokyo structure dating back to the 1950s that has shut its doors this year. With large illuminated lettering affixed to its pasty white facade proclaiming Adult movies, the all-night Ueno Okura Theater, located in Taito Ward close to Shinobazu Pond and at the edge of Ueno Park, has been enterta

Links for 2010-08-01 [Digg]

Mon, 02 Aug 2010 00:00:00 PDT

Hubby arrested on heels of honeymoon for hiring hooker
Sometimes, begins (Aug. 12), there are places you'd just rather not be. On July 19, that was certainly the case for a 37-year-old employee at a life insurance firm from Kanagawa Prefecture. He was arrested by police from the city of Seya for violating prostitution and pornography statutes by hiring an underage prostitute.

Links for 2010-07-26 [Digg]

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 00:00:00 PDT

Women with yen for men find licking to their liking
With growing numbers of hesitant, herbivorous males matched by more assertive, carnivorous females, sex in Japan has truly turned topsy-turvy. Nikkan Gendai (July 17) reports that increasingly libidinous Japanese women have been flocking to discreet sensual massage parlors, where they pay to be pampered by young hunks.
Maria Ozawa's deri heru debut among top sex biz trends
For a rundown of the top-ten stories thus far in 2010 in the fuzoku trade -- that is, businesses offering sexual services --- weekly tabloid Shukan Asahi Geino (July 8) turned to Yoshikazu Murazaki, the editor-in-chief of monthly entertainment guide Manzoku.
Women flee nursing, insurance trade for 'pink' careers
Ask a gal working at a pink business what she was doing before she went into the life, and you're likely to be told she had formerly worked as a nurse or an insurance saleslady.