# Why is so much Japanese porn censored?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-so-much-japanese-porn-censored/526492
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [January 26, 2010, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-so-much-japanese-porn-censored/526492 "2010-01-26T08:01:12Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2011, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-so-much-japanese-porn-censored/526492/41 "2011-04-25T10:44:41Z")
> [@TokyoPlayer](#):
>
> Sorry. While it’s possible to purchase girls’ panties, such devices are not at subway stations or other public locations.
>
> Note that I said “girl’s” and not “women’s.” All reports I’ve heard about concern selling high school girls’ underwear. There was a big hit about it in the early 90s but subsequently made illegal in various prefectures.
>
> As to the question if the vending machines actually exist or not, it seems possible that they do. Snopes claims it’s true, but base that on people reporting them, which can be questionable.
The closest thing to it that I’ve ever seen is a UFO catcher machine in a game center. The underwear were folded up in small plastic balls (half see-through and half opaque) about 8cm diameter. You put in 100 yen (maybe 200?) and operate the mechanical 3-fingered crane to try and get your prize.
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### Author:  [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2011, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-so-much-japanese-porn-censored/526492/42 "2011-04-25T11:30:00Z")
> [@Khaki\_Campbell](#):
>
> s the most extreme, disgusting brand of scat porn with diarrhea (including live worms) eating.
:eek:
I must be getting old. I don’t find that remotely appealing and am continually amazed at what will turn some sick fuckers on.
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### Author:  [@Student\_Driver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Student_Driver)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2011, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-so-much-japanese-porn-censored/526492/43 "2011-04-25T11:32:48Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> On the other hand, you could do something like reversing the order of the bits in that region, or rotating an entire square of 64 pixels 180 degrees, or the like. Any of those would give you an overall effect very similar to pixellation, but with no loss of information.
Sounds similar to the concept behind [Gmask](http://ohinternet.com/Gmask).
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### Author:  [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2011, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-so-much-japanese-porn-censored/526492/44 "2011-04-25T11:39:42Z")
> [@Isamu](#):
>
> The closest thing to it that I’ve ever seen is a UFO catcher machine in a game center. The underwear were folded up in small plastic balls (half see-through and half opaque) about 8cm diameter. You put in 100 yen (maybe 200?) and operate the mechanical 3-fingered crane to try and get your prize.
Yes but was it new or used underwear? The question was if used panties could be purchased (used to be, don’t know if they still can)
in vending machines (questionable if they are) in train station (no).
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### Author:  [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2011, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-so-much-japanese-porn-censored/526492/45 "2011-04-25T11:52:01Z")
> [@TokyoPlayer](#):
>
> Yes but was it new or used underwear? The question was if used panties could be purchased (used to be, don’t know if they still can)
> in vending machines (questionable if they are) in train station (no).
Oh, OK. Well, it was a long time ago (back when I couldn’t read Japanese, so I don’t know if they were used. I could see they were panties though, and each sphere had a different insert with a picture of a different girl, so I guess I assumed they were used. Is there a market for unused panties among the male demographic? This arcade was across the road from a train station (Nodahanshin), admittedly not in it.
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### Author:  [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2011, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-so-much-japanese-porn-censored/526492/46 "2011-04-25T11:53:34Z")
GMask is/was a program commonly uses to pixilate/mosaic porn, and for porn viewers to remove the pixilation/mosaic: [http://ohinternet.com/Gmask](http://ohinternet.com/Gmask)
On edit: Looks like Student Driver beat me to it.
Oh, shit, I shouldn’t have used the word “beat”.
Or “shit”.
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### Author:  [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2011, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-so-much-japanese-porn-censored/526492/47 "2011-04-25T13:32:27Z")
> [@Isamu](#):
>
> Oh, OK. Well, it was a long time ago (back when I couldn’t read Japanese, so I don’t know if they were used.
Since it was a while back, there is a possibility that they were used. Laws have changed since then.
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### Author:  [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2011, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-so-much-japanese-porn-censored/526492/48 "2011-04-25T13:46:36Z")
> [@MeanOldLady](#):
>
> What about those skirts with the asses drawn on them? How common are those?
Do zombies wear skirts? You mean the ones featured on [Snopes](http://www.snopes.com/photos/risque/skirts.asp)? In the article, they show some “breast scarves” which they had originally said were fashion items, but made a correction to state it was for an art show after I emailed them with the specifics.
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### Author:  [@hotflungwok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hotflungwok)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2011, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-so-much-japanese-porn-censored/526492/49 "2011-04-25T13:52:46Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#):
>
> In a ride through porn sites I landed at a profoundly disturbing Japanese scat site :eek:, and before I realized I wasn’t in Kansas anymore, I saw that it pixellated out the genitals, but left in anii and all the rest, which struck me as odd in the extreme. (No cite, which is just as well.)
I saw a Japanese porn movie posted on Usenet that had a scene where they used a speculum to open the girl up so the camera could see inside of her. On the closeup of her insides the outer genitalia was pixilated, but her insides, including her cervix, was uncensored. I found it odd.
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### Author:  [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2011, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-so-much-japanese-porn-censored/526492/50 "2011-04-25T14:09:44Z")
> [@Huerta88](#):
>
> Am I wrong in recalling that the U.K. has some fairly arbitrary rules about what (theoretically, again) can and cannot be shown in U.K. produced content?
The B.B.C. won’t broadcast recognizable brand names or logos, because they’re considered advertising and the B.B.C. isn’t allowed to show advertising.
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### Author:  [@Dahu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dahu)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2011, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-so-much-japanese-porn-censored/526492/51 "2011-04-25T14:56:12Z")
> [@acsenray](#):
>
> The B.B.C. won’t broadcast recognizable brand names or logos, because they’re considered advertising and the B.B.C. isn’t allowed to show advertising.
Not true.
I’m watching the World Snooker Championship right now on BBC2. Sponsored by [betfred.com](http://betfred.com), with clear logos on both of the players shirts and the referee’s.
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### Author:  [@SimonMoon5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SimonMoon5)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2011, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-so-much-japanese-porn-censored/526492/52 "2011-04-25T16:22:01Z")
> [@FahKinell](#):
>
> Has anybody else wondered WHY the Japanese seem to tolerate (really bad) pornographic TV GameShows (like f\*\*king Competitions, & ID’ing your GF from behind a board after groping & poking up to 6 other Ladies … &c), tolerate (by non-prevention / intervention of groping (actually, rape) of Girls on PublicTransit, have a seemingly perverse sense of Sexuality (as demonstrated by their Bukkake-centric / scataalogically-focussed / bondage-driven porn) … YET they pixellate the Pussy??? (& block the Cock, for that matter!)
>
> Seems sorta, kinda off-centre to me. .. & WHY do Japanese (& for that matter, lots of other Oriental) Girls insist on Keeping the Bush (albeit, trimmed) ??
Here’s a WAG:
Japanese men are still men, just like any other group of men, driven by sexual desires. However, they don’t get the same access to “normal” porn that men in other countries do. So, they turn to whatever they can get.
Okay, so they can’t get porn showing pussies, so they’ll go for porn showing panty shots or anuses or whatever they can get. They can’t get a decent uncensored vaginal sex scene, so they’ll go for what they can get: bukkake or tentacle porn or whatever.
It seems like they’re repressed in some ways (with the laws forbidding ordinary porn) so their repressed sexuality bubbles out in whatever ways are legal. I suppose that would explain those game shows, though I don’t have any experience with those.
My main Japanese porn experience has been in the category of “doujinshi” (meaning “same characters” iirc) which are fan-made comics (manga) based on pre-existing characters. Some of these include sexual content. And it’s very interesting in that they can’t draw an actual pussy, but they _can_ show skin-tight panties that reveal all the details of a pussy (to the extent that no real-world panties ever could… to the best of my knowledge). It is very weird. And sometimes a penis is completely censored behind a black box, while sometimes there’s a thin strip of blackness that only covers the boundary between the glans and the shaft. Hardly seems worth the effort, if you ask me.
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