 Sex in Japan: Love Hotels, Sex Museums, Porno Theaters
Love Hotels Hotels of Horniness: Japan's pay-by-the-hour love nests
To combat the high prices of the traditional inn, or ryokan, love-hotels began springing up in the 1950s, offering an affordable love-nest for rent by the hour.
'People of all ages came. I once found a bag full of sex aids in reception, so I phoned up to the couple that had just checked in. I left the bag where it was and strained over the top of the dividing screen to see who would collect it. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw a man in his eighties bounding eagerly out of the elevator."
Read the article on Love Hotels
by Simon Moran
Sex Museums, like porn vending machines, are a perennial attraction in Japan
These places are not traditional museums as you may have guessed. They are generally bawdy, fun places (often situated in hot-spring resorts)where people come to have a giggle or two at some enlarged phallus or a particularly inventive sexual position.
Read the article on Sex Museums
by Sian Thatcher
Sex Glossary: an A-Z of Sex and Eroticism in Japan
AV stands for Adult Video, i.e. porno movies, or "stick flicks" as they are sometimes called in Japan. AV is a huge business in Japan, with about 1000 companies producing more than 30 new titles, both legal and illegal, each day!!!
AV is easily available in Japan, and there are even vending machines for them on the street, although as a nod to the protection of minors the display is covered with a photo-sensitive material so it is blacked out during the daylight hours.
In fact AV has a quite high public exposure in Japan, with AV "actresses" regularly appearing on TV and in magazines, and having their own websites and fanzines.
Read the Japanese Sex Glossary
Nudity: A Quick Peek at Nudity and Nakedness in Japan
In contemporary Japanese society nudity occupies a similar position as in Western societies, that is to say, the naked human body is considered sexual with the often attendant emotions of embarrassment and shame.
Similar, but with some differences though. For instance there are absolutely no nudist or topless beaches in Japan, as are common in much of Europe and the U.S.A, and no form of "naturist" culture.
On the other hand, nudity among same-sex groups as in public bathing and at onsens (hot spring resorts) elicits far less uncomfortableness for the Japanese than for many Americans and British for example, and within the Japanese family nudity is far more commonplace.
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Osaka is not just on the cutting edge of the sex industry; it is the cutting edge. Anything that becomes a nationwide trend probably started in the brothels and soaplands and blowjob factories of Namba or Umeda or Kyobashi.
In keeping with that, there are now several establishments dedicated to a trend known locally as "Handmaiden".
Many coffee shops in Tokyo's Akihabara or Osaka's Denden Town - neighborhoods with high concentrations of electronics shops and, ergo, geeks - now feature waitresses dressed as "maidens".
Read the article on HandMaiden brothels
Japan's sex industry is well-known for its variety, creativity, and sheer size. It has been documented in many books in English, most recently Pink Box.
For those who can read Japanese, there is another window into this slightly hidden but nearly omnipresent world: brothel guides, published as monthly magazines. These magazines include Manzoku and Naitai, to name but two. They have regional issues and vary in price from about 390 yen ($3) to glossy magazines that sell for as much as 900 yen ($8).
Read the article on Japanese sex magazines
Buy books and DVDs on Japan sex: choose from a wide and growing selection of books and DVDs from Japan and the USA.
View Japanese sex manga, hentai, erotica, ero-guru, Japanese sex anime, images by Araki, Amy Yamada, Pink Samurai, sex secrets, geisha, hard-core comics, erotic short stories & novellas, soft porn and books on the history and background of the gigantic Japanese sex industry.
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 A short walk from Kyoto Station, not far from Toji Temple, is a temple of another sort: DX Toji.
Located on a residential street in what was once a slum, and today remains a poor and somewhat neglected part of Kyoto city where Koreans and Japan's traditional underclass, the Burakumin, live, is the DX theater - dedicated to the fine art of the strip tease. Join us for an evening of staring at bare naked flesh.
Read an article on a strip joint in Kyoto.
 Read an interview with Joan Sinclair, author and photographer of Pink Box. Joan Sinclair feminist, journalist, lawyer, photographer, and former English teacher talks about her work on Japan’s ubiquitous sex industry, Pink Box: Inside Japan's Sex Clubs. In Japan the archetypes for sex clubs come from manga; the aesthetics are similar to manga, the heroes reflect adult manga. These kinds of clubs in a way adhere to cultural norms, but they are more a sanctioned playground where men can be boys, can break the rules while still sticking within the norms of Japanese society.
Read an interview with Joan Sinclair.
 Of all of the "mysteries" of the East and Japan, perhaps none is so puzzling as the institution the hostess bar. In any city in Japan, hundreds if not thousands of hostess bars are open for business every night of the week, all year round. They are usually concentrated in nightlife areas such as Ginza and Shinjuku (Tokyo), Umeda and Namba (Osaka), Kiyamachi and Gion (Kyoto), and so on - but they are literally everywhere.
Like the experience to be had with the more exotic Geisha, the sex is implied but almost never offered at a hostess bar. Another similarity is the scripted feel of the experience.
Read the article on hostess clubs.
 Sooner or later visitors or residents of Japan will stumble over that particularly Japanese sex film genre called pinku eiga.
Pink movies are softcore sex productions generally shot on 35mm celluloid and made for porno theater screenings. There's plenty of boobs and butts but no genitals at all, the public display of the latter is still prohibited in Japan. The films do, however tell actual stories; and many of the directors active in the genre crossed over to mainstream cinema. Read a review of a new book on the subject: Behind The Pink Curtain: The Complete History of Japanese Sex Cinema.
Read the article on Behind The Pink Curtain.
 In the U.S. and in most Western European countries, home video and urban clean-up campaigns had put most porno movie haunts out of business by the late 1990s.
In Japan, however, you can still find old-style sex film theaters, running real celluloid in classic 35mm format. Though not as numerous as they once were in the 1970s and 80s, there are about 130 porno theaters still in operation in Japan today.
Osaka's Doyama-cho near Umeda is home to both long-running gay and straight sex theaters.
Read the article on Porno Cinemas.
Japan's pornography industry is massive, prolific, and varied. Within the beast that it is, though, some generalizations can safely be made. It is made for and by middle-aged men. The male actors come in all sizes and shapes, and an attractive appearance is not generally a precondition. The women tend to be passive, simpering, big-breasted, doe-eyed, beautiful, and incredibly "orgasmic."
Listen to a short clip of Japanese porn.
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by Randy, 8th January, 2009
