Porn free: Japan to take adult magazines off convenience store shelves ahead of Tokyo Olympics

Newsbeat

South China Morning Post From decluttering queen Marie Kondo to the heartbroken fans who returned Russia’s Rostov Arena to its rightful state following a last-minute loss to Belgium during the 2018 Fifa World Cup, the Japanese are known for their cleanliness, at least in the literal sense of the word. But amid preparations for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the country is trying to clean up its image figuratively, too, by phasing out the sale of pornographic magazines at its countless convenience stores. On January 22, Japanese news agency Kyodo reported that three major convenience-store operators – Seven-Eleven Japan, Lawson and FamilyMart, which together run more than 50,000 outlets – would stop selling “adult” magazines nationwide by the end of August in an attempt to make a good impression on overseas visitors, whose numbers are expected to swell for the 2019 Rugby World Cup, which kicks off in September, and next year’s Olympic and Paralympic games. Rather than having been relegated to the top shelf, as erotic publications traditionally are in other nations, in Japan the titillation takes pride of place on low, easily accessible racks. “In the past, Seven-Eleven was mostly used by male customers to buy beverages and fast food, and our product assortment was designed accordingly,” the chain told Reuters. Speaking to AFP, a spokesman for Seven-Eleven Japan said that porn magazines now accounted for less than 1 per cent of the company’s overall sales and that the decision to stop selling them had been reached after reviewing various points of view. “We knew those sporting events are coming in the future, and those are among the factors that we considered,” he said, adding that more women and children were using 7-Eleven stores these days. Convenience-store offerings are not the only thing visitors to the Land of the Rising Sun will find transformed over the next 18 months, according to the Japanese philosophy of kaizen, or continuous improvement: squat loos are being replaced with the heated seats of Western-style smart toilets; Tsukiji fish market closed to make way for a giant car park and has reopened a little further out from the centre of Tokyo as Toyosu fish market; Shibuya, currently a confusing construction site, will reportedly blossom as a shiny new commerce and creative hub; there’s even talk of changing time itself, to allow athletes to compete in the cooler hours of the day. That suggestion was prompted by last year’s heatwave, which brought deadly temperatures to the archipelagic state. Other signs of kaizen will be driven by technology and sustainability, with stadiums and the athletes’ village powered by wind and solar energy; medals made from recycled electronics; driverless taxis deployed to ease pressure on the subway system; and luggage-carrying robot translators gliding around at airports. For host nations, the Games provides an opportunity to show its best self to the world. When Tokyo last hosted the Olympics, in 1964, the event marked the country’s post-war return to the global stage as a peaceful player and coincided with the unveiling of the high-speed shinkansen train network. This time around, recovery from the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that triggered the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster is said to be the focus, although signs of economic growth after years of stagnation will surely be highlighted, too. All of which comes at an estimated cost of 1.35 trillion yen (US$12.2 billion), according to a December 21 article in English-language daily The Japan Times, although an earlier report published by the Board of Audit found that the country was on track to spend at least US$25 billion on the event, which would make it the third most expensive Olympics ever, after the 2008 Beijing Summer (US$42 billion) and the 2014 Sochi Winter (US$51 billion) Getting rid of racy rags? Well, that’s priceless.