When we look back to those first generations of AKB48 in the late 2000s, it almost seems like carefree halcyon days when the nastiness of Japan's idol industry -- which we all knew was there -- was not the dominant talking point in the discourse, and everywhere we went we saw ads featuring the young ladies from the Akihabara supergroup.
Most of the members are now long gone from our lives, both those from the first "generation" and subsequent ones, with perhaps just a couple -- Atsuko Maeda and Yuko Oshima -- succeeding at establishing real acting careers.
We always had a soft spot for slinky ...
A 31-year-old Pakistani man has been arrested for sexual assault on a female high school student on a train near Takao, West Tokyo.
Muhammad Afzal is accused of sexually assaulting a schoolgirl as the second grader slept on a train on the JR Chuo Line in August, and then of taking her to a nearby copse and raping her.
According to a police statement reported in the media on Wednesday and Thursday, Muhammad Afzal groped the girl's chest and took her underwear off.
When the train reached Takao, where it terminated, Afzal allegedly took the girl's bag and then forcibly carried her to a ...
A survey has found that the number of high school students who have never kissed someone had increased.
The numbers of high schoolers with experience of kissing or sex is now around half of what it was in the early 2000s.
The Japanese Association for Sex Education's survey, which it carries out diligently every six years, investigates frequency of physical intimacy among high school students. The data sample was 12,562 students, including 4,321 high schoolers and 3,614 university students.
Only 22.8% of male high school students (roughly one in five) said they had kissed someone, which is ...
Say the word "feminist" to a young Japanese guy and you may be surprised by the negative reaction you get. This is partly because the word in Japanese has a stronger connotation, implying what we might call a radical feminist in English.
Nonetheless, anti-feminist attitudes can be surprisingly ingrained.
And while we might ascribe this to the old geezers who run the country as the senior figures in the civil service and government, and as the board members and executives at major corporations, the one survey has found that a significant number of Generation Z men also have reservations ...
How to deal with depopulation in rural areas? This question has been haunting Japanese regional governments for decades now.
Above all, not only do they need to encourage the people who move away to major urban centers for work to return, they really need to target younger people with families. Because above all, these areas need young people.
The central government's policy when it comes to urgent matters is typically to launch a PR campaign -- in terms of the climate crisis, it's mostly about promoting the UN SDGs -- or throw money at it.
For the issue of depopulation, they have resorted ...
This is either brutally honest or a great example of trolling.
An Osaka-based organization involved in combating chikan (molesting) on trains received a package in the mail from Tokyo in July. They opened it up to find a used onahole (male masturbator toy) and a letter.
"I released my sexual urges in order not to molest women. I support your efforts."
The toy, which was wrapped in a clear plastic bag and showed signs of use, was apparently the means for how the sender had released his sexual tension.
He claimed he had used it almost daily for two years before riding a train to prevent ...
Be careful when something seems too good to be true. Especially when it's with someone you don't know.
Dating apps have made it a lot easier to meet people and arrange hook-ups, but you're still interacting with a total stranger when all's said and done.
According to a media report by Shizuoka TV last week, a man has been arrested for sexual assault on a woman he met through an app.
The 36-year-old man from Hamamatsu admits having sex with the woman but says he believed there was consent. The women says there wasn't consent.
The incident took place in late June at a love hotel in Yaizu, ...
A 61-year-old Austrian man has been arrested for having sex with a partner in the grounds of a Shinto shrine in Kesennuma, Miyagi, on the morning of August 22.
The sexagenarian has been arrested on suspicion of disrespecting a place of worship, according to multiple media reports on August 23.
Curiously, the man has not (yet) been charged with public indecency, which might well apply in this case, since they were spotted going at it in broad daylight by other shrine visitors, who then notified the police.
The man was reportedly a tourist but it is not clear if his female partner (or ...
For almost as long as we have been involved with the adult industry in Japan, since the late 2000s, two big names have always dominated: Tenga, revered for its innovation and sophistication with masturbation toys; and Orient Industry, which has almost single-handedly made Japanese sex dolls internationally famous.
The maker of customized, premium silicone sex dolls has become legendary, its hyper-realistic products have featured in books and documentaries, and are admired by all. If you have never seen an Orient Industry doll in person, be assured that photos don't do them justice.
This ...
Sexless partnerships account for as much as 64% of marriages in Japan, according to one report by JEX Japan Sex Survey in 2024.
The lack of intimacy can be attributed to a range of factor, especially long working hours, small homes with thin walls, and the common custom of all the family sleeping in the same room on futons.
Abema Times recently interviewed some couples to find out more. The streamer spoke to people for whom sex is not an indispensable part of a marriage.
In fact, one woman in her thirties who has been married for six years has never had sex with her husband. They never ...
