Local Japanese government official purchased sex doll, displayed it at regional airport

Japanese sex dolls are some of the best in the world in terms of quality and variety. In particularly, the silicone sex dolls by the likes of Orient Industry are the crème de la crème.

They are not, however, cheap. Given the amount of craftsmanship and material that goes into them, not to mention all the options you get to customize them, this is no surprise.

And perhaps it is a surprise that a prefectural government should splash out on a sex doll using public funds. Well, there’s also the issue of ethics too!

Tokushima Prefectural Government reportedly spent more than ¥400,000 on a sex doll. No, this wasn’t for the pleasure of government employees but as a kind of mannequin to promote the region’s indigo dyeing.

Renting a regular mannequin would have been 30 times cheaper.

The sex doll was rumbled during a tax audit, reports the Mainichi. Auditors are seeking compensation from officials, including the male official in his forties who made the purchase, which has been deemed illegal.

What’s more incredible is that the sex doll was displayed as part of an indigo promotion at Tokushima Awaodori Airport from July 2017. Initially, two mannequins were used but they vanished and the sex doll appeared in its place, dressed in an indigo-dyed yukata (summer kimono).

The promotion was handled by a contractor but the male official supervised, and he allegedly told the contractor to get rid of the mannequins and buy the sex doll.

Was there something suspicious about this? Well, not necessarily. The man says he found an article online that claimed displays with more realistic dolls were effective and popular.

The official took his task seriously. He visited a sex doll manufacturer in Osaka — a trip we imagine was also undertaken at public expense — with the promotion contractor to personally select the doll.

The doll didn’t just languish at the airport. The sex doll was used for two other projects overseen by the same male official in 2017, and a Tokushima Indigo Day promotion event in July 2019.

At least some members of the public, however, already figured out it was a love doll in summer 2017, posting pics and comments on social media.

His supervisors, meanwhile, were apparently oblivious to this decision to replace the mannequins with a sex doll. It would have remained a secret if not for a local magazine report that emerged in September 2023, which sparked an audit in November.

The auditors’ report said that using a sex doll in this manner was “grossly inappropriate in terms of social norms” and “violated the local finance law.”

The male official should probably get some money ready to pay back his employer, because the report recommends seeking compensation from those involved.

The prefectural government has released the following statement: “While this is a case from before my tenure as governor, as the figure in charge of appointments, I will take the audit results seriously and handle them in a strict manner.”

Whither the offending sex doll? Now that Tokushima owns such an expensive item, they can’t just get rid of it. Apparently, because of the controversy, it is no longer on display and is currently in storage in a warehouse. There are no further plans to use it at present.