Centrefolded: Japan’s ‘porn disposal’ boxes phased out amid rise of the internet

5 comments

1. what a surprise

2. They’re still alive and kicking in Nagasaki AFAIK.

3. Those boxes are not only for porn.

   When you are on the train and see someone reading a book, they almost always have a book cover. In fact, when you buy a book in Japan, they usually stick paper over the cover so nobody can see what you are reading.

   When you take out your paper recycling, you usually have to stack the books, wrap them in string, and put them outside your house. All your neighbors can see what books/manga you are reading, and the privacy-conscious Japanese people don’t really like that.

   It might be something as mundane as a housewife buying a book on how to budget and save money and doesn’t want the neighborhood women to gossip about possible financial hardship.

4. Yet with the rise of the Internet there’s still the stupid censorship.

5. I never saw those boxes. But, I do remember when you could just buy porn mags at 7-11, and they were just on the rack with the other magazines. There were lots of places to throw paper recycling and those always had a couple porn mags in them. Though, after the conbinis stopped selling porn mags, it became less common to see that kind of thing in those bins. I was living on Kyushu, so maybe they don’t have the white boxes?