The Tokyo Reporter » JASPO
Blowing the whistle on poor journalism since 2008



Keitai’s ring, ‘no vacancy’ signs glisten, in Tokyo’s winter wonderland (Dec 21)
“I was surprised — from early afternoon there wasn’t a room to be had anywhere,” the man in his 40s, who works in his company’s sales department, tells Nikkan Gendai (Dec. 20). “You walk down the back street in Kabukicho with all the love hotels, and most of them are fully booked, even though it’s [...]


Sex shops cop out on ‘naitei’ arrangements for class of ‘69 (Dec 18)
When it rains, as the saying goes, it pours. Not only are proper companies backing out of naitei (informal agreements) to hire university grads from this coming April: Due to the repercussions of the financial meltdown, such sex services as fashion health emporiums and deri-heru (”delivery health,” i.e., out-call sex services), are also hurting so [...]


Social hygiene getting outfoxed by the pox (Dec 16)
“Considering that syphilis infections spread relatively easily, those who contract it tend to have a low awareness of their condition. I wouldn’t be surprised if the number of carriers were actually several hundreds, or even thousands of times greater than the official figures.” So says Dr. Tsuneo Akaeda, head of the Roppongi Clinic, who is often [...]


Looking toward 2009: What to (s)expect in the year to cum (Dec 12)
What’s the latest news from the commercial sex business? Only a magazine like Spa! (Dec. 16) could touch on such a topic with a headline like “Nookie-pedia 2008.” Well actually it’s “Nuki-pedia,” the term nuki being a slang term akin to “getting off.” Spa! introduces three shops it says represent the direction the business will be [...]


There may be a yucky story behind your hot oshibori (Dec 5)
One winter evening, investigative reporter Hirokatsu Azuma used a steaming hot oshibori (hand towel) to wipe his face. Looking in the mirror the next day, his eyelid was swollen and he found himself with a case of pinkeye. Writing in Nikkan Gendai (Dec. 5), Azuma remarks that while that oshibori may have appeared clean, it was [...]


Koreans, Japanese reacting differently to hard times (Dec 3)
Despite the plunging KOSPI stock market and sharp devaluation of the Korean won, condom sales in the Republic of Korea are surging. Since August, reports Nikkan Gendai (Dec. 3), a major chain of convenience stores in South Korea has seen demand for condoms rise by about 20 percent over the same period in 2007. Compared with [...]


Death by Viagra causing grief for love hotel owners (Nov 29)
“It appears that with more widespread usage of Viagra, more older men are dying with their boots on, if you know what I mean.” The anonymous love hotel proprietor tells Nikkan Gendai (Nov. 29) that over the past three years, he’s had to deal with two fatalities. “I guess when men are having affairs, they tend to [...]


Dimmed-down ‘LED-men’ disappoint incandescent damsels (Nov 25)
A fortyish section head at a manufacturing company is seated in an izakaya pub, watching as a group of younger guys and gals interact. The women all order mugs of draft beer. One guy asks for a glass of chilled oolong tea and his buddy goes with a cassis syrup and orange juice cocktail. “The [...]


Raunchy wife, flaky husband revel in kinky togetherness (Nov 18)
“We’ve been married a long time, and it’s been quite a while since my husband and I engaged in any ‘night life,’” writes a woman who goes by the handle “Sha-mail.” (”Sha” is the character meaning to shoot — and also to ejaculate.) Shukan Bunshun’s weekly column, “Shukujo no Zasshi kara” (from ladies’ magazines), features [...]


Woman’s foreign ’sefure’ really hit the G-spot (Nov 16)
“Five years ago, a Canadian student I ran into in a bar district came on to me,” says Asako, a 45-year-old woman who works at a corporate management job. “Communicating in my broken English and his broken Japanese, he told me, ‘You’re the nicest gal I’ve ever met.’ His house was near by, and he [...]