Tokyo bans sex
shops from selling girls' soiled panties
By Krist Boo
WHENEVER Mari, 17, needs extra money for her hair and make-up, she
reaches under her skirt.
Sex shops lining the back streets of Shibuya pay a pretty penny for
her soiled panties.
PHOTO: KRIST BOO
The chain-smoker sits on the steps of Shibuya's hip 109 mall and
says her friends do it too.
In this city known for its sexual fetishes for high school girls,
the sordid trade she is talking about has been flourishing for more
than a decade.
Now, the city has outlawed the panty trade.
The Tokyo metropolitan government last month ruled that shops
caught peddling dirty lingerie can be fined up to 500,000 yen
(S$7,900). Those who buy the lingerie also face fines of up to
300,000 yen.
The city's section chief for youth affairs, Mr Tatsuo Mizuno, said:
'We can't punish kids for selling them because they are underage.
But we can punish the adults who buy them, and the ones who sell
them.'
The move is one of several legislations aimed at keeping the vice
industry from exploiting young Japanese.
Its target includes girls as young as nine who blithely drop into
the shops on their way home from school to trade their dirty
bloomers for an extra buck.
They get paid more if they attach their photos to them - or leave
their stained sanitary pads inside.
The pungent undies, wrapped in clear plastic bags, fetch from 1,500
yen to as much as 10,000 yen. For more, customers can watch the
girl strip off her panty, in silhouette.
All this is part of a raunchy business catering to men desiring
almost anything that schoolgirls have worn - from sweaty PE shorts
to sailor-style school uniforms.
Other new laws include penalties on those who solicit girls for the
sex business, and bars under-18s from karaoke clubs and Internet
cafes between 11pm and 4am.
Those in the trade mock the moves, especially the panty ban.
At the New Style Wild One Sex Shop, a 33-year-old sales assistant
said: 'It's meaningless. As long as there is money to be made,
people will go on doing it. People in the loop know where to get
these things.'
Mr Mizuno agreed that it will be hard to stamp out the trade.
'Like drugs, it can go underground. It will be hard to regulate,'
he said.
'But we are also sending out a message that this kind of behaviour
will not be tolerated.'
(Source: The Straits Times)
fricken hilarious!! 
