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7-Eleven refuses to cooperate with municipal request to cover up its porno magazines in Japan

Chain asserts its right to exhibit magazines filled with models who don’t cover up either.

Walk into any Japanese convenience store, and you’ll find a row of magazine racks, usually just inside the windows that run along the front of the store. Fashion and news magazines are usually closest to the door, followed by specialist periodicals for things like dining, travel, sports, and cars. Further down the line you’ll see the manga anthologies, and at the very back, like a pot of smutty gold at the end of the rainbow, you’ll find the porno mags.

While adult magazines tend to keep actual nudity off their covers, most cram as much flesh and suggestive language as they can onto the cover in an attempt to catch eyes and open wallets. Many are even sold unbound, letting prospective buyers leaf through them and see if what’s inside matches their cravings.

This has been the case for decades, but the municipal government of Chiba City, the capital of Chiba Prefecture, Tokyo’s neighbor to the east, thinks it’s time for a change. As part of the Chiba Prefecture Healthy Youth Development Ordinance, Chiba City recently approved a budget of 390,000 yen (US$3,545) to purchase and potentially distribute some 4,200 plastic wrappers for stores to place over adult magazines, preventing them from being read before purchase and obscuring their covers from sensitive eyes.

A survey conducted by the city, which received 650 responses, found 74.8 percent of participants were in favor of such display restrictions, with only 4.8 percent against and the rest indifferent. Bolstered by this, Chiba City said it would launch a voluntary test program in August and September of this year.

However, the announcement of the test program came before city administrators had received any commitment to participate from retailers, and the initiative was dealt a large blow this week when Seven & I Holdings, the parent company of convenience store chain 7-Eleven, said it will not be putting the covers on adult magazines in its 12 locations within Chiba City. The convenience store giant’s refusal has sent Chiba City searching for other partners to help get the test program off the ground.

Chiba isn’t the only municipality having trouble earning support and cooperation in its quest to conceal skin rags. Last year, branches of 7-Eleven rival Family Mart in Sakae City, Osaka Prefecture agreed to slip obscuring covers over their pornographic magazines. Administrators had hoped to expand the program to 80 more convenience stores and booksellers in the city this year, but so far have secured agreement from only 12.

Opponents say that blocking the magazines’ covers from sight constitutes a violation of freedom of expression. Chiba City counters with the assertion that since the plastic wrapping can be removed by hand, it doesn’t infringe upon any constitutional rights.

The setback is surely a source of disappointment for Chiba City mayor Toshihito Kumagai, one of its most vocal champions. Aside from keeping erotic content out of the view of children, Kumagai has been pushing for the proposed changes to take effect before the start of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. “The current [sales method] carries the possibility of generating complaints when judged by international standards,” the mayor has said.

That timetable is going to be difficult to keep without 7-Eleven’s support, however. Perhaps Kumagai will sleep easier once he stops to consider that Chiba City’s distance from Tokyo and dearth of major tourist attractions means that his town is unlikely to see much in the way of a international visitor bump during the Games. Meanwhile, Chiba City’s pornography enthusiasts can still head down to their local 7-Eleven and browse through the options for getting through restless nights of their own.

Source: Yahoo! Japan News/Chiba Nippo via Jin
Top image: Pakutaso

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