This week’s goddess of Twitter with a penchant for posting nude pictures of herself is this beauty, a 20-year-old college student.

We particularly like it when she uses the cute animal whisker filter. However, she certainly isn’t shy about showing her face as well as her awesome body. She may regret it in a few years’ time when her naked images are everywhere and she is trying to get a job, but for now we applaud her youthful confidence.

She focuses a lot of attention on her bust and rightly so. It is probably close to perfect: not too heavy (perhaps unlike the G-cup teenager from last week) but just enough to grab hold of, and with generous nipples. And if her use of filters is anything to go by, she would seem to be an American patriot.

Apparently these nude selfies come from Twitter but we don’t know the original account. If anyone finds it, please share in the comments below.

For more like this, see our previous posts on Japanese nude selfies.

The annual Kanamara Penis Festival is one of the most famous and popular in Japan and seems to be attended by as many foreigners as Japanese. While you probably won’t find it promoted in any of the official government tourist information, sightseers to take snaps of the phallic objects of worship as well as sample the penis-shaped sweets. Cool Japan indeed.

Held every April in Kawasaki City, one of the highlights of the festival is a large pink phallic float apparently called Elizabeth.

Last year this was only on a four-wheeled trolley and visitors were disappointed by its lack of visibility.

This year, though, we (and no doubt many others) were pleased to see that it was back to its typical self: hoisted onto people’s shoulders and carried around in the classic Japanese matsuri “mobile shrine” (mikoshi) style.

Yes, this may be a nation that pixellates porn and prohibits the depiction of genitalia upon fear of prosecution, but you can still see a large pink cock openly paraded around the streets of a city neighboring Tokyo, and buy sweets shaped like your Johnson.

The shrine is held in honor to Kanamara, the patron god of blacksmiths and prostitutes. Kanayama Shrine then became a site associated with fertility, prosperity, marriage and phallic symbolism. Courtesans used to visit and this custom can still be seen today in the women dressed up in courtesan costumes who take part in the festival.

So can we look forward to seeing the Elizabeth float as part of the 2020 Olympics’ opening ceremony? Well, it’s from Kawasaki, not Tokyo, so perhaps we shouldn’t dream too much.

See more photos from this year’s festival here.

The second most famous fertility or phallic festival in Japan is the Honen Matsuri in Aichi, which takes place in March.

Haruna Kojima is about to turn 29 but is still a member of an idol group. That’s either dedication or desperation, it seems. Only a very small number of former AKB48 idols have forged successful secondary careers. Most have vanished. Some have become porn stars.

Perhaps conscious of this, Haruna Kojima has delayed her graduation for some time. It was first announced in 2016. But it seems it is finally happening this month, and this year has seen various graduation events to finalize her departure from the one-time supergroup.

And so it is no surprise that she has celebrated her 12 years in the group with a sexy photo shoot for Weekly Playboy.

We don’t adhere to the obsession with youth: we think women get better with age (to a certain extent) and this nearly 30-year-old Haruna looks better than ever.

This may be her final gravure shoot. She did her first for Weekly Playboy in November 2006. In that decade a lot has happened to AKB48. Idols have come and gone. There have been scandals and successes. But one thing has been a constant. Haruna Kojima is a cutie.

As we know, attitudes towards safe sex and sex education are somewhat lacking in Japan.

Condoms are merely for preventing pregnancies, that’s presuming the guys even stop to worry about that. Judging by how many shotgun weddings there are even among famous celebrities, it seems that “do first, think later” is often the rule after a few drinks and a trip to a love hotel.

What can you do to protect yourself? Well, condoms are a solution and a love hotel will always provide at least one for you.

What about getting tested for STDs or STIs? After all, syphilis is on the rise and HIV is not nearly on the radar enough for straight men and women.

Tokyo Cheapo has written up a handy guide for STI testing in Tokyo.

The useful word to learn in Japanese is seibyou, which means venereal or sexually transmitted disease. Of course, these come in all shapes and sizes, including infections. Tokyo Cheapo includes a basic glossary of terms, too, so you will have some of the vocabulary you hopefully will never need but should learn just in case you do.

Probably most vitally for those in dire straits, the post also includes a list of current facilities where you can get free STI testing in Tokyo and even in English.

The writer makes the well-known point that condoms can feel on the small side here, though Japan does boast some of the thinnest condoms in the world. Luckily residents in Tokyo can still find larger condoms at certain stores and there are always online avenues to order in overseas brands like Durex.

We’ve written before about the unashamed glory that is Cyberjapan dancers. Truly there is a god if humanity can produce group of go-go dancers like this.

Sporting a semi-gyaru look with athletic bodies and seriously flexible curves, this group of dancers has been attracting more mainstream attention recently beyond nightclub culture. And their fame and fandom is certain to expand further as the individual dancers are now set to become customized dakimakura toys (hug pillows)!

Normally a privilege reserved only for porn stars or 2D anime and manga characters, it is mark of how popular these dancers are surely becoming that they are going to be transformed into pillows.

Other forthcoming merchandise apparently includes folders, key holders and towels.

The items will only be available from April 19th to May 3rd from an online Japanese store. If you’re a big fan of Cyberjapan, though, you could ask Kanojo Toys to procure them for you while stocks last.

There are at present 17 dancers in the Cyberjapan lineup and each one of them is a goddess. Who is your favorite?

The former Olympic snowboarder Mero Imai is to make her porn debut on the Muteki label, a studio that specializes in celebrities switching to the adult video industry. (Recent examples include Anri Sakaguchi, Miyako Akane, and Yua Mikami.)

As we wrote back in 2015, Mero Imai is a former half-pipe Olympic competitor in 2006. However, her lack of success at the Winter games led to personal and family problems and she started working as a hostess in Osaka.

As is sadly too common in the hostessing world, she then segued into a career as a delivery health call girl. She also had plastic surgery, attempted suicide, got married while pregnant, got divorced, married and divorced again (same guy)… Quite the life.

And now, following her first hair nude (full-frontal) shoot in 2013 for the photo book “Mellow Style” and various other revealing shoots since (and a DVD), she has finally taken the plunge into AV.

Imai debuts for Muteki on May 1st. Snow Drop stars the 29-year-old putting her experiences in prostitution, sport and nude shoots to good use for 140 minutes. No preview images are yet available but one thing is for sure: Mero Imai should certainly know what she’s doing. We look forward to updating you all with some images when they appear online.

So when we watch the 2020 Olympics, we can also speculate which of the athletes may one day switch to another career that makes use of their physique.

As part of our work we get to see and try out a lot of adult toys on a daily basis, but these ones caught our eye as a cut above the rest.

Adult toy maker KMP has produced a series of “3D-scanned” toys based on top Japanese porn stars such as Kurea Hasumi, Kizuna Sakura, Rika Hoshimi, and Ayaka Tomoda.

We’ve certainly seen plenty of “clone” onaholes before, going back to masturbator sleeves in the 2000s such as the Meiki Maria Ozawa. But this seems to represent a new level in scientific realism. In the past, we think, some lucky technicians just took exact measurements of the AV idol’s genitalia. Sometimes, it seems, the process was a bit more complex, such as the mold the designers made to reproduce a Japanese older woman’s pussy for the MILF Jukujo Onahole.

And even better, it’s not just regular masturbator sleeves either. There are 3D-scanned hands, mouths and breasts so you can enjoy a range of experiences with your favorite Japanese porn star.

Check out the 3D-scanned Kizuna Sakura Clone Blow Job Mouth, Kurea Hasumi Handjob 3D-scanned Porn Star Hand, and Ayaka Tomoda’s Bust 3D-scanned Porn Star Clone Breasts.

See Kanojo Toys for the full range of KMP 3D-scanned porn star adult toys.

It goes without saying that the likes of Peach John and Ravijour mean the joys of Japanese lingerie are never far from our mind.

There is also more gimmicky lingerie that nonetheless lingers long in the memory: the feast series, which is designed especially for flat-chested women, and the Sailor Moon cosplay-style lingerie being cases in point.

But while we try to spend as much time possible monitoring developments in Japanese lingerie, we don’t think we’ve ever seen anything like this before: sexy lingerie inspired by the 12 signs of the zodiac.

Izumi has created this new series of racy bra and panties, each set based on a different zodiac sign. Even as illustrations this is enough to get us excited about the look of this underwear. Frankly we don’t care under which sign we were born, we want to try them all!

The design is by manga artist and illustrator @papao_pao, who previously created a series of chess-inspired lingerie.

“Teenage girls luring men into dens of sleaze warned by police.”

It sounds like a headline on a parody news website. The men are lured into dens of sleaze by teenage girls. Oh, so the men are the victims?

But it’s not. It’s an article in the Asahi Shimbun and just the latest entry in a media frenzy about the JK business (“high-school girl business”) as the police continue their crackdown on what is often a thin cover for underage prostitution.

Twenty teenage girls suspected of working in the sleazy “JK business” were given a slap on the wrist by police in a series of street operations in Tokyo on April 8.

The girls, some in school uniforms, were standing on streets trying to lure men into the “shops,” which are a hotbed for prostitution.

In the so-called JK business men pay the youngsters to “go for a walk” or to have their pictures taken in swimsuits and other such questionable activities that often lead to sexual exploitation of the girls.

The girls aged 15 to 18 were warned not to work in the JK business ahead of the enforcement of an ordinance by the Tokyo metropolitan government that aims to restrict it.

The article practically paints the girls themselves as the villains in all this, which is hardly the approach that many sex workers in Tokyo would like the press to take. They would prefer more open acknowledgement of their jobs to encourage safety and better protection, as shown in a recent protest in the capital.

It is interesting how brazen this all is, though. The girls are even wearing their uniforms.

By 2020 and the Tokyo Olympics, don’t expect for the JK businesses to be so obvious. They will continue to thrive no matter how hard the police ostensibly crack down, since there is a demand, but it will be more hidden — and perhaps not in the current center of the industry, Akihabara.

There were 190 JK business facilities in the Tokyo metropolitan area as of December 2016 and about 120 of these were concentrated in the Akihabara district, a cosplay, anime and manga center in Tokyo.

From around 4 p.m. in Akihabara on April 8, about 80 police officers of the Metropolitan Police Department in Tokyo as well as volunteers started to talk to the girls in the streets.

The girls were clad in school uniforms and other costumes and handing out fliers. Police confirmed their ages and admonished those between 15 and 18 years old.

Similar operations were conducted in the districts of Shibuya, Shinjuku and Ikebukuro.

The central government has labeled this month “JK business awareness month,” and the police are being extra vigilant as at this time of year higher numbers of girls enter the world of vice due to spring vacation and the students moving up a grade in school.

The new ordinance by the Tokyo metropolitan government, which includes the inspectional authority of JK business outlets by the police, is scheduled to come into effect in July.

So July may be a Rubicon for the 2010s version of enjo kosai (compensated dating). The cafes and walking dates may disappear, but we reckon there will be new euphemisms, new covers and new operators waiting in the wings. They may just have to wait until after the 2020 Summer Olympics are over, though. After which, we predict the police and government will stop caring so much because the world also probably won’t be so fussed.

Right now many overseas media outlets are interested in JK businesses because, well, it’s a good story. (Granted, there might be some genuinely outraged journalists who do care about the exploited schoolgirls. We don’t wish to sound overly cynical.) Recent examples include reports by the BBC and Vice. Even the United Nations has, somewhat clumsily, weighed in on the issue, though Japan was quick to counter that claims that 13% of schoolgirls are engaging in compensated dating are exaggerated.

A naked video of gravure idol Yuriko Ishihara has leaked online.

The POV hamedori-style footage shows the busty model nude, fingering herself, and being groped by a lucky guy. Who uploaded it is unknown, but it spells the end of her career.

In some of the shots her face is partially covered by a surgical mask, though this is frequently removed. It is clearly her.

The 34-minute video, ahem, climaxes in her jerking the guy off (for most of the time under a plastic sheet for some bizarre reason — hygiene?). Strangely, the whole tryst seems to happen in a kind of storage room from what we can make out from the background.

Is this a sex tape leaked by an aggrieved ex-boyfriend?

This is what the F-cup Yuriko Ishihara looks like with her clothes on (well, some clothes).

Not surprisingly, Ishihara’s agency announced her retired on Friday shortly after the video leaked. She will stop working in the entertainment world from the end of May, though we wonder if she will try to launch a new career under a different name. (Muteki is always keen on recruiting new people.) Her official social media channels have already been closed down and her events planned for April and May cancelled. The public reason for her retirement is so that she can return to college. She made her debut in 2016 and released three mildly successful DVDs that year.

It’s an open secret that, since they actually earn very little money and their careers are short, many gravure idols have side jobs doing “compensated dating” or working incognito as call girls or hostesses. Being exposed in this way was what led to Shoko Takasaki switching from gravure to porn.

Moonlighting in prostitution or as “compensated” girlfriends is also very common among adult video idols.

Marry your virtual girlfriend. Sounds tempting, right?

That’s the concept behind a promotional event for the new virtual romance game Niizuma Lovely x Cation (“niizuma” or “niidzuma” means “new wife”).

In a development that is unlikely to reverse Japan’s declining birth rate any time soon, the game makers Hibiki Works has announced a virtual reality wedding ceremony on June 30th in Tokyo. Male fans can actually become grooms, wearing VR headsets so they experience the bliss of “marrying” their favorite character.

Formal dress is required, as befitting your special day, though the venue is not yet disclosed. Choose which of the three heroines from Niizuma Lovely x Cation that you want to marry: Yuki Isurugi, Nono Naruse, or Aiko Kurihara.

This is all a bit strange for non-otaku, we imagine, but keep in mind it is essentially a clever marketing strategy. The game, Niizuma Lovely x Cation, goes on release on April 28th. In the game you get to date Yuki Isurugi, Nono Naruse, or Aiko Kurihara, and then marry them. Naturally this process involves passionate 2D sex, including breaking their virginal hymens (see Exhibit A and B below).

Applications to take part in the wedding are open online from willing bachelors from April 28th to May 28th.

Hibiki Works make adult video games (eroge). The previous Lovely x Cation game inspired its own series of four popular onaholes.

As we know all too well, there is a veritable mountain of adult toys out there based on Japanese porn stars. The best are the “clone” onaholes, especially masturbators produced with sophisticated 3D-scanning technology.

We are pleased to share the news that the lovely Kana Yume has finally joined the ranks of AV idols who have been immortalized as sex toys.

The Kana Yume Curvy Body Onahole is as good as it sounds.

In addition to its realistic design and snug hole, the masturbator comes with a bonus DVD containing an image slideshow of original photos of Kana Yume. After all, you can never have too much of a good thing.

We’ve been fans of Kana Yume for a long time so this adult toy is long, long overdue. Get it now from Kanojo Toys.

Born in Shizuoka, Kana Yume was originally a gravure idol before making the welcome and sensible switch to a career in adult video in 2011 when she was 18. She hasn’t looked back since, releasing multiple films a year and regarded as one of the most popular Japanese porn stars working today. That’s no mean feat, given that there are thousands of them out there competing for space in our fantasies!

She also starred in the Hong Kong sex comedy 3D Naked Ambition (2014) alongside the likes of Yui Tatsumi, Nozomi Aso (whose career was obliterated last year by an arrest on a drugs charge), Anri Okita and Tsukasa Aoi as well as (now sadly retired) Taka Kato.

Next up, a life-sized Kana Yume doll please!

Newbie porn starlet Anri Sakaguchi has been arrested for attempted extortion.

She apparently tried to extort money from a bar host with whom she was involved. She was arrested by Tokyo police on April 18th.

The 26-year-old Sakaguchi was a celebrity (famous largely for being the daughter of actress Ryoko Sakaguchi) who made her debut on the Muteki label in autumn 2016.

Professionally now known just as “Anri”, she has since starred in another four titles. Her most recent one was released on DVD on April 13th.

There were rumors that she joined the Muteki (and later Moodzy) roster and made her porn debut in order to pay back huge debts she had accrued due to her hedonistic lifestyle. There were also crazy reports about how much money she had been offered (¥120 million!), surely wildly exaggerated considering she is a minor celebrity and her debut would never attract enough sales to make it up for the studio.

And given that she was attempting to extort her boyfriend for a mere ¥30,000, it does indeed seem that she has not made millions of yen from her nascent porn career.

Anri, if you just wanted ¥30,000 you should have come to us! We’ll gladly give you that much… for a token something in return, of course.

The Japanese adult industry was hit hard by a series of arrests in 2016 for alleged exploitation and coercion of performers. In addition, the popular actress Nozomi Aso was arrested on a drug charge.

Will this scandal permanently damage Sakaguchi’s career? Or will it only further enhance her appeal as a seedy, “damaged” woman with nothing to lose? After all, that was the marketing hook her debut was hung on. This feeds right into it.

Last month it was Miyako Akane. Earlier this month it was former Olympic snowboarder (and call girl) Mero Imai. This week it’s Miu Nakamura.

The adult video label Muteki is really on a roll if the latest rumor is true: retired idol Miu Nakamura is about to make her long-awaited porn debut, reports Tokyo Sports.

She’s a minor gravure idol probably most famous for her hair nude full-frontal photo shoots, which she first did in 2011. She started off as a junior idol when she was a teenager and ostensibly retired in 2012 after a 7-year career. Like Imai, she is alleged to have later worked as a prostitute to make ends meet.

If Tokyo Sports is right, Nakamura may return to our lives as early as May or June as the star of a porn release from Muteki. Still only 26 years old and with looks that recall the popular AV star Riku Minato, she potentially has a good career ahead of her.

No details or confirmation is currently available, though it seems that Nakamura is also not denying the rumor per se. We can but hope.

Muteki specializes in crossover porn debuts whereby women from mainstream acting, idol careers or music switch over to adult video.

Previously successes include Shoko Takasaki/Takahashi, Chiharu Komatsu, Anri Sakaguchi, and Yua Mikami.

So who’s next? The cospalyer Iiniku Ushijima?! Sadly, we almost fell for that rumor before.

It’s a dream for so many: a visit to Japan that concludes with some carnal fun with exotic local women, who are so delighted to meet you that they will do anything to please you.

Well, it’s the gaijin dream and it’s experienced to certain degrees by many male foreign residents, especially those determined to try their luck with as many women as possible. But there are quite a few English teachers out there. It helps if you have a more glamorous occupation to attract the ladies.

We sometimes joke that half the foreigners living in Japan are photographers and the other half are DJs, though in fact they are probably all actually wannabe hipsters teaching at eikaiwa.

But the real gaijin with appeal are visiting musicians on tour. Needless to say when famous foreign musicians sweep through Tokyo and other parts of Japan, they attract their fair share of groupies.

We stumbled upon these two gems of anecdotes shared on Twitter by Mulboyne.

First up, rock drummer Carmine Appice, who played the Budokan.

Life had gotten hard for me in the States, and it was great to spend time in Japan again. I had always enjoyed visiting the country and found the people polite and respectful — if I ended with a girl after a show, we had normal sex, not the crazy shit that groupie chicks got up to in America and Europe!

If that sounds too boring for you, here’s Wolfgang Flür of Kraftwerk with another tale.

I was very interested in Japanese girls, who were delicate and often very beautiful. You only had to point to the woman of your choice and she would come to your room to spend the most wonderful and imaginative night of love. So as far as love was concerned our needs were catered for in Japan, although the others weren’t as active as me. But as far the vivacity and the imagination of Japanese women is concerned, my politeness as a drumer will keep me silent.

It also reminded us of this story about Bob Dylan.

Our gracious hosts and promoters, Tots and Udo treated Bob and me along with some of the others, to Kobe steaks following the shows. They also introduced a few of us to the “Bathhouse.” I graciously accepted their invitation to Bathhouse B, where a geisha applied oil and massaged the body. Bob was taken to Bathhouse A, where I believe he received more than an oil job. Bob’s liner notes on the “At Budokan” album include the words, “The more I think about it, the more I realized what I left behind in Japan — my soul, my music and that sweet girl in the geisha house — I wonder does she remember me?”

We stumbled upon this episode from Charlatans frontman Tim Burgess in his 2012 memoir Telling Stories.

Customs in Japan for example can be a little confusing. On one occasion I was led to my room by a girl who I presumed worked for the promoter or our label. She escorted me to the door, and I naively thought she was coming in for some kind of tea ritual or maybe a late-night shoulder massage. Nope. She whipped off her clothes and jumped under the covers. I was beside myself worrying that she’d thought that I’d been expecting to spend the night with her. She gathered up her stuff and scuttled out when I explained I had a girlfriend and it wasn’t something I did. By chance she ran into someone else who was more accommodating. He was late for the pick-up the following morning, getting treatment for his newly acquired genital companions.

Wow, Mr Burgess has some seriously impressive self-restraint. Or perhaps the young lady in question just wasn’t attractive? We certainly would not trust ourselves in the same situation.

These are just a few examples, of course. There are surely hundreds if not thousands more. If you come across more in any other memoirs or interviews, let us know!

You asked and the Shinto gods of eros delivered!

Back in March, like many others we were dazzled by the sight of I-cup gravure idol Jun Amaki modeling what swiftly became known as the “virgin killer sweater”. This revealing gray outfit is backless and is so skimpy that a virgin is likely to die on the spot after seeing a girl in it. Well, that might not be medically sound but the results are amazing.

The Virgin Killer Sweater is a genuine product but the viral storm ignited by Jun Amaki soon made it unavailable to all but a few lucky early birds.

The good news is that it is back in stock and in various other colors too. You can even get it from Kanojo Toys for global delivery.

Of course, there are similar backless outfits around — but this is the same item made so famous by Jun Amaki! Now that’s what we call an endorsement.

It comes in gray, pink, white, red or black. The backless part can also be worn on the front, so you keep your back covered but your bust revealed. Which is definitely going to kill you some virgins.

Now all you need is your very own Jun Amaki to wear the sweater for you.

We previously wrote about schoolgirl-themed VR Kanojo (“virtual reality girlfriend”) as one of the most impressive and realistic examples of adult virtual reality to have emerged in Japan.

We then got excited in January about VAQSO, a startup that was developing a virtual reality system that combined sight with smell. The headset pumps out a variety of scents in response to the game you play. The potential for adult games and experiences are obvious.

Well, we are very happy to report that the two developments have joined forces. The VR Kanojo game can now be played with the VAQSO headset accessory attached to your Oculus Rift or HTC Vive.

You can enjoy a virtual reality experience that is enhanced by the VAQSO headset so you smell the main schoolgirl character’s pantyhose or stockings.

If you’re curious about this — and frankly, who wouldn’t be? — you can try it out at the Unite 2017 Tokyo, a technology expo held from May 8th to May 9th here in Tokyo.

With the exception of certain devices like the Nosulus Rift or Feelreal, we think this is probably the first of its kind in the world (who says Japanese technology innovation is dead?!), but if anyone knows of any others please share.

Should we be surprised? Probably not. After all, fans can now “marry” their virtual girlfriends so why not smell them?

Another former AKB48 idol has made her porn debut, once again proving the thin pink line that exists between the industries.

Joining numerous other ex-AKB girls who “graduated” onto to adult video careers, Ryo Sakata’s first porn film was released in mid-March from the Maxing label. She has already released a second one this month. Clearly she and her paymasters want to milk her appeal, which is not hard to see.

Here are some preview images from her first release.

To be fair, the 27-year-old Ryo Sakata was only a member of AKB48 for around half a month in December 2006. She now uses the name Miu Sanae but beady-eyed fans were able to spot it was her.

Other colleagues who have likewise made the jump into porn include Rina Nakanishi, Risa Naruse, Eri Takamatsu and Rumi Yonezawa.

The most high-profile and successful, though, has been former SKE48 idol Momona Kito, who is now known as Yua Mikami and hasn’t looked back since her explosive debut in 2015.

We don’t talk about boys’ love or male-on-male themes enough on this blog, so we were pleased to stumble upon this development.

The boys’ love illustrator Ebimo has created a new 112-page gay drawing manual, the “BL Poses Stretch Book”.

It’s a bit like a working version of the “48 Ways” (shijuuhatte), which is the de facto Japanese Kama Sutra, so you really get the most out of your relationship as well as illustration skills.

The poses — from tender kissing to hugging and all manner of sex positions — are included as a guide to all the various scenarios and poses you should be able to draw if you want to be a boys’ love or yaoi manga artist.

We doubt they teach you this sort of thing in art school, though they certainly should.

Photographer and love doll super fan Yoshitaka Hyodo has converted his private house into a personal hihokan-style sex museum.

Located in Yashio City on the border between Saitama and Tokyo, Hyodo has even opened up his house to the public for Golden Week. If you want to visit, it is open from April 30th to May 5th. Reservations are required, though, so check his blog for more details. Admission is ¥1,000, but apparently free for people with sex dolls. Photography is allowed for non-commercial purposes.

This is the fourth time he has opened up his collection across two floors in his home, which one day he hopes to transform into a genuine sex museum in the hihokan style. Hihokan (“secret treasure hall”) were once common around Japan (especially in hot spring resort areas popular with couples), though have sadly since faded into the obscure world of postwar esoterica. All but one in Atami have now closed.

The Yashio Hihokan collection now includes some items from Beppu Hihokan, which shut its doors in 2011.

Hyodo has also held photography exhibitions with his portraits of sex dolls since around 2002, and his work has even been shown in Paris. Tokyo’s top gallery for erotica, Vanilla Gallery, has also hosted his work.

While the Yashio Hihokan isn’t only populated by sex dolls — there are all sorts of other creepy and eccentric exhibits — they are the dominant feature as this photo report on Time Out Tokyo shows. However, they don’t seem to be Orient Industry sex dolls but a mix of different makers, including wax dolls (Orient Industry dolls are made from silicone). There is also a wartime and military theme to a lot of the collection, which is actually quite a common trope. There is an erotic subculture that associates the war with a massive unleashing of male rape fantasy and sexual desire.