On 9 November, Ameba News reported a rumour circulating on Twitter that the ‘adult corner’ that is a feature of most Japanese convenience stores, was set to disappear.
The over-18s section often features pornographic magazines and erotic manga, and has always been a controversial sight for those who are new to Japan; however, for most people who use convenience stores daily, having the magazines there is not particularly shocking.
The article below discusses the theories around the possible disappearance of the adult corner, along with netizen comments.
From Ameba News:
Possibility That ‘Adult Corners’ Will Disappear From Convenience Stores Suggested
The possibility that ‘adult corners’ in convenience stores will disappear was suggested on Twitter, and has become a hot topic.
One Twitter user explained ‘I’ve heard directly that a certain large convenience store company will be regulating material in certain magazines, or will be explicitly intervening in what can be expressed, when it comes to nude photographs and adult material.’ If this request is accepted, certain magazines will be brought into stores, but others will be rejected. Why would companies intervene like this? The user continued that it was because, ‘The convenience store company told me that they want to remove the over-18 zone from the magazine corner’.
Porn in convenience stores is for over-18s only, as this tiny sign says.
At that suggestion, the writer [and adult video director] Toriyama Jin pointed to a different cause, ‘The reason is that this chain and that chain started selling fresh foods’. He explained that in order to ensure the success of the fresh foods corner, the area of the magazine corner will be cut down, and the adult corner in particular, which doesn’t have much commercial appeal, will be affected. Furthermore, according to the rumours that Toriyama heard, with publishing companies having cut back on magazines for the convenience store corner, things have reached a state where editors are being laid-off in large numbers.
A Japanese gravure idol magazine
On Twitter, these two suggestions have drawn comments such as ‘With adult magazines being driven out of convenience stores, it might be chance for a resurgence in book stores’, ‘Elementary school kids were reading porn. I’m not asking for regulation of expression, but I think there’s nothing for it but to put these magazines elsewhere’, ‘Ah, but it is the sole pleasure of the middle-aged man to buy nibbles and porn — ‘nibbles’ in a different sense — to go with his booze!’, ‘You can see porn on smart phones and Galapagos phones [a term for super-advanced Japanese cell phones] anyway, I guess it’s just a sign of the times’.
Comments 2ch.net
名無しさん＠１３周年：
I guess there’s lots of reasons for it. If you want to read porn from time to time, get yourself to a specialist bookstore!
名無しさん＠１３周年:
I don’t mind if they get rid of porn magazines, but I’d be pretty upset if they got rid of the trashy weeklies.
名無しさん＠１３周年：
I wonder if the number of over-18 bookstores will rise?
名無しさん＠１３周年：
I just don’t get those losers who stand around reading that stuff in a convenience store.
名無しさん＠１３周年：
Don’t read them standing up in the convenience store （´・ω・`）
名無しさん＠１３周年：
Get rid of it! We don’t need it! They should clearly distinguish between the two things!!
名無しさん＠１３周年：
It’s a place where kids go. It ought to go. That token partition that says ‘This area is restricted’, I mean, don’t take us for fools!
名無しさん＠１３周年：
Don’t deprive me of the enjoyment of watching young kids creeping about in front of the porn magazine corner!
名無しさん＠１３周年：
Paedo [reply to comment above]
名無しさん＠１３周年：
You bastards saying that you don’t need it ‘cos you don’t buy it: the moment it involved your interests you’d be totally pissed.
名無しさん＠１３周年:
Be better if they sold them in the Tsutaya [huge Japanese video rental chain] adult video corner.
名無しさん＠１３周年：
Things are so twisted in Japan, where kids can just see porn magazines in a convenience store. It’s better if they do like they do in the UK, where they make a shelf that children can’t reach and put the magazines there.
名無しさん＠１３周年：
Come on, the porn in convenience stores is like what you’d take to visit someone in hospital!
名無しさん＠１３周年：
I think it’s a good thing. Restricted areas in themselves are regulation of expression, so it’s appropriate [to move them elsewhere] in order to preserve freedom of expression.
名無しさん＠１３周年：
They’re full of black and white pages, free DVDs where the mosaic [in Japanese porn, genitalia are censored] is way too big, and anyone standing behind you can see everything. It’s far better to shut up and go to an adult shop, even if it’s inconvenient that you can’t get magazines in the convenience stores.
名無しさん＠１３周年：
Who even looks at porn magazines these days? There’s shitloads online!
名無しさん＠１３周年：
Those guys who buy porn in convenience stores are amateurs. Connoisseurs get them in a bookstore or specialist shop.
名無しさん＠１３周年：
Wow, the feminists are working behind the scenes…I reckon there’s even feminists on this thread w I suppose they’re jealous of the sexy young gravure idols
名無しさん＠１３周年：
The fact that adult magazines are giving way to fresh food feels like a sign of the times…
名無しさん＠１３周年：
It’s because the restricted zone isn’t enforced properly that the restrictions are becoming tighter. They should remove the magazines from places where kids can easily get hold of them. And show us pussies in the open at an adult shop.（｀・ω・´）
名無しさん＠１３周年：
If it’s just regulating the material, then I’m definitely in favour of it. And then you should be required to show ID when buying magazines for over-18s.
