fOr, for over a decade, Inoue has played a modest role in protecting the morality of young people in Fukuoka. Several times a year, the 73-year-old visits eight white “postboxes” set up in the western city of Japan, turning the keys and emptying the contents. On a recent visit, he transported a total of 16 books and 81 DVDs in one day.
However, boxes are not a drop-off point for rental store customers. They are mostly for exclusive use by men. Children.
“Before the white boxes were installed, these things were scattered across the street,” Well told Kyoto Press. There aren't many street bins in Japan because people usually take their trash home. After the 1995 Salingu gas attack was attacked by the Tokyo subway, the trash cans actually disappeared from Japanese streets.
But now, the avalanche of digital porn available on smartphones makes the box outdated.
Number of shiroposutothe recognition by their colour and messages that promote child well-being has declined dramatically over the past decade. Although there is no official count, the white box was later combined by a less noticeable steel container – soon becoming a cultural bone iro.
Last year, Nagasaki officials closed several white postboxes on a trial basis after the number of items collected plunged from 5,000 to 6,000 per year in the first decade of the millennium to about 2,000 today.
“Men of all ages come to get rid of their own.”
shiroposuto – White Postbox – First appeared in Amagasaki City in 1963, following a campaign by a group of local mothers who decided to tackle the rotting effects of the post-pornographic explosion.
Tokyo didn't get its first porn dropbox until 1966, but within three years the capital had an estimated 500 due to the clever disposal of materials that would have spread beyond the western Japanese base. .
“The campaign to set them up was led by mothers who didn't want their children to be exposed to harmful things, such as porn books and magazines,” says the associate professor of sociology, studying the history of keizai University. says Yuko Obi. shiroposuto.
Most are located outside the train station. There, redundant materials often under the cover of darkness are disposed of to avoid being discovered by a man, colleague or neighbor.
“In the evening, when the streets aren't crowded, men of all ages start to get rid of their own,” a taxi driver in Fukuoka told Kyoda.
Regular hauling of books, magazines and DVDs in several locations suggests that they do not outweigh their usefulness completely. Fukui City recently installed two boxes in 2018, and needs to be empty as often as once every three months.
It is not clear how many postboxes there are. It is believed that there is only one in the western metropolitan city of Mitaka, but Obi is still attached to porn, especially in analog form, and is a region among older men who want to offload. They say there is greater demand in the city and carefully collected.
With the advent of online porn, shiroposuto It now looks like a regular trash can. This is not much of a factor in protecting children from harmful materials. “They were successful when they first appeared in the 1960s, but Japanese society changed and the way people consumed the media,” Obi said.
“There was a lot of porn material in circulation at the time, and campaigners did a good job of raising awareness. shiroposutoHowever, in the age of digital media, it is impossible to hide harmful materials. ”
The box is the latest victim of Japan's long campaign to remove indecent and risket images from public spaces, particularly in preparation for large international events.
The major convenience store chains have announced that they will end the sale of pornographic material at the 2019 Rugby World Cup and the Tokyo Olympics in two years.
Vending machines that sold porn magazines in the 1970s are also targeted, but rare survivors can be found in remote towns.
Japan's aging population can still maintain its porn repository for some time, but Obi thinks their days are counted.
“They get older and have to rust and get repaired, but not everyone wants to spend taxpayer money on it,” she says. “And they have to be empty by local school board officials, sometimes accompanied by police. “So I think that's the number.” shiroposuto It continues to decline. ”
