Cops promise crackdown on sick salarymen's dirty desires for 'junior goods'

The Mainichi Shimbun (WaiWai)
March 12, 2008
Source: http://mdn.mainichi.jp/culture/waiwai/news/20080312p2g00m0dm002000c.html

Sick pedophilia featuring Japanese children being openly abused is re-entering Japan via Western countries and being sold in underground video stores in Tokyo's Kabukicho entertainment district, Weekly Playboy (3/17) says.

Referred to as "Jr. mono," or "junior goods," pictures of little children being abused are selling at three to four pictures for 5,000 yen or up to 14 shots for a 10,000 yen note.

"Most of the underground stores used to sell lots of typical stuff downloaded from the Internet or stuff that had been leaked online, but since the start of this year, there's been an incredible increase in 'junior goods,' " a regular of an underground DVD seller in Kabukicho tells Weekly Playboy. "I know some guys with wives and kids who are really into the junior stuff even though the children are being abused. They get all excited by the pictures of the kids being sexually assaulted. I don't understand it myself, and I can't understand why anyone would want to buy it, but, make no mistake, both demand and supply are on the rise."

One self-professed insider in the underground movie business in Kabukicho explains why these sick images are suddenly proliferating.

"Putting it really simply, it's because there are so many people out there who'll buy it. Nearly all the customers who do go to the stores bring print outs of lists of the products they want after having searched for them first on the Internet. They don't buy online because they can be traced. And they don't want anybody to find out where they live, especially if they're into the JR mono," the insider tells the men's weekly. "It's really risky business for the movie sellers and the cops are always watching them. But they always have the customers. And the customers are looking for JR mono."

Typical customer behavior, the weekly says, is to go into stores armed with a list of items to buy, check that they match photos on display and then get a store employee to save the images on a DVD for them. The sales outlet insider says customers may surprise some.

"Rather than young guys or types who look like they've got pretty loose morals, they're overwhelmingly suit-clad salarymen," the insider says. "Customers' ages range from their 20s to their 80s. Most of them buy several dozen shots with each purchase."

These images are not just sold with digital mosaics over the genitals to avoid being cited for obscenity, they are child pornography featuring images of children being abused. The men's weekly says crimefighters are poised to crack down on the practice.

"We suspect that the materials are being generated by cram school teachers or relatives of the victims on the photos. One of the things that really stands out in the JR mono is that the girls do not appear to be strongly resisting what's happening to them. That suggests they trust whoever is doing this to them. The quality of the photos is mixed. We believe that the photos are being taken by some sick amateurs rather than professionals," a police investigation insider tells Weekly Playboy. "We've had our eye on one particular cram school operator since the end of last year. But all the transactions from buying to selling have been conducted in cash, so we don't have a decent paper trail. We can pick up the sellers on the spot when they trade, but finding the right timing to do this is hard. Most of the taping is done in apartment building rooms, but there is always more than one of these places and we want to get them all." (By Ryann Connell)

（Mainichi Japan） March 12, 2008

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