Here's a story from one of my favorite sites for offbeat news: http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/waiwai/

Sneaky women focusing on filthy films

Movies of naked women taken by concealed cameras pack the shelves of Japanese video outlets, with dozens of new titles coming out every month. Many of these flicks are made by professional companies who pay models to act in them, but a large number are made featuring ordinary women who have no idea they're being filmed, according to Shukan Jitsuwa (4/24).

Most frightening about these types of videos, however, is that footage once snared almost exclusively by perverted males and peeping Toms, is now largely being snatched by women, thanks to a crackdown by cops.

Recent arrests in Tokyo and Osaka have proved the concealed camera footage can be a lucrative business. A Kansai couple picked up 90 million yen in two years selling videos with sneaky shots of women in a changing room. A top company in the capital famous for catching women unawares thrived for almost a decade before two of its executives were finally arrested earlier this year.

"Of the arrests that we've made, a startling aspect has been the incredible number of women who've helped get the footage. Unlike men, women can get into toilets or public baths without arousing suspicion and shoot movies without anybody giving them a second thought," an assistant director of concealed camera movies tells Shukan Jitsuwa. "Women have become even sharper recently. They'll join together to form groups that work as an organization trying to sneak shots of unclad women."

Working in groups has apparently proved less risky. One woman will act as a lookout, another will try and shield the camera operator from others so nobody can tell what they're doing, while the other member will actually be filming. It's an effective method of working that has also thwarted crimebusters keen on breaking up their rings.

"It's close on impossible for us to get arrests of women making hidden camera movies if they're working in groups," laments a police officer. "As an example of what we're going through, just the other day we looked like we'd finally snared ourselves one of these groups. But, when an officer went up and grabbed the arm of the women we thought was filming, she suddenly yelled out that she was being molested. Another woman screamed out as though she was trying to help free the woman and deliberately created a scene. Everybody was running around like mad and they all got away in the end. Based on how coordinated they were able to work, they must have rehearsed getting caught a number of times in the past. They knew exactly what to do to get away. We were helpless."

Some women are finding even their closest friends or colleagues are getting caught up in the chance to make a quick buck for getting some change-room footage.

"A girl at work found a hidden camera in the company toilet a few weeks ago. Then they found one in the women's change rooms," a Tokyo office worker called Saori tells Shukan Jitsuwa. "Turns out it was one of our temp staff. She'd been paid to do it by a video company. The girls were all shocked that they'd been sucked in so easily."

Members of the film groups usually have a lot in common. Many are current or former sex industry employees. They have no qualms about making money out of a woman's nude body, are used to stripping off themselves and don't feel anything is wrong with lining their pockets flogging images of other women in the buff.

Reka, a former dominatrix, is precisely the type video companies look for to take their footage. She ended up doing the job after being prompted by one of her former slaves.

"He asked me if I wanted a part-time job that paid big money. I thought it was a bit fishy, but went ahead with it anyway. I met him once after work. It's not like I hate talking about money," Reka tells Shukan Jitsuwa, adding that it wasn't long before she'd agreed to hide cameras to film other women in toilets and other areas where they undressed. "I worked together with another four girls. We were paid 500,000 yen for each video. That gave us a little more than 120,000 yen each. We'd make one video every two days. It's a pretty good rate, better than selling sex. Our group alone made 40 movies in about half a year."

• Re: Now we know how those Japanese changing room vids get done - Yellow_Fever 4/12/2003