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Poolside perverts with X-ray eyes swim against tide of public decency
By Ryann Connell. July 1 , 2005. Mainichi Daily News
Peep freak fetishists across Japan are gushing with the shocking footage taken with an X-ray camera of the country's top female swimming stars, showing them in all their glory regardless of how they finished their races, according to Flash (7/12).
"This footage came from the 2001 Japan National Swimming Championship, which determined who would be in the team for the Fukuoka World Swimming Championship later that year. Normally, most people using hidden cameras to take footage of women usually keep their videos to themselves, but the footage of the swimmer has clearly been made for commercial purposes. It's already being sold in online auction sites and on bulletin boards for sneak footage fetishists," Hidesuke Matsumoto, a writer well versed in the sneak footage caper, tells Flash.
Featured in the video are woman that the pictorial weekly refuses to name. However, among them were members of the national swim team for the Sydney and Athens Olympics.
Altogether, the video contains 45 minutes of footage. It focuses on the swimmers as they walk up and down the pool, when they are called to compete and then when they exit the pool and return to the change room. The footage is all taken using an infrared filter that effectively works as an X-ray video camera.
"Infrared filters on cameras are supposed to provide clear images when filming in dark places, but they also have the added, unintended, effect of making tight clothes see-through. Somebody has misused one of these infrared filters to film the girls in the pool. I'd say the camera lens has been removed once, the infrared filter attached, and then the lens put back in place," Matsumoto tells Flash. "If you ask an underground company, it's possible to get this kind of job done for about 20,000 to 30,000 yen."
There is little doubt the swimmers' swimsuits look see-through in the footage, with private parts in particular standing out. The effect is even more pronounced after the race when the swimsuits are wet and clinging to the women's bodies.
As shocking as the footage is for exposing some of Japan's finest sportswomen, perhaps even more alarming is how the footage was taken in the first place.
"Swimming associations are really strict about allowing cameras into their events because they know they are prime targets for sneak footage fetishists. About the only people who are allowed to bring cameras into these events are those who have some direct involvement in operations, such as teammates. There's a possibility the footage could have been taken by a woman. Officials are far less likely to suspect a woman of taking hidden camera footage than a man," a sneak footage fetishist tells Flash. "It's possible whoever took the film was doing so at the behest of a fetishist. There are lots of women who'll do this for a bit of cash on the side. That's how you get most of the footage from women's change rooms and girl's toilets at schools."
Motivation for taking such heinous shots comes from a combination of areas.
"Taking this footage is a kind of sickness," the fetishist says. "Many people get arrested, but then go back out and take more footage again. At the moment, only local government ordinances can be used to prosecute offenders. Even if they're caught, they get away with nothing more than having to pay a fine of 100,000 to 200,000 yen and write an apology promising not to do it again. Some places will even let you off with nothing more than a telling off."
With technological advancements progressing at a phenomenal pace, the situation is likely to get worse.
"You can clearly see with your own eyes the improvements made with each camera and how much smaller they are getting," the fetishist tells Flash. "Even if politicians introduce more and more restrictions on what's permissible on the Internet, the sneak camera footage market will just go underground. Now, it's possible to find infrared filter footage of girls as young as 10. Whatever happens, whatever we know about at the moment is merely the tip of the iceberg."
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