bundler

What a week for disasters. First, the Italians ban topless women on their beaches unless they are lying down!

Then the Community Board in Wanaka, New Zealand, wants to take down the area's most famous tourist attraction, the bra fence.

Now, "Rabaazu Gaido" is being banned in Japan, even though almost eveyone there likes it, judging from its sales.

I am no linguist, but according to Japan's Mainichi News, Rabaazu Gaido is the Japanese translation of a 1992 British sex education manual called, "The Lovers' Guide".

The Guide hit the Japanese market on May 21 this year and to call it a roaring success would be an understatement. Even though it cost 2,500 yen a copy - and that's a lot of yen for a guide - the Shukan Post reports is first printing of 10,000 copies sold out. In the following two months, "Rabaazu Gaido" went into four more printings and every one of them sold out. That makes 50,000 copies at 2,500 yen each, for a whopping total of 12,500,000 yen.

Now that's what I call popular. It also shows that sex education sells very well in Japan. Or did.

In a blatant display of censorship, Japan's police have pulled Rabaazu Gaido off the shelves, never to be sold again. It's their job.

Japan has some unique laws when it comes to sex, and one of the most unique is that nudity is okay ... you can show just about everything and almost any act PROVIDED the human genitals are not shown. This is not a new law, it has been around for a long time in Japan.

This is what tripped up the president of The Love Guide's Japanese publishing firm, Osamu Abe. The guide, it seems, contained what the Shukan Post described as "unprecedented" use of photos featuring genitalia.

Although this certainly accounts for the guide's popularity in a genitalia-starved culture, it makes you wonder how Rabaazu Gaido ever got onto Japan's book racks in the first place. It also means that Osamu Abe is a bit of publishing pioneer, and a brave one at that. That last comment is justified when you find out how The Love Guide eventually came off the shelves.

Once Tokyo's Metropolitan Police Department got a look at Rabaazu Gaido, they did not rush out and yank it off the shelves. Instead, again according to the Shukan Post, they called Mr. Abe into their offices early last week for what turned out to be an hour-long interrogation conducted by "a couple of hefty" policemen who insisted the publisher "clean up" the guide.

"They didn't sit there and point out specific areas that were bothersome, but simply said that it wasn't permissible to sell a book that featured graphic depictions of genitalia and fellatio," Abe told the Shukan Post. "They said if we didn't fix it up, they would have to consider dealing with the matter (according to the law)."

The police gave Abe instructions on what they wanted him to do, and asked him to write a note promising that he would obey. Abe initially refused, but a week later sent the police the note they sought. Only he did not promise that he would blur or use those black censorship bars everyone hates. Instead, Abe told the police in the note that he would only revise the book as he deemed fit, and for good reason.

"Genitalia were exposed in the original British book because it was deemed that was the best way to pass on the correct knowledge. If we clean up all the exposed genitals, the book loses its meaning," Abe told Shukan Post. "We have no intention of making the changes and we'll probably have to take the book out of print."

Abe has a very good point, and some support both at home and abroad.

Dr. Andrew Stanway, the editor of the original book, told Mainichi News that "The Lovers' Guide" had initially been criticized when it came out in Britain, but was eventually recognized as a valuable source. He denies it is obscene, as the Tokyo police claim.

Hideo Aoki, translator of the Japanese version of "The Joy of Sex," agreed.

"It's a real shame the Metropolitan Police Department refuses to regard 'Rabaazu Gaido' as a proper sex education tool not just for men, but for women, too," Aoki said.

"Pictures of genitalia were not merely gratuitous, but there with the intention of providing better instructions about sex. That book had significant meaning in helping prevent sexually transmitted diseases like AIDS. It should be highly regarded for that point, too," Aoki said.

Adults should be allowed to be adults, the fight against HIV/AIDS is an important one. If Rabaazu Gaido can help prevent this on-going pandemic of death, Japan should allow the guide to be published and sold.

Credit to Mainichi News journalist Ryann Connell for providing a lot of useful information on this story in his own column.