Secrets, Sex, and Spectacle: the Rules of Scandal in Japan and the United States (review)

When my wife and I lived in Kyoto in 1972–73 for our first stay in Japan, there was much about our neighbors’ behavior that intrigued us. Over the years since then, the exoticism of most of Japanese behavior has faded, but I have always vaguely wondered about Japanese men and their attitudes toward women’s panties. One of our young American female friends at that time twice had her panties stolen from the clothesline behind her house. She then hung them to dry inside her room, only to have someone break into the house and steal them. In every instance, only her panties were taken. To me, this was a mystery worth pursuing, but I never seemed to have the time to get around to it.

Now, thanks to Mark West’s deliciously entertaining book, panty thefts are less mysterious. The deflating part of the discovery, alas, is that the thief’s behavior itself may have been nothing more than the stretching of the arubaito rules (we lived near Kyoto University) to include a little petty crime. It turns out that at least until 2004 when the Tokyo government outlawed it, there had been a flourishing trade in girls’ panties, and Japanese high school girls regularly made money by selling their used underwear. West discusses this cottage industry in the context of sexual attitudes toward young girls, and although our friend was young, she was not child-porn young. She was, however, foreign, so the thief may have been getting close to or even better than the prices Japanese girls themselves were realizing. After all, panties of the young and foreign must have received a premium. Maybe they still do in Kyoto.

Not all of West’s book is as salacious as the story about the panty trade, but a lot of it is. What else would one expect from “secrets, sex, and spectacle,” especially since many, if not most, of the secrets and scandals are about sex? Index entries related to sex are the largest single category (actually sex is tied with corporations but since the first entry under “corporations” is “adultery scandal and,” I’m awarding number one to sex), so top billing is empirically justified and probably inevitable in two societies as repressed and obsessed about sex as the United States and Japan. Nor does West in any way shy away from the topic. He showcases sex not only in the book title but also by giving sex its own chapter, and he does not hesitate to have fun with topics that might offend some readers. (Nor does your reviewer.) Take, for example, the following excerpts from a section explaining why Japan does not pay nearly as much attention to statutory rapists like Joey Buttafuoco or kinky stepdads like Woody Allen:

Japan openly adores little girls and is much more comfortable sexualizing them than America is. When Shūkan Asahi Geinō ran a completely uncontroversial photo spread of Yui Akino in 2004 . . . with poses ranging from “aren’t-I-cute-here-on-the-beach-in-my-bikini!” to “do-youthink- I’ve-been-a-bad-girl-daddy?” the text highlighted two facts: her 90- centimeter (35-inch) bust and her 1990 birthday. Yes, 14-year-olds in Japan are hot stuff.

(p. 250)

and

Thank heaven for little girls: how about Saaya Irie? One of the three members of the pop group “Sweet Kiss,” Saaya first rose to fame on the Channel 2 Internet boards in 2005 and then appeared frequently in print media, almost always in swimsuits, but sometimes in her school uniform. Her most noticeable assets? Breasts that were advertised as “F cup.” Her age? Eleven.

(p. 250; emphasis in original)

West’s sharp, breezy, and occasionally irritating one-liners are not limited to sex. They enliven discussions of corporate and political scandals as well (e.g., President Bill Clinton and Prime...