This weeks topic is sexuality and gender in Japan, and I have chosen to discuss the sexualized figurines and toys which are available in almost every populated area of Japan that I have traveled to thus far. In Japan women are objectified and sexualized, often to the point of ridiculousness, this can be seen in hundreds of media formats including magazines, T.V. shows and advertising, but the thing that shocks me the most is the hyper-sexualization of figurines found in gacha gacha (capsule toy) vending machines and figurine shops.
The normal looking gacha gacha, at the top of the page is located at the back of a figure store which sold a huge variety of Anime figurines such as dragonball z, evangelion, hello kitty etc. However, after I looked past the bargain box of dragonball figures I was shocked to see these "porno toys", some depicting women in bondage chains, labelled "2d Dream Heroines" others which I found slightly more disturbing.
These figures on the right are 'super cute' versions of sexualized school girls, and would be instantly demonized as peadophelia, and banned if they tried to sell them in Australia. I recently asked one of my Japanese friends why pornography is so common in Japan, and her reply was that maybe Japanese people are too shy to have sex with each other, so they need another form of indirect sexual experience to fullfill they're sexual urges. I suppose that considering Japan is the land of the cute item, applying that 'cuteness' to pornography is a natural progression.
I cant help but think of how these readily available and accesible sexual images are influencing the minds of young, impressionable children who must surely see these kinky dolls every so often as they try to find their favorite Vegeta or Goku. Having these sexual images and toys as commonplace items will surely help perpetuate the ideology of female sexual objectification among Japanese men and women. I also wonder how long it will be until we start seeing sex robots and what effect that will have on population growth. Who knows maybe that could have a positive environmental outcome? I just hope they dont look anything like the figure below...
These photo's were taken at the Kurama Hi Matsuri (Kurama Fire Festival) We asked a few of the people what the festival was about, and the most we could really understand from our broken English/Japanese conversations was that it was in honour of the fire god, who is not to be confused with the sun god (or was it the other way around...) Although I had the feeling that the people who were displaying the fire in front of they're houses were more interested in showing off they're houses, costumes, and talking with neighbors and visitors, than following any religious doctrine. 
One of the most interesting things for me about Japanese religions is that they dont have just 
one god figure, they have many. Catholic and Christain ancestors did too, until a couple thousand years ago when the 'dominators' wiped out as many opposing religions as possible in the the name of the one "true" god. Another interesting thing I have heard about one of the Japanese religions (I think it was Zen Bhuddism but I can't remember where I heard this...) is that the goal is to reach such an understanding of life that you dont need to learn from your sensei anymore, but rather you use your knowledge to teach and help others. There certainly was a lot of helping going on at this festival, as people seemed to enjoy making the effort to share the load of the heavy fire torches.
This photo is of some of the thousands of people who came to take photo's of the spectacular event. Is this a sign of Japan turning religous events into tourist attractions?? Maybe... but I dont think so... I mean the event is still serving the purpose of bringing people together, and this fire festival felt more spiritual to me than many of the chapels and churches in Europe and Australia that I've been to. After all, millions of people flock to see the pope and take photo's, and I certainly think that seeing people interact with fire is more worthy of attention than some tired old italian dude, telling people how to live as if he knows best. As we walked down the eerie streets of Kurama I felt that this was a celebration of life, and an appreciation of people's efforts instantly grew within me (or maybe that was the beer!?!) either way I certainly had a religious experience which was for me, much closer to god than any of the boring sermons or tedious sunday school lectures I was forced to attend as a child.
