Pervert Installed Cameras Under His Truck to Film Under Girls’ Skirts

A 44-year-old Japanese man has been arrested and accused of indecent acts after allegedly installing several cameras under his truck so he could drive by young girls and film under their skirts.

Voyeurism and upskirt photography are apparently so widespread in Japan that there is even a word for them –  “chikan”. It describes men who inappropriately try to take pictures under women’s skirts without consent. In one of the most bizarre cases of chikan ever reported, a middle-aged man has been arrested for installing at least four cameras under his light delivery truck so he could slowly drive by skirt-wearing girls, some of them still in primary school, and film under their skirts. After discovering the trucks under his truck, police raided the man’s home and found over 30 hard drives containing hundreds of voyeuristic videos, and despite his continued denial of the accusations, authorities suspect that the number of victims could reach as many as 1,000.

Read More »

Japanese Universities Install Anti-Socializing Cafeteria Tables

At the request of students who wanted to avoid lunchtime socializing, Japanese universities in Kyoto and Kobe have replaced regular tables with so-called “lonely seats” featuring 50-cm dividers in the middle.

In most cultures, going to lunch with friends or co-workers is a great way to take your mind off the job and relax, but it seems that’s exactly what the students at Kyoto University are trying to avoid. They are busy people who don’t always have time to sit around and make small talk with their peers, so in order to avoid this kind of uncomfortable situations, they’ve asked the university for a practical solution. There are always empty tables where they could eat their meals in peace, but according to one 22-year old engineering student “If you are sitting at a big table by yourself it’s like you don’t have any friends and that is embarrassing.” So to solve this predicament, the university replaced the regular cafeteria tables with “bocchi seki” or “lonely seats” that have an opaque divider across the middle so the person on the other side can’t see you slurping your noodles or engage in a conversation.

boochi-seki

Read More »

Japanese Artist Creates Structures from 30,000 Post-Its

Japanese artist Yo Shimada, of tat-o architects, has created a series of fragile structures using thousands of brightly-colored post-its.

This isn’t the first time someone has used the good old post-it as an art medium, but it may well be the first time it serves as a building material. Aided by students from the Kyoto University of Art and Design, Yo Shimada painstakingly glued around 30,000 colored post-its to create building components which were later assembled to create a wall-like structure currently exhibited at the Gallery Artzone, in Kyoto.

Visitors were given the opportunity to engage in a dialogue with the post-it structure by writing their thoughts on post-its and sticking them to the facing gallery walls.

Read More »