The death and digital resurrection of Japan’s used panty vending machine

I’m standing on a street corner in Tokyo’s Akihabara district, half blinded by the neon glow radiating from three tall buildings directly in front of me — a sex shop, an arcade, and a big-box electronics retailer. Not far down the road, three foreign guys are chatting about something. It’s Akihabara — ground zero for otaku culture — so I can only imagine that they’re discussing J-pop idols or anime. I stroll up to them and ask if they mind answering what might be, anywhere else on the planet, a very strange question:

“Have you ever heard about the used panty vending machines?”

Instead of shaking their heads in disgust or trying to flag down a police officer, the trio lets out a chuckle. The guy to my right points a finger over my head, back at the sprawling sex shop that’s now behind me. “There’s one right up there, on the sixth floor,” he says in a thick German accent, beaming like a kid on Christmas morning. Then he pauses for a moment of contemplation, slides his wire-framed glasses higher up on his face, and adds: “But I don’t know if they’re really used or not.”

The guy on my left also raises a finger above my head, pointing to a decrepit building under the train tracks ahead of us. “I know they used to sell them over there, but just hanging on the wall — not sure if they have a vending machine.”

The guy in the middle, who’s gone from giggling to looking a bit uneasy at this point, chimes in: “I’ve still never seen one in person, but panty vending machines are one of the first things I heard about Japan.”

Vending machines everywhere

It’s not difficult to figure out how the Japanese panty vending machine became a cultural phenomenon. The legend exists at the intersection of sex and technology in a country known in the west for weird pornography and Sony.

“Similarly with ‘tentacle rape,’ [westerners] seem to have this concept of ‘Japan has the most perverse, crazy imagination, and this is proof of it,’” La Carmina, Japanese pop culture expert, TV host, and blogger, tells Tech in Asia . “The idea of dirty panty machines is something so over-the-top, you wouldn’t find it in any other country, not even Las Vegas.”

While the humble vending machine might not be the finest example of high-tech Japan, it’s certainly one of the most visible. According to the latest figures from the Japan Vending Machine Manufacturers Association (JVMA), there are more than 3.8 million “automatic sales” machines across the country (not including “automatic service” machines, like change dispensers and coin lockers).

That’s roughly one vending machine for every 33 citizens. In a year, these machines earn about 5 trillion yen — an astronomical US$46 billion. That’s slightly less than what Google makes in a year.

The vast majority of these machines, about 2.6 million, spit out beverages: everything from green tea and canned coffee to beer and sake. In the “other” category, JVMA counts 141,000 vending machines that offer “newspapers, hygiene products, toys, etc.”

Super used kakou

Not counted in the above figure are Japan’s equally ubiquitous gachapon machines — the kind that dispense toys in plastic capsules after turning a crank. The term, like so many others in the Japanese language, comes from the combination of two onomatopoeic words: gacha, the sound the crank makes, and pon, the sound the capsule makes when it lands at the bottom of the machine. Gashapon, spelled with an “s,” is actually trademarked by Japanese toy maker Bandai.

When foreigners gush about finding a used panty vending machine, they’re usually referring to a gachapon machine. While many of the machines advertise the contents as used, anyone who can read Japanese knows that this isn’t the case. Take the following photo, advertising used OL (office lady) panties, for example:

Above the price (￥500) are the words “スーパーUSED加工” (super used kakou). Kakou, in this case, means that the panties were manufactured to appear used — kind of like the Abercrombie jeans that are sold with holes and frayed edges straight from the factory. The addition of those two kanji characters makes it instantly apparent to a native speaker that the panties are not, in fact, used. Perhaps an enterprising gachapon machine salesperson realized that they could trick non-Japanese into believing the urban legend by slapping a single English word on the sign.

Down in the basement

After snaking through a maze of adult videos, vibrators, and sex dolls (some lifelike, some more like giant anime characters), I found myself on the sixth floor of the gargantuan sex shop that, according to my German acquaintance on the street, had a real used panty vending machine. What I found, instead, was a plethora of brand new, vacuum-sealed underwear and “cosplay” outfits. I approached the cash register and inquired directly with the staff — a normal looking guy in his 30s wearing an apron and a name tag. I wondered if he got lost on his way to the coffee shop and ended up selling sex toys instead of lattes.

“So many foreign customers ask me about buying used panties,” said the clerk, who agreed to talk with Tech in Asia on the condition that his name and company not be specified. “We used to have a gachapon machine that sold new panties, but the sign said ‘used.’ There was a disclaimer at the bottom saying they they weren’t really used — but it was written in Japanese, so maybe they took the sign literally.”

At some point in the past six months, management had made the decision to move the machine to the basement — but it had already done its job of perpetuating the myth to the foreign visitors who managed to catch a glimpse. Did the real thing ever exist?

“They did exist in the back alleys of Akihabara, about 10 or 15 years ago,” the clerk continued. “But the law is strict now. Some shops around here sold used panties — not necessarily in vending machines — but the police cracked down on them. They didn’t arrest the shop owners, but told them to stop underage students from selling their stuff. Sometimes girls with fake IDs would try to sell panties or used school uniforms, so the police told the shops to be careful.”

Child abuse?

Japan lags behind other countries when it comes to cracking down on sexualized images of children. While possession of child pornography is a serious felony in most parts of the developed world, Japan didn’t criminalize the practice until June this year. The new law exempts sexually explicit depictions of children in anime, manga, and videogames — for fear that banning such material would violate the constitutional right to free speech. Those in possession of real kiddie porn have even been given a one-year grace period to discard it before the law starts being enforced. If found guilty after that, they face a maximum of one year in prison — a slap on the wrist compared to sentences in the US, where the same offense carries a minimum of five years behind bars.

Similar so-called “child protection” laws likely contributed to the demise of the modern panty vending machine — though the sale of used underwear by minors does not fall under the national child porn regulations. In the case of soiled schoolgirl skivvies, enforcement is up to local authorities. Shops in Akihabara, under the jurisdiction of Tokyo, have to abide by the “Regulations Concerning the Sound Upbringing of Tokyo Youth,” a law that passed in 2004.

Section 15, “Prohibitions on the Purchase of Used Underwear” (which also extends to the sale of saliva and other bodily fluids), bans the purchase of soiled undergarments from individuals under the age of 18 as well as solicitation for such items. Section 24 imposes a 500,000 yen (US$4,600) maximum fine on buyers found in violation of Section 15. Under Section 26, shops attempting to illegally sell such items can be fined up to an additional 200,000 yen (US$1,800) if police discover them during a search. Neither violation carries jail time.

According to Tokyo Reporter, businesses dealing with joshi kosei (highschool girl) items — used panties, socks, and school uniforms — have taken a heavy hit in recent months due to the struggling economy and intensifying police scrutiny. With the upcoming 2020 Tokyo Olympics, one can expect (or at least hope) that the Japanese police will crack down on the illegal sale of dirty panties or risk soiling its largely positive image abroad.

Dirty ecommerce

While panty vending and gacha machines have largely disappeared from the Japanese landscape, that’s not to say a pervert can’t find used panties. It’s actually disturbingly easy. Like many other commodities, their distribution has moved online.

A search for “使用済み下着” (shiyou-zumi shitagi), the technical term for “used underwear” in Japanese, returns 683,000 results on Yahoo Japan (the country’s most popular search engine). One site, based in Osaka, offers photo profiles — like some kind of perverted social network — complete with the purported age, occupation, and measurements of each woman who is selling her undergarments.

“I’m a 25-year-old beauty advisor,” reads the profile of the site’s number-one seller. “Check my gallery to see what clothes I have to offer. I’ll wear each item for three days before sending it to you. I’ll include a photo, but please don’t request a specific pose!” Her online shop includes everything, from used panties and bras (3,000 yen each, or US$28) to an erotic photo album (10,000 yen, or US$93). But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

For customers who purchase used clothing items, the site’s number-one seller offers some disgusting add-ons: a vial of spit for 2,000 yen (US$18.50), a 500ml bottle of urine for 3,000 yen (US$28), and feces — shipped in a pink tupperware container — for the same price as the number one.

A recruitment page makes it clear that sellers must be at least 18 years old, with a valid photo ID, and no longer in high school. When it comes down to business, the site acts as an intermediary, with sellers setting their own prices and shipping to customers directly. Sellers are provided with company shipping labels in order to protect their identities, and the site handles payments — all for a 20 percent cut. Exchanging of personal information between sellers and customers is forbidden and all correspondence is done through the site itself.

Is someone, somewhere in Japan selling used panties out of a vending machine? I wish I could tell you that the answer is no, but the honest truth is, well, maybe. One thing is for sure, though — the urban legend is certainly more popular than the machines ever were.

Originally published at www.techinasia.com on December 11, 2014.