Sign Language, Part 64 and One-half

This is a sign posted near a small children's playground near my apartment. The words in red say "Beware of perverts." As I am nearly illiterate in reading Chinese characters, that's about all I can tell you about the sign. The words in black at the bottom say the city name plus some other words I don't recognize at the moment. Probably something like "Sign courtesy of The Municipal Council on the Activities of Perverts and other Quirky People of Tama Ward."

What I can tell you was that I was taken aback when I first noticed this sign. Has Japanese society become so... twisted... now that the public needs to be warned about perverts? Granted, it makes sense that this kind of warning is found where young children gather. Makes sense regardless of country or culture. But I don't remember ever encountering this kind of explicitness in the US, where I was raised. What is even more shocking is that Japan seems like a country that likes to deny it's faults (i.e. pick up any Japanese history textbook) and yet here is a warning to all mothers and lone women walking home from the train station at night to maintain an abnormal level of alertness.

To be sure, there is, in English, a distinctly negative connotation and feeling that is attached to the word "pervert". (Hmm, can there be otherwise?) Perhaps that is not the case in Japanese. Japan has a history of eroticism, and paraphilia dating back hundreds of years: Hokusai made wood block prints about child love and Buddhist monks "kept themselves warm and happy" in the monasteries. It is plainly obvious to any foreigner that visits Japan these days that this aspect of their history maintains a strong grip on Japanese contemporary culture and it's perspective of social norms.

On a lighter note, here is a sign I found in a public restroom. The Japanese says "Sorry, but you seem to be lacking the proper equipment to adequately employ the use of this urinal. Please kindly step away and find the ladies room instead."

Public announcements like this are supposed to be objective and relatively impassive. I don't know about you, but the guy in the picture looks pretty pissed off to me. I mean, look at him. He's storming off in a huff. And to add insult to injury, the urinal is still talking to him! Probably saying something like "Don't let the door hit you on the way out... Tiny Tim. Heh heh."


In other countries, you can buy birth control and disposable razors from vending machines in public restrooms. In Hong Kong restrooms, vending machines are now being installed that offer low-priced rabbits. The vending machines are free, i.e., at no expense to the tax-payer. In fact, the government is subsidizing 100% of the installation and maintenance expenses in an effort to curb the alarmingly low numbers of rabbits inside public restrooms. Presumably, consumers would be allowed to use the rabbits in any and all ways as they please, just as they would for single packet aspirins, flavored condoms, and feminine sanitary napkins. Leftover rabbits, I am assuming, could be taken home for later use.