Porn

As anyone who has taken a stroll through Tokyo's raucous red-light districts will know, Japanese people aren't exactly shy about sex. But like most things in Japan there's a proper time and place, and it's not the businesslike environs of an international exhibition venue.

Or rather that was true. Japan recently had its first-ever adult expo at the Makuhari Messe convention center near Tokyo. In a press release the organizers of the "Adult Treasure Expo" vowed to "draw the adult industry out of the darkness and secrecy which has traditionally surrounded it, to the place of honor and value which it deserves."

Over three days, about 150,000 adult industry workers and members of the public attended the event. For a Japanese trade expo, the event was surprisingly uncrowded, especially compared to other big events held at the venue. Organizers didn't get their target 200,000 visitors. The expo was about 60:40 industry and members of the public; and less than 1 percent overseas visitors. But what the sexpo lacked in size, it certainly made up with enthusiasm. The Expo featured ultrarealistic sex dolls, masturbating machines, a bukkake booth, hardcore Blu-Ray porn and a member of the miniskirt police.

right: A porn starlet, or perhaps just a "companion girl" paid to be a pretty face at one of the booths (probably the former considering the amount of attention), smiles for the cameras. Japanese trade exhibitions are notorious for skimpily dressed "promotion girls," as well as hordes of camera-wielding men with no industry connections, who turn up just to take photos.