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Railway refuses to put up festival ad of naked men

A recent handout picture released by the Oshu Municipal Government shows a poster with a 2006 picture promoting the Kokuseki Temple's Somin Festival to be held on Feb. 13 this year in Iwate Prefecture, Japan. East Japan Railway Co refused the posters promoting the local festival in which men wearing nothing but loincloths participate in scrambles, saying some women would not be comfortable seeing men naked. PHOTO: AFP

Times are changing for a millennium old festival in provincial Japan that features naked men, with a top railway operator saying advertisements for the event were too racy.

The northern city of Oshu draws thousands of tourists with its Somin Festival in February in which naked men pile upon one another and frolic about late into the night to pray for good luck.

The city has printed posters for the festival for decades, but East Japan Railway, better known as JR East, refused to put up the advertisement at train stations this year for the first time.

loincloths

The poster for this year's festival on Feb. 13 has a bearded middle-aged man with thick chest hair who appears to be howling. Other men, wearing only loincloths, cluster in the background.

JR East's branch in Morioka, which covers the region including Oshu, said displaying the poster could constitute sexual harassment.

"Train stations are used by a wide range of people and it is highly possible that some passengers may be offended by the poster design," branch spokesman Kaichi Yamasaki said.

"The impression the poster leaves is a bit unsettling," he said.

Public nudity has been gradually growing more taboo in Japan but remains common in traditional bathhouses and hot springs.

Kumiko Chiba, an Oshu official in charge of festival affairs, said the city initially brought the poster to JR East in November and hoped the company would take 600 as usual.

After the company asked for changes, the local government put white loincloths on all of the men who originally were naked.

"But the poster was again turned down," Chiba said. "We gave up on any more modifications due to the costs and the approaching date of the festival," Chiba said.

"We regret this because an advertisement at train stations can usually catch many people's attention," she said.

chest hair?

With JR East not specifying the complaint, the middle-aged man in the poster wondered if the real objection was to his chest hair, which is relatively rare in East Asia.

"But I don't care as it's all a matter of personal taste," the man, a 20-year veteran of the festival, told a television network.
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