The boxes served to protect the eyes of children from adult material littering the streets, but the shift online has seen their usefulness decline
For more than a decade Kazuhide Inoue has played an understated part in protecting the morals of adolescents in Fukuoka. Several times a year, the 73-year-old visits eight white “post boxes” installed in the city in western Japan, turns a key and empties their contents. On a recent visit, his haul totalled 16 books and 81 DVDs in a single day.
But the boxes are not drop-off points for rental shop customers: they are for the exclusive use of people – almost always men – who want to discreetly dispose of unwanted pornographic material that, if kept at home, could fall into the hands of unsuspecting children.
