Danica Davidson
February 3, 2025 
If you’ve ever been at a Japanese train station and noticed some otherwise pretty mundane white post drop boxes, you might have seen a place to dispose of pornography. The Japanese news outlet Kyodo News explained that these drop boxes got their start in 1963 in the city of Amagasaki. The idea was that this could be a place people could safely discard X-rated books they no longer wanted, without the chance the books would end up on the streets where minors might see them.
The idea took off, with many of these drop boxes appearing around the country. As technology changed, it also became a place where people could get rid of their X-rated tapes or DVDs. However, now that technology has changed again, and many people are using the Internet for adult titles and videos, some are wondering if these boxes really play a role anymore.
Kazuhide Inoue, who has been emptying these boxes for more than a decade, described how he might open one to find a single book and DVD. On a day in October 2024, he visited eight boxes in the Nakagawa vicinity and ultimately found 81 DVDs and 16 books.
He thinks the boxes are necessary, even as places like Tokyo have been getting rid of them for years. “Before the white boxes were installed, this stuff was littered on the streets,” he explained. “Although the number of boxes has fallen, they still play a significant role.”
Another issue is that it simply costs money to maintain these boxes. While in the 2010s Nagasaki might get 6,000 items a year in the boxes, those numbers have dwindled significantly.
Tokyo Keizai University’s associate professor of sociology Yuko Obi knows about the boxes, but stressed to Kyodo News the importance of protecting young people on the Internet as the way to go forward.
“It is necessary not only to regulate and eliminate harmful information, but also to support children who have been victimized online and establish an improved system of sex education,” Obi remarked.
Source, Image: Kyodo News
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Danica Davidson is the author of the bestselling Manga Art for Beginners with artist Melanie Westin, plus its sequel, Manga Art for Everyone, and the first-of-its-kind manga chalk book Chalk Art Manga, both illustrated by professional Japanese mangaka Rena Saiya. Check out her other comics and books at www.danicadavidson.com.
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