"Japan's high-tech prowess pushing upskirt shots to ever greater heights"

[chronovore]

By Ryann Connell | Staff Writer | January 10, 2005
Voyeuristic tastes are well and truly catered for throughout cyberspace, but few can boast of the daring displays of debauchery evident in the sites devoted to snapshots taken up Japanese schoolgirls' skirts, according to Shukan Jitsuwa (1/20).

"The 'Net is filled with sites devoted to shots up schoolgirls' skirts taken using hidden cameras. Guys are sneakily taking photos then uploading them onto to sites that like-minded types all look at regularly and critique," a writer on Japan's Internet tells Shukan Jitsuwa. "They seem to have no idea that what they're doing is a crime."

Perhaps the most incredible aspect of the sites is that the subjects of the photos have nearly all been captured unknowingly as they've gone about their daily lives. Poor quality snapshots ensure the pictures are most likely authentic.

"Hidden camera technology has progressed to levels unimaginable even a short time ago," the managing editor of a magazine that displays readers' photos tells Shukan Jitsuwa. "Take shoe cameras, for instance. Pretty much a standard issue nowadays is a camera that fits in the tip of a shoe and can be set off wirelessly. You can even buy shoes made especially so that a camera can be fitted into it. All you need to do to take a photo of a girl is to stand behind her and shoot away."

Remote camera equipment is also helping cause nightmares for the unsuspecting.

"Guys are setting up remote cameras in the vicinity of vending machines, then setting them off remotely whenever a woman in a short dress bends down to pick out an item from the slot at the bottom of the machine," the editor says. "Other highly susceptible areas are steep stairways, which offer easy prey. True sneak photographers don't give themselves away too easily."

Until recently, the shifty types taking these photos had largely kept the results of their vile hobby to themselves, or at worst sold it on to dealers who made videos for the thriving market in hidden camera shots.

Perhaps as most mobile phones now also provide users with a sophisticated still camera and basic video camera, there may even be so many ass shots out there that the, er, bottom has literally fallen out of the market.

Experts say there are also other reasons for why hidden camera shot freaks have turned to the Internet.

"As they become more perverted, it becomes harder for them to be satisfied by looking at their photos alone," Yukio Murakami, a writer on the darker side of Japan's adult entertainment business, tells Shukan Jitsuwa. "They want to be able to brag to others like them about what amazing photos they've taken."

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