Japanese Tabloids

The Mainichi Daily News Online Website has recently removed the "Wai Wai" section. In the past it was a rough translation of various trashy Japanese tabloid articles in Japan. Here is a short list of the type of headlines you'd see.

Schoolgirls' decade of decadence: panty sales have punters panting
University turns blind eye as foreign students turn tricks
Coffee pot tips seductress plucking schoolboy cherry
Depraved duo target pregnant women in horror rape spree
Super Onanism Machines rubs the lonely the right way
Lion poo proves roaring success as deer deterrent
Sex shop offers discounts for big sluggers
Quirky quacks prescribing sexual harassment
Old fellas savor the ins and outs of a porno actor
Sucking away for huge hooters in the land of itty bitty titty

It was trashy news, unfortunately for many foreigners who read the Mainichi Online, they usually get the most hits on the site.

So here's my problem. On the one hand, this is a clear example of the Japanese selectively censoring its image to the world in thier ongoing effort to show a sophisticated, and cultured face on the global stage. Although all countries do this, it just seems that the Japanese do this with such a brazen disregard of how constructed it looks to outsiders. On the other hand, defending articles on how nurses give tell alls on how they sleep with thier patients seems not worth the effort. What I do see is this, it seems as if the crime here is not that these articles exist, but that they are being translated to English. The Mainichi has never claimed responcibility for these articles, they are merely translating them for curious foreign readers. I find it hard to swallow that Managing Director Yoshiyuki Watanabe needed to be punished for this publicly, being that he had no power on what the articles were about.

My question is how did this ever become such a big issue? It seems that much of the attention was directed at bloggers bringing traffic to the "Wai Wai" articles, and the reaction to them from Japanese citizens who are afraid of how this reflects Japan.