Opinion Wrong number By Scott T. Hards	フレームで見る  英文をプリントする  脚注をプリントする
違法広告の携帯番号を使用停止に 街を汚す風俗店の違法看板を根絶するには、看板の広告に使われた携帯電話の番号を使用停止にできるよう法律改正したらどうか？

The word on the sign almost made it sound like an advertisement for a really bad sandwich shop: "Delihell." But this was obviously not placed by any aboveboard business. The only other information on the garish, fluorescent-orange paper ― pasted illegally on an electrical pole ― was a cell phone number.

As some readers may know, "deriheru," is an abbreviation for the Japanese version of "delivery health." This is a euphemism for services that will "deliver" a woman to your home or hotel room to perform sexual favors, including, in some cases, outright prostitution. The illicit nature of their business aside, the advertisements for such places are almost always placed illegally on electrical poles or other public places.

Over the last several months, posters for illegitimate services like these have begun to stain the atmosphere of Nasushiobara, Tochigi Prefecture, where I live. Most other Japanese cities have had to put up with them, and those notorious "sute-kanban," for much longer.

Very long-time readers may recall that the very first essay I ever wrote for the Shukan ST, about seven years ago, was about "sute-kanban" and how it's perfectly alright for regular citizens to remove them. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear that the problem of illegal advertising has improved at all since I wrote those words in 1998.

I think it's time for a new approach, one that's simple and sure to be effective. Like that "deriheru" sign, most of these advertisements are there simply to inform you of their cell phone number. But what if you called that phone number and it didn't work?

I recently talked with spokespeople for both DoCoMo, and KDDI. They indicated that Japan's telecommunication laws only allow them to cut off service to customers if they don't pay their bill, or if they use their phone to send spam. Well, how about if the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications modifies Japan's regulations to allow companies to suspend service if a customer is having their phone number printed on illegal advertisements?

Administrating this would be very easy. Police or designated city officials could simply report offending numbers to the phone companies. These customers would get a warning, and be given a week or so to remove all offending ads. After a week, if things are not cleaned up ... zap! Their phone stops working. At worst, they've now wasted a lot of money on useless ads and hopefully will think twice before using that medium again. At best, it might even put them out of business.

Rapidly changing times and technologies often mean that current laws are incapable of handling the problems society faces now. This, however, seems like a quick and easy change that could help clean up much more about Japanese society than just those ugly pink and orange ads soiling my town.

Shukan ST: July 29, 2005

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