Vanishing pubic hair spells a dangerous threat to everybody's liberty, one of Japan's most prominent journalists tells Shukan Asahi (5/16).

Masahiko Motoki, the chief editor of Japan's version of enormously popular citizen journalism site OhmyNews, argues that authorities' recent moves toward an increasingly hard line against violent or sexual expression could have implications that reach further into people's lives.

And Motoki cites Japanese authorities' traditionally love-hate relationship with the public display of pubic hair, referred to as "hea nuudo" in the vernacular, to outline his argument.

"When I was the chief editor of (men's weekly magazine) Shukan Gendai in the 1990s, there was an effective easing of regulations regarding the display of pubic hair, which made the hea nuudo a trend for a while," Motoki tells Shukan Asahi. "This allowed us to enjoy an incredible boost in our circulation, but as our reputation spread there was also a backlash, with things like airlines refusing to offer Shukan Gendai to passengers on flights. My intention, though, was only ever to run hea nuudo because of their newsworthiness, because I thought that doing so would lead to greater freedom of expression."

Yeah, right! Regardless of whether the widespread display of pubic hair really did contribute to a freer and more open Japan, the hea nuudo boom waned as people got sick of the hype. Motoki concedes the lack of demand put an end to the trend, but warns that more sinister forces were also at work.

"Recently, there has been a regressive flow to drag levels of freedom of expression back to what they used to be," the journalist tells Shukan Asahi.

Motoki points to the March arrests of executives from the Nihon Video Ethics Association, an organization that self-censors adult movies, for allegedly allowing too much to be seen through the digital mosaics applied to genitalia in Japanese stick flicks. He also slams the Metropolitan Police Department for calling in the editors of lowbrow men's weeklies Shukan Jitsuwa, Asahi Geino and Shukan Taishu last December and ordering them all to tone down the racy photo spreads of scantily clad women they're all known for.

"We're seeing the same sort of thing happening over the Internet, with movements toward filtering out obscene expressions," Motoki tells Shukan Asahi. "Suppression of freedom of expression starts with easy targets like displays of violence or obscenity. But if we let down our guard, we could have a massive firewall surrounding the entire Internet and find ourselves stuck in a society where we can't freely express the opinions we want to." (By Ryann Connell)