The success of the first volume of "Tabloid Tokyo" has encouraged the publisher to issue a second. Comprised of translations from those of Japan's weekly magazines devoted to sensationalism and titillation, both books aim at a foreign audience that, like its Japanese counterpart, is ready for something slightly shocking and somewhat sexually stimulating.
Here we may read about a boot camp for past-prime prostitutes, about raw fish burgers, panty thieves, and straight girls who hire gay guys. Here too is something edible called "gorilla snot," an expose of mixed bathing, and lessons in how to talk like an otaku. In all, 101 short "news stories" about urban excess in our times.
Most of these originally appeared in the weekly "Tokyo Confidential" column of this newspaper and in the "Wai-Wai" series of the online Mainichi Daily News, both of which still continue. These were in turn sourced from some two dozen vernacular magazines, most of them best sellers. One, the Shukan Bunshun, claims a weekly circulation of 800,000.
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