It's not something that's widely advertised, but Japan is home to a massive shitagi-bunka (underwear culture). The most demure and modest of women will often be the owners of a collection that would put Frederick's of Hollywood to abject shame. And it's no secret that lan-pabu ("lingerie pubs," in which women strut around in underwear) charge more than sutorippu (strip bars). Women scantily clad are more expensive than women unclad -- that's how much lingerie is valued here. So valued in fact, that we have a unique, lingerie-related criminal: the shitagidorobo (underwear thief).

The "shitagidoro" has been around a long time -- about five decades to be exact. Since the emergence of BG (business girls, or female office workers) living alone in city apartments, and the increase in urban jyoshidai ryo (female college dormitories) in the 1950s, shitagidoro have lurked around balconies and backyards, preying on women's undies drying on the monohoshizao (drying pole). Why these guys are drawn to other people's laundry items is a subject for debate, but they're generally perceived as the more romantic of the dorobo (thieves). They rarely inflict any real harm, and the ones who are caught profess to be in it for the imagination and titillation. This is what a lot of convicted felons are known to say: "I like to picture the face that will choose to wear these things. I like to imagine her picking these out at the shops."

While it's easy to write the shitagidoro off as pathetic pervs, it's also true that they serve an important social function: to witness changing trends in women's fashion. The more discerning become commentators on popular culture. In some men's magazines, veteran shitagidoro will hold a fukumen zadankai (masked conference) in which the participants (faces and names blacked out) trade frank and unabridged views on the state of Japanese femininity as seen through their choice of underclothes. According to recent conferences, the taste of the Japanese female has plummeted drastically over the years. A 35-year-old shitagidoro, for instance, entreated his fellow countrywomen to stop wearing thongs: "They just look so unattractive when drying on a line, like pieces of surume (dried squid ) . . ." He also added that excess skimpiness just killed the imagination and made the wearer seem atama-warui (unintelligent). "I prefer women to be more demure and tasteful," he said.