The release of photos of a Japanese singer who died at the age of 73 would not normally be news on Tokyo Kinky.
But the photos of famed enka singer Aki Yashiro have attracted a storm of criticism because they are nude.
The two pictures will be included with an upcoming music CD and feature Yashiro in her twenties.
When Yashiro was around 24 or 25, she was living with the man who took the two Polaroids in question. (He apparently has or had a further three similar nude Polaroids.) They were engaged for a while, it seems, but later broke up. He would set up his own music record label in the 1980s. At one point, he sold a lot of the label’s music rights and assets to the Kagoshima-based New Century Record, which is when it acquired the private photos of Yashiro.
Many fellow enka singers and others in the entertainment industry have lambasted the decision to release the photos after Yashiro’s death — and therefore, without her permission.
This is ultimately just a public war of words. If the people who own the pictures think there’s demand, the law of the market will override ethics.
There is speculation, however, that such a release of private nude photos would constitute revenge porn and make the publisher liable to arrest and prosecution. Revenge porn is on the rise in Japan, despite its criminalization and efforts by police to stamp it out.
In the past, women in Japan have sued companies for releasing their old porn without their consent. In this case, it’s even more problematic because these are private photos — and Yashiro isn’t around anymore.
The CD with the nude photo is set for release on April 21. Reporting on the issue has been ongoing for a month now across various media outlets and the topic has also attracted quite a lot of negative attention on social media.
Currently, New Century Record has not canceled the release, which features prominently on the company website (complete with a description of the nude photos), though the CD is no longer available to order on most online retailers.
