I once read a piece (I think it was in the Globe) about a Canadian writer taking a ride on a Tokyo subway and reporting that it was not uncommon to see well-dressed Japanese 'salarymen' openly gawping at sexually explicit (and mostly sexually sado-masochistic) comic books that were sold at kiosks all over Tokyo. Apparently nobody except Globe writers bothers to so much as bat an eye. Since I've never been there, I don't know this to be true but I remember thinking "Is that a sign of sexual openess or is it a sign of sexual repression?"

Still haven't figured it out....