Fetish freaks get hands on stewardess uniformsBy Ryann Connell
Staff Writer
June 15, 2005
"I was walking through the streets of Shinjuku when I noticed a uniform was up for sale in an adult shop with the price at hundreds of thousands of yen. I wondered to myself why somebody would steal a uniform and what they would do with it. The answers made me sick," a one-time female flight attendant with All Nippon Airways tells Shukan Gendai (6/25).
ANA stewardesses have got Japan's uniform fetishists in a fever. While filming a commercial to mark ANA's first uniform change in 14 years, a subsidiary of advertising giant Dentsu Inc. lent out the new garb to 195 extras, but only got back 183 uniforms.
Five women later returned the kits anonymously and another returned her uniform to the airline. Another six sets remain unaccounted for, however, and ANA is threatening to press charges if they don't turn up again soon.
Illustrator Nobuyuki Mori, who produced a book of drawings featuring the uniforms women wear in Japanese workplaces, says the new ANA uniform is known for its sleek design.
There are plenty of reasons why stewardess uniforms could be stolen.
"I just thought it was cute," was the reason the woman who returned her kit gave for taking it in the first place. But Mori adds that the biggest reason is probably yen -- both in terms of finance and desire.
"Uniform fetishists adore stewardess uniforms and will pay huge prices to get their hands on them. Whoever stole the uniforms has probably realized that they can command a fairly hefty price," Mori tells Shukan Gendai.
The boss of a uniform selling shop in Tokyo agrees.
"It's extremely rare to get a stewardess uniform. Even if one does come in, the price is likely to be somewhere from 100,000 yen to 200,000 yen. In previous cases, we've sold ANA uniforms from 100,000 yen to 150,000 yen and from Japan Airlines, you're looking at around 300,000 yen," the uniform seller says. "At the moment, we've got a replica ANA uniform up for sale at 80,000 yen. The stolen uniforms were the first new kits to come from the airline in quite a while, so I guess you could probably get a price of around 300,000 yen each."
Driving the price of illicitly sold uniforms up are increased security measures at airlines and the rarity of the garments in the market despite the enormous demand for them.
"Everybody used to throw their dirty uniforms into this big laundry box at work and there were times when we realized some uniforms had gone missing. Later, we'd learn that the uniforms were being sold in online auctions for as much as 400,000 yen each, so I suppose there were some girls who were taking them away to sell," an unnamed ANA stewardess tells Shukan Gendai. "Since the 9-11 terrorist attacks, though, the company's security measures have become much tighter. There's no way anybody could get a uniform out of the company now. The company now collects uniforms individually before taking them out to be dry cleaned."
Uniform fetishists getting an ANA stewardess uniform in their clutches could use them in a variety of ways, according to Maguro Shimonoseki, a writer who specializes in the study of sexual tastes.
"Uniform freaks are just like those people who want pets whose trade is banned under the Washington Treaty. The harder something is to get their hands on, the more they want it," Shimonoseki tells Shukan Gendai. "Fetishes vary, so how the uniforms could be put to use is anyone's guess. There are probably some guys who'll just sit and stare at the uniforms, others who'll get their wives or girlfriends to dress up in it for them, and even those really chronic cases who'll go on a punishing diet just so they can get thin enough to wear the dresses themselves. In really bad cases, you may find some guys masturbate over the uniforms, then take photos of their work and post it on websites for anybody to see."
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