With times being tough all over JAL employees who have been laid off are selling off their uniforms. JAL doesn't like this and is considering sewing in security chips, like ANA has done, so they can be tracked.
"For fans fostering a uniform fetish, stewardess attire is hard to obtain, with JAL’s being up near the top of the pecking order. Japan’s flag carrier strictly regulates the distribution of each gal’s gear, requiring return upon termination of employment, and affixes registration numbers inside. It’s serious business: a special section within JAL monitors Internet auction sites for illicit sales and five years ago a contract worker was arrested for attempting to broker a sale for a uni sported by airline lounge employees."
It's even tough times for fetishists.
Edit: From the Telegraph. Better numbers/prices that are being paid.
Via The Tokyo Reporter and The Daily Mail Online
3 weeks ago
6 comments:
What? There's no knockoff market for that? The freaks always find a way to get what they want. I'm sure there's some black market for those uniforms. Some floating blog of contacts or some such.
I've seen sites for cosplayers where you can make your own knockoff, but it seems not to be the same as the real thing. Black market? There as to be especially if JAL is going after them.
Bizarre! I wonder if there's a similar fetishism for old Northwest Orient gear -- Succotash up the street always has something moldering away in the back...
What trips me up is just how far JAL is going to keep people from selling their uniforms. Tracking uniforms with satellites? Don't they have better things to do?
I used to go to the Ragstock in downtown Mpls and dig trough the boxes of those Japanese softball uniforms and summer kimonos. Never bought anything but there always seemed to be a new shipment of those every month. Insane. Who bought that stuff?
I actually remember someone telling me even back in the '80s that the Japanese were heavy into "stewardess porn," though I guess it's pretty tame compared to a lot of other Japanese porn.
RWG (I imagine official JAL uniforms might fetch a good price)
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