Say it ain’t so!

An advertisement showing a woman bound with rope and exposing her thighs has been banned by the industry watchdog.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said the image used by tile company Bisazza implied sexual violence “had taken place or was about to”.

Of course the firm that produced the ad says it is “artistic,” but since when is “art” meant to promote the violent sexual exploitation of women?

The company said the advert featured “no nudity, innuendo, wounds or scenes of excessive perversion”.

But the ASA said the geisha was “shown in a submissive pose, appeared visibly upset and was shown with her kimono pushed up to expose her thigh”.

“Notwithstanding the highly stylised nature of the ads, we considered the creative treatment could be seen to imply that sexual violence had taken place or was about to take place,” it said.

Which undoubtedly is the idea behind it – whether the pervert artist behind it admits it or not.

Australia announces it will do something Europe should have done years, nay decades ago already: invest in its military.

Australia plans to buy 100 state-of-the-art U.S. jet fighters and double the size of its modest submarine fleet in a bid to keep pace with an Asian military buildup.| MORE ›

This is one happy governor:

The youthful governor of Japan’s Osaka city voiced gratitude Friday for an unexpected present from a woman aged in her 80s — a backpack stuffed with one million dollars in cash donations.

“I was surprised. I couldn’t feel more grateful,” Toru Hashimoto told reporters, vowing to make sure the donation was put to good use.| MORE ›

Robert Dujarric writes:

 

Besides the economic damage, the global financial crisis has dangerous strategic implications for Japan.

Since 1945, the world has been organized along U.S.-centric lines. By providing security guarantees to its allies, Washington has supplied an international public good to the entire planet.| MORE ›

Yeah, this is important:

South Korea on Sunday accepted North Korea’s proposal for talks on a troubled joint industrial complex, setting up the first official dialogue between the two countries in a year amid tensions over the North’s recent rocket launch.Unification Ministry spokeswoman Lee Jong-joo said officials of the two Koreas would meet in the border town of Kaesong on Tuesday to discuss the factory complex.| MORE ›

Tensions are rising pretty fast in (South) East Asia:

Japan and China will hold a senior working-level security dialogue in Tokyo among their foreign affairs and defense officials Friday to discuss bilateral matters and regional situations, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.Amid tensions over a possible rocket launch by | MORE ›

After a great day earlier this week, Thursday was a bad day for stock markets in Europe (still open of course) and, especially, Asia. The Nikkei index of Japan lost 11%.

That is the second worst performance of the Nikkei in history.

The stock market of Hong Kong fell approximately 5%, and at point of writing, European stock markets had taken a (relatively minor, but still) tumble as well: they were down some 2% to 3%. (more…)