Google Forced to Retake All Japanese Street View Pictures
Posted 05/18/09 at 05:29:24 PM by Andy Salisbury
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Google recently announced that they have planned to retake all of their photographs for the Japanese version of Street View thanks to their cameras being too high for most resident’s fences.
The new images will be taken from 16 inches lower than before, and will blur out license plates to protect the privacy of those potentially in the camera’s view. Japan Probe argues that the height difference will make little to no difference, because many images that have been deemed inappropriate weren’t behind fences. Examples include a high school girl’s chest being touched, a man who has passed out in his own sick, and a couple entering a “love hotel.”
Given what passes for a game show over there, I’m surprised that this is what people are having issues with.
Image Credit: Google
Cultural Difference
Submitted by Digihotaru on Thu, 05/21/2009 - 11:25pm
I'm a N. Cal native living in Japan over three years now, and I can assure you that the Japanese sense of privacy is rather different from the American sense of privacy. As a foreigner looking in, sometimes it seems rediculously lax, and other times it seems over-the-top uptight. For example, when creating your bank account many banks still collect your ATM card's PIN on plain paper that is handled by numerous bank employees, but on the other hand you can be arrested for photographing a person in a public place. TV news broadcasts often feature video that's blurred or mosaic'd so heavily one wonders the point of even showing it. Adult magazines are out on the racks of convenience stores right along with the cooking and beauty tip mags, late-night TV is more lax than that in the states often showing exposed breasts and featuring racey or even rape related storylines, but all porn no matter how many X's it has are legally required to sensor genitalia.
Love hotels go to great pains to make their entrances discreet and invisible from the street. Circumvention of that would be very upsetting.
This is the reality of international business. :-)
Submitted by Vegan on Mon, 05/18/2009 - 9:34pm
"Examples include a high school girl’s chest being touched, a man who
has passed out in his own sick, and a couple entering a “love hotel.”"
I don't know what they're complaining about, when that sounds like your average Japanese day.
Submitted by grayscare0 on Mon, 05/18/2009 - 5:37pm
lol @ the Japanese game show.
Personally, I don't see why this is an issue. Anything you do in public is, obviously, open for all to see. If you care about your privacy, then protect it yourself by not doing embarassing things in the open.
Submitted by Zoomer on Mon, 05/18/2009 - 2:37pm
If it was a matter of privacy, that'd be undertstandable, but seriously? All that stuff was happening in plain view anyway. They need to get over this kind of stuff....especially considering the kind of entertainment they've passed on to the rest of the world. XD / O___O
Submitted by gamesfrager on Mon, 05/18/2009 - 3:20pm
I totally agree. They are doing so with Google just because they can and they want to be something like "See, we banned Google, the great Google ! Thus we have the power"
If people are concerned about their privacy, then they shouldn't do embarrassing things in public in the first place
Could also be that they have
Submitted by brainwins on Mon, 05/18/2009 - 4:52pm
Could also be that they have another view about privacy than your culture.
Submitted by Zoomer on Mon, 05/18/2009 - 4:59pm
So you think the concept of privacy to them would encompass their whole country or something? I'm not getting your logic. Once again, that stuff was happening in public. Though, I guess you wouldn't want that to be shared, but if it really came down to it, google could just blur people's faces beyond recognition.
That's my opinion, anyway. Japan rules, and I'm not trying to be rude. That kind of stuff probably happens in the US at least as much, Google's just not always around to see it.
Submitted by brainwins on Tue, 05/19/2009 - 4:23pm
I mean that it´s not crazy to think that some people wouldn´t like to be showed to the world in some uncomfortable positions. Even if you were "in public" when it happened.
And I understand the original problem was worse, since the cameras were actually taking pictures of people inside their houses.
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