Asia in 3 minutes: Don’t dress ‘sexy’ for Thailand’s Songkran water festival – or grow old in Japan

Olympic stress-test for Japan’s finest condoms, North Korea diplomatic test for K-pop girls

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Female tourists have been advised to cover up for Songkran. Photo: Shutterstock

Thomas Sturrock

Published: 5:32pm, 23 Mar 2018Updated: 5:32pm, 23 Mar 2018

Songkran festival is no time to dress sexy, Thailand warns women

Authorities in Thailand are telling women to avoid dressing in “sexy” outfits in an effort to prevent sexual harassment and sex assault cases during next month’s Songkran festival. Sutthipong Chulcharoen, director general of the Department of Local Administration, said local bodies would arrange alcohol-free zones for revellers and launch campaigns to encourage tourists, particularly women, to dress appropriately so they do not fall victim to sex crimes.

What next? Jadet Chaowilai, director of the Women and Men Progressive Movement Foundation, handed a letter to the Interior Ministry asking for better protection for women during next month’s festival. Joining him were more than 30 women who had experienced unwanted sexual advances during Songkran.

An assistant manager at Sagami Rubber Industries pinches a 0.01mm condom covering a glass cylinder at the company's condom testing facility in Atsugi, Kanagawa prefecture. Photo: AFP

Japan’s condom makers get ready for the ultimate Olympic-level test

Japanese condom makers are ramping up preparations ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, seeing a golden opportunity to showcase their world-record ultra-thin products. For years, hundreds of thousands of condoms have been distributed for free to competitors at Olympic Games in a bid to encourage safe sex among the world’s fittest athletes. The tradition provides prophylactic producers with a potentially unrivalled marketing opportunity. In Japan, condom makers are hoping the Olympics will be a chance to introduce customers to what they consider their gold-medal innovation: the ultra-thin 0.01mm condom made of polyurethane, a material suitable for people allergic to the latex that is standard for many condoms. “It’s only Japanese companies that now manufacture condoms as thin as 0.01-0.02mm,” said Hiroshi Yamashita, senior manager and spokesman at Sagami Rubber Industries, a leading Japanese condom maker.

What next? At this year’s Pyeongchang Games, organisers handed out a record 110,000 free condoms, and the Tokyo 2020 organising committee said they had no plans to break with the tradition. “We are planning to provide condoms as one of the amenity items at the athlete’s village, although how many and which brands has yet to be decided,” a committee official said on condition of anonymity.

South Korean K-pop band Red Velvet. Photo: AP

South Korea to deploy K-pop girls to conquer hearts and minds in North

A group of South Korea’s K-pop singers will visit Pyongyang from March 31, the South said on Tuesday, a reciprocal visit after North Korea sent performers to the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. The South Koreans, numbering about 160, will visit North Korea until April 3, the first such performances in more than a decade. The group will include K-pop girl group Red Velvet and music industry veterans Cho Yong-pil and Lee Sun-hee, after talks on the performances between the neighbours’ delegations at the truce border village of Panmunjom. Cho was the last South Korean singer to perform in the North in 2005. “While we’re on the stage, I believe it will be difficult to portray personal feelings towards denuclearisation,” said singer and record producer Yoon Sang. “Our first task will be to instil the same awe in North Korean audiences as we do our South Korean ones and make sure nothing is awkward.”