An AFP article doing the rounds on sites like Japan Today and Mail Online has some bad things to say about Japanese porn.

“Japan’s porn industry preys on young women, say rights advocates” blasts the headline.

Well, not an unfamiliar topic, we hear you say.

Japanese women are being exploited and abused in Japan’s multi-billion dollar pornographic film industry, rights advocates said on Thursday, calling on authorities to strengthen laws to protect them.

Pornography is widely available in Japan, where some actresses become well known enough to appear on mainstream TV chat shows or as commentators in weekly magazines.

But the dark side of the industry is seldom discussed openly and the rights of those who work in it even less so.

In an attempt to shine a light on abusive aspects of the business, a coalition of campaigners and attorneys held a press conference to announce findings of research conducted over a six-month period last year.

More than 130 cases in the past four years have come to their attention in which mostly young women sought help after claiming sexual abuse.

The mistreatment included being forced to engage in repeated intercourse without protection and even being gang-raped during filming.

The majority of the cases have their roots in coercive or fraudulent signing of contracts—sometimes targeting minors.

Initially, women are casually approached on the street by brokers who pretend to be scouting models, the advocates said.

When victims realise the con and try to break the contracts, they are threatened with lawsuits and so give in.

The article then highlights the case last year when a lawsuit against a woman for just this situation was thrown out.

Here is a video report of the AFP piece. It includes an interview with Shihoko Fujiwara, a campaigner for human trafficking.

“These women are forced to perform in such sexually abusive movies against their will,” Yukiko Tsunoda, one of the lawyers, said at the press conference.

The group of activists and lawyers said they have been alarmed by an increasing number of young women, mostly in their early 20s — and even young men and boys — who seek their help.

At least one young women later killed herself by hanging, they said, her ordeal beginning when she was put in a small room surrounded by a number of men and forced to sign a contract.

But at least one researcher — and former AV star — makes a more positive case for the porn actresses, that they are articular and actively involved in shaping their career.

“It seems to be widely assumed that these women agree to appear in porn movies,” said Hiroko Goto, a professor of law at Chiba University.

“But they are sometimes minors and often young women in their 20s who are not yet socially empowered,” she said. “They are being preyed upon by those with power and money.”

The advocates said they are pushing the government to increase oversight of the industry as well as to close legal loopholes that allow such exploitation to occur.

Japan’s porn industry is worth up to 500 billion yen ($4.4 billion) annually and creates about 20,000 films, the advocates said.

The industry is “very lucrative,” Tsunoda said, adding that “there are many people who buy films showing such cruel sexual abuse as entertainment.”

We wonder if the Japanese porn industry is especially exploitative. Is it any worse that porn industries in other countries? (Per capita it is certainly bigger, which might result in more exploitation.)

The article and the activists make no mention of the Yakuza, though it is fairly commonly known that the mafia are involved with some aspects of the industry while others (SOD et al) are large corporations with all the conservatism that that implies.

Also, what is the solution? Is it really more regulation from the government? Surely that can only lead to censorship and controls, which will push more extreme material underground where it is even harder to monitor.

The uncomfortable truth may be that the AV industry is just responding to the demands of the market, and that the way it operates is similar to others like the entertainment industry.

That is not to justify exploitation and abuse, but we are more philosophical than sensationalist when it comes to pornography.

Ignition has posted an article about transgender artist Pyuupiru, who makes costumes such as the elaborate “Planetaria” series.

The article also provides a glimpse into the domestic arrangements of someone in Tokyo who has undergone sex realignment, living in the suburbs and taking in stray cats.

She was born a man, she explains, but always felt she had the soul of a woman. Having suffered for much of her life from obsessive-compulsive disorder and severe depression, she began making art around the same time she began to think about changing her body and identity. Born out of such severe emotional challenges, her work has become widely known thanks to countless exhibitions, as well as a documentary film directed by Daishi Matsunaga. Today, there is hardly an art scene in the world that isn’t interested in her work.

Pyuupiru considers herself both physically and socially female, and today she is happily married to a supportive husband. She says she first felt the impulse to create things in her teens, when her gender confusion began causing serious anxiety. As a child, she tells me, she had dreamed of being a veterinarian, but at twelve she started to show symptoms of OCD, and she became a target for bullies once she realized the mismatch between her body and spirit. At sixteen, outside the constrained environment of her school, she started making her own clothes with a sewing machine, but she was reluctant to show what she’d made to the people around her. Eventually, she started going to clubs dressed in the outfits she made.

Pyuupiro went from first showing and wearing her costumes at clubs to being a “daylight” artist too.

The costumes were exhibited at Pyuupiru’s first solo show in 2003, and their success brought increased attention from the art world. In 2005, Pyuupiru was invited to the Yokohama Triennale, one of Japan’s most prestigious international art shows. Around the same time, her love for a certain man inspired her to begin the process of changing her sex. She bought imported male hormone suppressants, and by the end of the process Pyuupiru had undergone almost thirty reconstructive surgeries.

“At first,” she says, “I thought it would be beautiful to be a gender-neutral being, neither male nor female,” but after she started experimenting with neuter sexes her body’s hormonal balance began to break down, and she suffered from constant emotional volatility. Eventually, she decided to have an orchidectomy (the procedure is documented in Matsunaga’s film Pyuupiru), and finally, in 2007, Pyuupiru underwent gender reassignment surgery in Thailand.

She has also documented the painful process of changing her body — crying blood tears! — as a powerful series of self-portraits that she exhibited as art.

Pyuupiru says: “Up until then, all of my work had been designed to wrap around the body, but when I went through the procedures I had very strong feelings that taking a knife to this ‘dress’ called a body was its own kind of sculpture, so I wasn’t afraid of the surgeries. I was driven by feelings of anger and frustration because I felt that my love was impossible, and because of that I realized it would be okay with me if I died during the operations. There aren’t many transgender contemporary artists, I don’t think, who have made sex-reassignment surgery a part of their art.”

This Japanese office lady (OL) has an incredible G-cup bust that she is really keen to show off.

See her strip and pose for photos in her home, including in the bath.

She is such the nymphomaniac that she is happy to show all or pretty much all of her face.

Some of the shots are a bit grainy but the quality of her breasts and thighs more than makes up for the resolution.

From the evidence she would seem to be in her twenties, live alone, and smokes… and looks great when wet.

See more Japanese amateur nude selfies.

If you thought the Hentai Kamen was strange enough, wait until you meet this Taiwanese spin-off: Zhichen Ye.

Zhichen Ye first seemed to appear in 2013 when the first Hentai Kamen movie came out.

Here she is at some bizarre event where the underground fetish idol is dressed in a white mankini and black stockings, and with her signature panties over her face as she is adored by a wild horde of men that might just tear her apart any second.

Okay, so her get-up is pretty peculiar, but you can’t deny the mystery and bizarreness doesn’t make her seem hot.

And what does she look like without the panties over her face? Mighty fine, actually.

Who stays at love hotels? It might not be who you think.

The current inbound tourism boom is leading to a serious shortage in regular hotel rooms for traveling businessmen. Business hotels have the lowest vacancy rate ever, it seems, meaning the on-the-move salaryman has fewer choices for where to stay.

Where are they turning? According to this article on Ignition, it’s to love hotels.

It turns to Ken Sato, the manager of the HOTEL SULATA (their caps, not ours) chain, a new contender in the packed field.

It opened its main hotel in Dogenzaka, the “love hotel hill” district of Shibuya, in 2013. Since then it hasn’t looked back, opening 10 other hotels around Japan. Like many other love hotels, it accepts reservations from traveling businessmen.

HOTEL SULATA’s “Business Plan” — a pricing plan targeted at Japanese businessmen — launched a year after the company’s founding. But while outside observers might expect businessmen to feel resistance to staying in a sex hotel targeted at couples, Sato says this hasn’t been the case.

“SULATA is a love hotel, but in terms of the layout of the hotel and the amenities, it isn’t very different from a standard business hotel. There’s a parking lot, and every room comes with an air purifier and a wi-fi connection, so it’s actually a fairly comfortable place to get some work done. Plus, since the rooms are designed to be used by two people, the bed and bath are relatively large. I think single guests are feeling more and more at ease staying here.”

A quick look at the SULATA homepage reveals an interface that quickly allows business customers to make their own reservations. Compared to business hotels, where a 14-square-meter single room can cost as much as ¥30,000 during peak periods, love hotels offer comfortable accommodations at significantly lower prices.

The “business plan” makes up 10% of SULATA’s custom, helped by the popularity of the love hotel’s high-end breakfast options.

Many foreign tourists are also apparently turning to love hotels as options, not least because amenities are now so good (SULATO even has multi-lingual signage outside, it seems) and due to their central location in areas like Dogenzaka, plus there are even increasing numbers of girls’-night-out options targeted only at women.

“We can see that demand is clearly rising from businessmen who can’t find anywhere else to stay,” says Sato, “and we’re getting more and more repeat customers who keep coming back after they stay here the first time. Looking ahead, we’re thinking of introducing even more services targeted at business customers, including a cleaning service for dress shirts and receipts that can be used with corporate expense accounts. Beyond the couples and foreign visitors, I think you can say that we create an atmosphere for businessmen that isn’t very different from staying in a business hotel.”

The only officially licensed offshoot of London’s original Torture Garden, the world’s leading fetish club lands in Tokyo for Torture Garden Japan.

Celebrating its 15th anniversary, the fetish fantasy party welcomes BSDM and bondage fans of all creeds as well as cyberpunkers, fetishists and extreme cosplayers to Xen Nihonbashi on April 2nd from midnight (natch).

Just make sure you’re not wearing casual clothes:

Enforced Fantasy Dress Code (Full Costumes Only / No Half Measures / TG is an Extreme Event for Extreme People!):

Fetish, Body Art, SM, Burlesque, Berlin Kabaret, Drag, Medical, Militaria, Uniform, Moulin Rouge, Venice Carnival, Circus Carnival, Top Hat & Tails, Kimono, Ultra formal, rubber, vinyl, PVC, leather, etc..

Entrance costs ¥5,000, including a drink.

There are a mix of floors with different music on offer. DJs include Komurock, Rinko, Kenzo A, Ray Trak and chihiro, as well as David TG and Jimmy Mofo.

The performer lineup includes Katrina Lilwall, Chrisalys, Maiko Tsubaki and La iziwaru.

Floor decoration is by PP Crystal and Nyotaimori Tokyo, who we blogged about recently.

We’re loving the ever-growing range of otoko no ko items that are appearing in the Japanese adult market right now.

Mainly produced by Tama Toys, these products tread the ambiguous line between cosplay-style costumes and actual cross-dressing accessories.

That said, we have never seen anything quite like this one.

The Otoko no Ko Crossdresser Cock Bag allows you to cover up your penis (erect or flaccid) and complete your transgender transformation.

As Kanojo Toys say, the stretchy and comfortable “bag” fits snugly over your member’s head, shaft and balls. It gives you protection and stylish decoration, and a “way to keep your secret discreetly tucked away until when you need it”.

Check out more otoko no ko posts.

What seemed to be a one-off by a former SKE48 that proved such a hit it developed into a longer porn career, and Momona Kito (now performing under the name Yua Mikami) has morphed into a fully fledged AV star. Her new-found confidence and sass is obvious if you compare her rather timid first appearance last year with this year’s releases.

Here are some stills from her latest porn release, which really show off Momona’s breasts. Out April 1st, the setting is thrillingly domestic. The bathing scene looks seriously hot.

Currently Momona is releasing a new AV every two months. Can she keep this up?

We blogged last autumn about the Rokudenashiko’s upcoming first English-language book, What Is Obscenity? The Story of a Good For Nothing Artist and her Pussy.

Now the Canada-based Koyama Press has released more details and images ahead of its release in May.

The book is written by “vagina artist” Rokudenashiko (the artist name of Megumi Igarashi), translated by Anne Ishii, and edited by Anne Ishii and Graham Kolbeins. The cover is by the famous designer Chip Kidd.

Rokudenashiko has been arrested twice for “obscenity” for making and distributing artworks based on her vagina. Her case caused an international sensation, attracting worldwide media coverage, though the Japanese police and courts show little sign of being affected by the controversy. Her current trial continues.

The new book includes translated manga, excerpts from the media, photos from her exhibitions, details of her work, and more. It looks like a very attractive coffee-table book.

Following last year’s exhibition in Hong Kong, we hope that the book opens her up to an even wider audience around the world. Already her plight has ignited a massive debate about censorship and obscenity in Japan, which is not bad for a “criminal”.

Be warned. Be careful what you have in your drawer or on your phone, hard drive or cloud.

While the government was pressured by mangaka and animators to exclude comic book and drawn images from the new pornography laws passed in 2014, it seems the courts do not agree.

The Tokyo District Court has found an artist “guilty of violating the child pornography law by creating and selling realistic computer graphic images of a naked girl,” reports the Asahi Shimbun.

The court on March 15 sentenced Akashi Takahashi, a 55-year-old computer graphic designer from Gifu city, to a one-year prison term, suspended for three years, and fined him 300,000 yen ($2,650).

The trial highlighted a gray area in Japan’s obscenity laws. The current law banning child pornography only targets works depicting actual people.

Takahashi’s defense argued that the defendant was innocent because his CG images were based on pictures in a photo book published in the 1980s, not an actual underage girl.

But Presiding Judge Takahiro Mikami ruled that three of Takahashi’s CG images violated the law because they were so realistic that they could be used to identify the girl in the photo book.

Japan has been facing increased international pressure over its ambiguous attitudes towards pornography — censoring genitalia in AV and arresting the likes of “vagina artist” Megumi Igarashi, while nonetheless producing the second highest amount of porn per-capita in the world, with magazines widely available in convenience stores. A whole subclass of softcore porn and glamor mags featuring “junior idols”, not to mention the vast volume of extreme and fetish anime and manga (professional and amateur) that is produced in the country (often mislabelled overseas as “hentai”).

In 2015, a UN special rapporteur publicly criticised Japan for allow “abusive images of children”.

“Such obscene images can violate the child pornography law and thus fall into the scope of criminal punishment when even ordinary people recognize that the depictions of the face, bust, genitalia and other key bodily features faithfully describe those of an actual child,” the ruling said.

Takahashi in 2013 became the first person arrested over CG images suspected of violating the Law Banning Child Prostitution and Child Pornography, according to Tokyo’s Metropolitan Police Department.

Prosecutors, whose indictment listed 34 of Takahashi’s images, demanded a two-year prison term and a fine of 1 million yen.

The court said it was impossible to declare that 31 of the images were based on an actual girl.

But the ruling concluded that “the maliciousness (of the three images) was not reduced from that of the original photos because the defendant attempted to recreate the original photography as much as possible.”

Takahashi, meanwhile, says his intent was not to create child pornography and plans to appeal.

The court only ruled against three of his drawings, allowing them effectively to challenge the definition of law without defying it.

It may lead to more debate among Japanese politicians about updating and tightening the legislation further to cover CG images. Surely anime, manga, eroge and doujin will be next?

Where does it leave a hit game like Natsu no Himegoto?

Even classic games can be kinky!

The Kentama is by SSI, one of Japan’s leading adult toys makers. It’s a shameless attempt to cash in on the kendama boom sweeping Japan right now, but of course it’s a cheeky adult version.

For those who don’t know, the kendama is a cup-and-ball toy that dates back to the Edo era in Japan. It’s similar to the bilboquet in France.

Naturally, even a regular kendama has phallic influences. After all, there’s a long shaft (ken) and a ball that you try to “spike”.

This has historical roots. The kendama is not just a toy but also an engimono (good luck object) traditionally associated with marital happiness and procreation.

(Image by CREEK)

But SSI take this to the next level.

The cups are shaped like a man’s balls and the main ball is designed to resemble pussy lips.

Though it’s not an adult toy per se — SSI are not technically recommending you use it like a dildo, but it surely won’t stop some folks — this has got to be a fun game to play with a lady friend. You could whip it out and show off that you know about Japanese traditional games to your Japanese squeeze, and then get her in the mood when she realizes it’s not quite the normal version of the toy!

Many a boyhood fantasy evolved out of video game characters like Lara Croft and Chun-Li.

Surely this is just the brilliantly logical conclusion of those fantasies.

The new Street Fighter V has been modified to include a fully naked Chun-Li fighting against herself… also totally naked. Hell yeah!

It wasn’t made by a Japanese person, as far as we can tell, but the genitals are smoothly censored. Hopefully that will keep the video up on YouTube.

The mod file can be downloaded here.

The BBC occasionally likes to weigh in on adult Japan matters, not always with success.

It recently profiled Keiko Takemiya, “the godmother of manga sex in Japan”. This time they go the extra mile and get some reasonable background and interviews, but some of their assertions are off — not least the headline.

Takemiya was just 26 when she started Kaze to Kino Uta (The Poem of Wind and Trees).

It opens with two naked teenage boys in a 19th-century French boarding school lying on top of each other, post-coital. The series centres on one of those boys and another new boy. Gilbert, who was abandoned by his parents but raised by his uncle, has experienced rape and incest, and spends his time as a sex toy for the older boys and staff. He then meets Serge, the dark-skinned son of an aristocrat, and the subject of bigotry.

This was in 1976 and the manga proved a taboo-breaking hit when it was published in a shojo manga magazine. It was serialized until 1984.

“In those days everything was opening up. Freedom was in the air… I wanted to explore and write about love without boundaries, love in different kinds of shapes and forms, whether it was between man, woman, child or an old person.”

The manga was a pioneer of shonen-ai (boy-on-boy love) manga and yaoi. (When the BBC headline says “manga sex”, it is falsely assuming that there was no erotic content in manga until Takemiya came along and wrote her Boys’ Love classic.)

However, both the BBC and Takemiya see the genre the manga practically started singlehandedly as taking Japan down the path to “manga pornography”, which has been criticized by such illustrious bodies as the UN and is the constant target of national and Tokyo government attempts to ban it. The US State Department has called Japan “a major producer of sexually exploitative representations of virtual children”.

Ms Takemiya herself admits, she may have opened the door to sexual expression in Japanese manga, and it grew from something virtually non-existent to something the UN now considers could be a threat to the welfare of women and children.

Ironically, perhaps, Takemiya has been one of the most vocal of supporters for manga against efforts to include it in the “child porn” laws.

Putting aside the very large issue of freedom of expression, there is arguably no concrete evidence proving that such manga does tangible harm and, in terms of pure visual explicitness, the depiction of genitalia is anyway prohibited under current obscenity codes.

Whether or not the depiction of “virtual children” in manga is violating an actual human right is the crux of the issue. A lot of the material that draws criticism does not aspire to the literary heights of Ms Takemiya’s work and critics say it exists purely for titillation. Many believe that even if it is fiction, it should be regulated.

“Such things do happen in real life,” as Takemiya says. “Hiding it will not make it go away. And I tried to portray the resilience of these boys, how they managed to survive and regain their lives after experiencing violence.”

Tenga, the “Apple of the Japanese adult industry”, has always had a great attitude towards marketing, sponsoring art and music events, beach clean-ups and even getting the approval of a Buddhist monk.

It recently held an advertising contest, offering the winner the chance to get a top prize of ¥1 million’s worth of Tenga products.

Needless to say, Tenga’s brilliant approach to design and product quality, not to mention its tongue-in-cheek attitude towards its publicity, were great creative inspirations.

Here are the winners.

This won the grand prix. It elevates the Tenga onacup to something celestial, almost like a spaceship!

This one is a rap battle between a young man and his onacup.

And made by the same person, this is the “Tenga Folk Tale”.

This one is our favorite. It features a wet woman, knocking on a door and asking a man to “put it in”.

She’s played by the comely 36-year-old Mami Morisaki, a gravure model and former race queen.

Here a man tries to arrange his girl to come to his apartment but finds comfort in his Tenga instead.

This one riffs on the wordplay of Tenga and Tengu, the Japanese supernatural creature with a phallic nose.

This one shows an ordinary day in the life of a man — of which Tenga is an indispensable part!

Onna no Ko Club is fast becoming the biggest (and certainly the most accessible) player in the growing otoko no ko and josou cross-dressing scene. It already has bars in Shinjuku (in Nichome, of course) and Osaka where you can go to try dressing up as the opposite sex (or just watch if you’re not into actual cross-dressing).

It was recently featured in the Ellen Page documentary about gay Japan and its manager interviewed by Kyodo News.

Now it has a new salon bar in Ueno, this time with stylish chandeliers.

Opening on April 1st, it is located in the Okachimachi area of Ueno, a slightly rougher part of town compared to the pristine museums in Ueno Park, full of all manner of bar and dive. It’s quite the “liberated zone” and you’re never sure what will come out the next door. We’re sure the ladies and gentlemen, whether patrons or staff, will fit right in.

We’ve seen a mini explosion in futanari-themed adult toys in Japan and we really like what we are seeing.

Normally relegated to the fantasy worlds of eroge, manga and anime, or obviously fake AV, these toys allow you to explore the hermaphrodite fetish in real form.

After the recent futanari masturbator toy, here is a futanari sex doll and dakimakura cover.

Tama Toys has a series of dakimakura covers and the 40th in the range is a futanari girl. The double-sided cover is nothing short of awesome, complete with giant breasts, French maid lingerie, and bukkake.

The Futanari Sex Doll, on the other hand, is made by Manzoku. Normally just an online retailer of adult toys in Japan, Manzoku like to get their hands dirty sometimes and design their own toys. The results are usually worth it.

This amazing doll has a slender waist and generous bust, coupled with an anal hole and an impressive, erect cock. While there’s no face or limbs, you should have everything you need for some seriously fun futanari times.

Japanese television is a pretty tame beast, mostly full of cooking programs and inane comedy shows.

When things do get sexy, they tend to stop at Nanao in her lingerie, which is lovely but hardly the stuff HBO wet dreams are made of.

Back in 2012, Kaoru Hirata appeared in a drama broadcast on the satellite channel BS Japan when she was a sprightly 22.

Okay, so you don’t actually see any real nudity but this is still pretty tantalizing.

She also appeared in R-18 Bungakusho Vol.1 Jijyojibaku no Watashi, a slightly adult film where she plays the lead role of a girl experimenting with bondage.

We love this actress and model for her “pure” and youthful looks. And these steamy scenes show that underneath her innocent appearance lurks a very wild lady with some real experience behind her.

We love writing about Tenga, not only because the brand’s (and it really is a brand now) products are so well made and stylish, but because they always seem to be up to something fun.

Last week we wrote about the brilliant TV ad contest they organized (essentially crowd-sourcing their marketing).

Did you spot that Tenga made a special LED light and key ring? Not surprisingly it looks like a mini Tenga Onacup. (Don’t try to penetrate it, though. You’ll just encounter a battery. Ouch.)

It’s only available in limited numbers from branches of the wacky discount store Don Quijote, which sells everything from snacks to appliances and costumes (and also always has a strong adult section).

Tenga reports that DJs can use the light as a handy portable lamp for examining their decks or play lists.

Could this be the next big thing in clubs around Japan?!?

Japanese sportswomen are hot. Really hot.

Whether it’s volleyball players or bodybuilders, snowboarders, boxers or baseball players, these ladies have brawn and agility — and would be powerhouses of energy in the sack.

Joining this list is Risa Izumi. She once represented Japan in gymnastics for the Athens Olympics but her career has taken a different turn now.

Today she is a nude model with a recent photo book release… and what a body she has.

Like Yuki Eda has done before her, Risa Izumi fully shows off her slim and trim form with these naked poses.

As you can see from the photos, she has a superbly flexible body (imagine those legs wrapped around you!) and a very pert butt, not to mention a lovely pair of breasts even when covered in sand.

In the shoot Risa goes paipan (fully shaved) but hides her actual holy grail with some sort of pasty.

As we head towards the 2020 Olympics and see a lot more of sportswomen on TV and in the news, just imagine what they will be doing (and showing us) once the initial excitement of the tournament is over.

Since people seemed interested in our post about Tenga’s first dedicated retail branch that opened in Namba, Osaka, last year, we wanted to share details about the Tenga outlet in Tokyo.

The follow-up to the Osaka store is this Tenga Shop in Akibabara, which opened its doors to the masturbation-curious on January 28th. (Sadly the budget this time didn’t seem available to hire the lovely Mana Sakura to come down to Akiba to help out.)

It’s located 5 minutes from the Akihabara Electric Town exit of the JR station.

It stocks everything from Tenga hats and t-shirts to the FULL range of Tenga toys, including Vi-Bo couple play vibes, the stunning Iroha vibrator series, and, of course, its line of toys for men such as the classic onacups, eggs and more.

Both this Akihabara branch and the Namba store aren’t standalone ventures, but rather outlets inside other stores.

We wonder, then, what the next step for Tenga is. A full-on “sex center” of its own somewhere? Everyone knows that there is the cheeky Condomania store right there on Omotesando, reminding the chic people of Aoyama that sex should be a daily topic. Could a Tenga shop in such a location be on the cards one day?!

If you can’t make it to Akihabara, you can go online to get your Tenga fix.